Time Management Mastery
when to step back and
hire help
by Laura Pennington
A
re you the business owner still doing everything yourself? Scared to give up control to
someone else? Or feeling guilty about hiring
a laundry service, maid, or other service that you’d
consider “luxury?” One of the keys to growing a
successful online business and keeping your sanity
is realizing that you cannot do everything- and if
you try, you’re likely to do everything poorly.
The first year my business hit the six-figure mark
for revenue was 2014. Early on in that year, I
moved to a new state with a much bigger yard than
I’d had before. I faced a dilemma- to pay the $40
for a team to come mow my lawn or to buy a mower and do it myself. Thankfully, one of my business
mentors stopped me before my guilt took over by
choosing the latter. He asked me how long it would
take me to mow the lawn. I estimated 1-2 hours.
Then he asked me what I was making hourly when
I was working for my writing clients.
At that time, it was between $50-100 per hour.
When he pointed out that I’d have to give up two
hours in my creative zone. That would be in addition to buying a lawnmower, sweating and having
to take a shower afterwards, and any oil, gas, and
maintenance the mower needed. As he wisely
pointed out, I would lose several hours of my time
and likely come in from mowing the lawn hot and
agitated. Or I could shell out the $40 for the team
of men to mow my lawn in 20 minutes and use
that saved time to accomplish more things in my
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business. When presented this way, it made amazing sense. And yet I wouldn’t have come to that
conclusion on my own.
Most entrepreneurs have built their company up
from the bottom. This means the entrepreneur is
used to handling everything, and may even struggle
to relinquish control of relatively simple tasks. The
entrepreneur also has a close connection to his or
her numbers, striving to keep expenses low. But
there’s certainly a time to hire additional help or
splurge on something that helps you stay sane and
accomplish what you need to.
Women entrepreneurs especially tend to feel guilty
when shelling out for activities that may not be
that draining physically but take up time in the
form of a distraction. Why pay the dealership to
detail your car when you could spend two hours
doing it yourself? Because your two hours spent
doing it may not be worth it if you could have
knocked out a client project, attended a networking meeting, or even gotten a massage while the
dealership dealt with it, thus killing two birds with
one stone.
When your business begins to grow to the point
where you cannot handle everything on your own,
don’t let guilt take over. If you need a sitter twice
a week for a few hours in the afternoon to accomplish some business-vital task and so that you are
refreshed and stress-free when you spend time