I do a lot of blogging and talking about things most solopreneurs just aren’t suited for. When I say that, it doesn’t mean they’re incompetent. It means I value time.
My forte is networking. This connection junkie loves meeting people and hearing their stories. Of course I love to tell my own stories and brag about my virtual assistants, too. Spending time at my desk is part of the gig, but I prefer to focus on building my business.
Like many of our clients, I really don’t enjoy administrative tasks. When doing dreaded administrative tasks, some people find themselves being distracted by a song on the radio, the person outside their window walking their dog, or a bright shiny object. We’re all perfectly capable of doing these administrative things, but they take us longer. With distractions, a task might take us three hours whereas a virtual assistant can do it in one.
So I gladly delegate.
Everyone’s brain works differently. Some people love using Excel. Some people find it confusing. Some people love Photoshop. Others run from the mere mention of it. Creatives are often able to do administrative tasks, but would rather not. Conversely, administrative people find creative tasks to be stressful rather than enjoyable.
Let’s test this theory a bit and say I’m hosting a birthday party. I can read a recipe and bake a cake. But here’s the thing: I have no other use for the ingredients other than to bake this cake. So I buy the smallest portions and packages of them I can. Smaller packages of food mean the price per unit goes up. I then use my oven to bake the cake and dishwasher to wash the dishes. Both cost electricity, gas and soap. Next, I have to decorate the cake. Since I don’t have a cabinet full of cake decorating equipment handy, I need to shop for that too. Not the world’s best decorator, this takes me some time to do. Finally, the cake is finished, frosted and ready to eat. Total cost to me is well over $150. Meanwhile, there’s a bakery a few blocks over that charges $50 for a cake the same size. And all I have to do is pick it up. By delegating this task to a whiz, I save money as well as all the valuable time it would have taken to shop for ingredients, mix, bake, and decorate the cake.
Which would you choose?
The big takeaway here is just because you can doesn’t mean you should. I’ll leave you with one final thought. You know how to use scissors. Would you cut your own hair? Me either. Some things are just better left to the people who specialize in them.
Take some time this week to think about the business tasks you’re not suited for and then ring me up. I’ll help you delegate them, saving your business time and money.
Yours in the adventure,
Angie
Let’s Connect