The journey of being a solopreneur can get lonely and, at times, challenging. Thus, outsourcing services play a vital role in enabling you to stay focused on your core business and growing your business.
Some of the benefits include;
• Free time to focus on important matters – A solopreneur carries the business’s vision and mantle. You may not be good at other things such as keeping track of books of accounts, marketing, or risk analysis. Thus, working with experts in the various fields frees up your time, allowing you to focus all your energy on helping your business grow. It also eliminates the buildup of stress and ensures you are not overworking, assuring you of better productivity. Also, you can think clearly and focus on what matters most to the business helping it grow.
• Cuts down on the cost – It enables a solopreneur to cut down costs by allowing you to have experts in various fields. By working with experts in different areas, you get a chance to acquire expert services reducing the total cost it would take you to hire an employee and train them for the job. For example, working with a web designer or SEO expert for a one-time job will see you get better services than hiring employees; you will need to train or acquaint yourself with your work.
• Enable you to handle more business – It also allows you to take up more business and offers you a chance to grow your business on a need basis. For example, if you cannot handle the current workload, it gives you a chance to take more work while focusing on quality output. It thus provides an opportunity to improve your brand and makes you more reliable, increasing your clientele as a solopreneur, and building a quality brand.
• Helps you control cash flow – It allows you to control how much you use and ensure you only spend on your required services. You can better control your services and manage your overall costs. It also manages your cash flow by reducing overhead expenses by hiring office space, office equipment, or day-to-day office costs.
• Managed risks – As a solopreneur, the risks in case of failure or major mishap in your business falls squarely on you. However, it helps you manage these risks and spreads the risk by ensuring you do not invest too much time, resources, and training someone only for them to quit or provide low-quality services. Getting a well-tested and trained individual saves you the hustle and helps you grow the business with experts who understand your needs and how to help you meet them. These managed risks are vital to ensure your business increases and reduce the chances of failure.

What to outsource

You may want to do everything, but we see that trying to do it all only affects your overall output. It is important to focus on the 4Rs to identify the areas you need to outsource. These 4Rs include;
Repetition– repetitive tasks include done periodically; it may be weekly, monthly, or annually. They include activities such as sending newsletters or invoicing. These activities can get done by someone else efficiently, freeing up your time to focus on other areas of the business you may not be able to delegate
Reactive – It focuses on maintaining a proper relationship with clients, such as providing feedback answering questions through email or social media inquiries.
Research – research may require more expertise to analyze and understand different marketing trends, what competitors are doing, and which markets can be beneficial to your business, ensuring you are up to the task and able to adapt to the changing market environment.
Reluctance – you may not find all tasks enjoyable or frequently find yourself procrastinating from doing them. Writing down all these tasks and delegating them ensures you focus more on your business’s overall growth and ensure no part of your business suffers because you are not willing to carry it out.
Thus, what are the things you should outsource to ensure you are focused on your overall output while helping you build your brand and earn more form what you are good at doing;
i. Financial task – you can get someone to focus on your invoicing, bookkeeping, tax returns, and investment opportunities to ensure your business is growing and adhering to government and regulation rules.
ii. Marketing responsibilities – If you outsource the marketing tasks, you get experts to work on your social media handles, keep them updated, and ensure your clients and potential clients get prompt feedback and communication. They also work on getting you excellent designs and logos, providing your business branding is top-notch and inviting to attract more clients to your business and open more opportunities.
iii. Specialized tasks – tasks such as SEO, web development, and project development ensure you are visible online and puts you before the right audience. They also formulate blog content, ensuring you are scoring well in search engines.
iv. Administrative duties – you can outsource a person to carry out the administrative responsibilities ensuring your calendar is well updated. Every upcoming project or appointment is well slotted to enable you to give your clients world-class service. The person will also focus on planning your travels and ensuring prompt email responses to increase your network. Also, they focus on preparing notes and typing your speeches to ensure you concentrate on the things that directly affect the business and provide you are stress-free to enable you to build your business.

Outsourcing Tips for Solopreneurs

Some of the things that will enable you to learn to outsource and ensure you do it correctly include;
i. Carry out Proper research
Doing your due diligence ensures you do not hire an incompetent person or open yourself up for substandard work since the brand is yours. You can also talk to other solopreneurs in your space to know who they are working with or their recommendation to ensure you partner with the best.
Before outsourcing a particular company or person:
• Read their testimonials if possible.
• Talk to other individuals who have used their services.
• Gauge if they are the perfect fit for your business.
ii. Make use of online tools
As a solopreneur, it may not be easy to keep track of all freelancers you work with and their payment schedule. Thus, you can utilize online tools to ensure you keep tabs on those you are hiring and have a proper system that helps you gauge their work. Online tools will also help you properly analyze the services you receive to ensure the money you are paying match your output.
iii. Narrow down the different niches
By narrowing down the different niches and business needs, you can properly analyze what services to outsource and help you identify who is right for what. It also enables you to understand what sections you can bundle together to ensure you outsource services from people who can do more than one task. For example, you can hire a person to handle your marketing and web content to ensure you are wisely using your finances and giving room for your business to grow.
iv. Determine your priorities
Take your time to determine what you prioritize and categorize them for the most urgent to the least. It helps you know which tasks you need to outsource first and ensures you select them according to the benefit they bring to your business. That way, your decisions work to enable your business to grow and provide more business opportunities. It also removes the stress of doing everything simultaneously. It ensures you outsource what you urgently need while giving you time to decide who is more appropriate for your other tasks ensuring every business decision is well thought through.
v. Stick to your budget
As a solopreneur, you may be working with a tight budget, thus having a budget beforehand ensures you settle on the best service. You may easily be drawn to a cheaper service; however, determine value to provide the people you hire, reflect your brand, and produce the output that matches your expectation. A budget will also help you prioritize and know what is more important, ensuring you outsource what is more urgent before blowing your budget.

Conclusion

As a solopreneur, you are constantly fighting the need to want to do everything by yourself. However, the ability to outsource provides you with an opportunity to grow your business and build your brand by opening you up to experts in the various fields related to your business. You also enable yourself to rest and build your business faster.