You took the leap and started your freelance design business! You hunkered down, got a roster of clients, worked your butt off, and now you’ve reached smooth sailing! Or at least it was for a while, but now you find yourself struggling again. There are just not enough hours in the day to get everything done anymore. Personal life has succumb to your laptop and jammies from morning to night. Dating life is well, non-existent, and you’re wearing way too many hats so to speak! It could be that it’s time to outsource and make smart decisions that improve the quality of your life and your business!

Outsourcing some of your work is a new kind of leap with its own special set of challenges to overcome. It can be especially difficult if you’re used to doing it all on your own and have trouble imaging letting a part of your business go to someone else. Doesn’t it feel like trusting your child to a stranger for the first time? How can you know they’ll treat it right?! 

Let’s take a moment and breath together. It’s not as scary as it sounds, and here’s why.

REALIZING IT’S TIME

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Flying solo was working for a time. You could easily balance all the different tasks on your plate, and you could even grit your teeth and get through the ones you hate but now, not so much. Your business is growing, and so is your workload. If you find yourself feeling burnt out more frequently, it is time. If you find tasks slipping your mind when they didn’t previously or having to pick and choose where to make sacrifices, it’s definitely time.

Not outsourcing certain aspects of your business could also be holding you back from reaching your goals. If you’ve reached a sales plateau or have ideas you want to put into practice but you can’t seem to do it alone, bring someone on board to help your business be it’s best. You could even outsource for the opposite reason. Maybe you’ve run out of ideas for your blog, your social media, or even run out of ideas on what to send your email list. Bring someone on with fresh ideas and fresh eyes. You don’t need to do it all alone in order to be successful! In fact, the most successful business owners hire the best talent to get the job done so that they can focus on moving the business forward.

WHAT TO OUTSOURCE FIRST

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Outsourcing allows your business to grow. It can help you increase production, market your business more efficiently, and overall allow you to enjoy owning your own business once again. Evaluate all the different tasks you do, what do you love the most and what do you feel you struggle with? What do you feel holds you back the most? Are there tasks you do but aren’t sure you’re doing them right? 

Since this is your first time outsourcing, pick the first and easiest tasks that come to mind. Ensure it can be given clear, concrete goals. You want to be able to easily measure if outsourcing this particular task was the right call. As you get more comfortable you can increase the complexity and ambiguity. It doesn’t have to be a task that seems massive or groundbreaking. Taking just one small, previously annoying, item off your to-do list can make a world of difference to your day to day.

ONWARD & UPWARD TO LESS STRESS

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So you’re ready to start letting go of a portion of your workload, congratulations! Remember, start small and easy to track.You don’t need to let go of anything that you love to do or find too important to not oversee. It’s all about trusting someone to take something off your plate so you can focus on those things you love, and run your business!