5 Ways You Know It’s Time To Hire Help

As entrepreneurs, we go it alone! We started our businesses alone, made decisions alone, and came up with all the ideas on our own. You may have outsourced a task or two along the way, but you are operating this business alone.

At some point, while in the process of growing a successful business you won’t be able to get by with just your two hands and your brain anymore. In order to continue to grow your business, you will need help.

But it’s a scary thought. When you are a small business - especially if you’ve been operating as a solopreneur up until now - the person you hire has the ability to change your business completely. Sometimes in good ways, and sometimes in not so good ways.

Just like an email marketing program, website upgrades, or getting a good accountant, adding people to your team is an investment in your business. And just like you made those strategic decisions to start spending on those parts of your business, you need to make the same decision when it comes time to hiring help for the day-to-day.

If you are on the fence, I’ve helped you draw some conclusions by compiling this list of 5 reasons you know it’s time to hire help. While there are many reasons why you might consider hiring help, these 5 are, in my opinion, the biggies.

Are You Putting In Too Many Hours?

You are super busy. This isn’t necessarily a bad problem to have. You have clients asking for work or your products and you are making money. What’s the problem?

But to get it all done and make your customers happy, you need to put more and more hours in. At some point, there just won’t be enough hours in the day.  If this continues for too long, you might also be sacrificing potential growth for your business, or worse yet, neglecting the foundation of your business just to keep up with demand.

Are You Just Plain Burnt Out?

This one is all too familiar to most of us and goes hand in hand with #1. You are working yourself like crazy and have no time for the parts of your business that you actually enjoy doing.  There was a reason why you started your own business to begin with, remember.

Your energy and the essence of your business is missing, and your customers are starting to notice. Maybe it gets so bad the other relationships in your life start to suffer too. This is a slippery slope that, if it gets too bad, can make you abandon your business completely no matter how good your prospects look.

Is The Quality Of Your Output Suffering?

This takes a little bit of self-reflection and honesty. Is the quality of your work - the product or service, or even the experience of the client - starting to decline?  Are you missing things that you normally would never overlook? This is usually when bad reviews or complaints start rolling in and can really do some damage to your business in the process. Take a step back and look at your business as a whole. This might be the perfect time to hire help so you can repair and focus on your client’s happiness with your work.

Are You Spending Too Much Time On Foundational Work?

Entrepreneurs that start their own businesses are used to doing it all. You don’t need to continually prove that you are a “Jack of all trades” and physically do everything for your business. But we are all guilty, from time to time, of working IN our business and not ON our business.

Think about what your time is worth.  If you are asking your clients to pay $200 for an hour of your time, why would you hire yourself to do a task that can be done for a fraction of the cost? Your expertise is not needed in every part of your business.  It should be focused on the parts of your business that make you money.  The rest can be outsourced.

Determine The Cost of NOT Hiring Help

Sit down with a blank piece of paper and write down all the things you are sacrificing by not hiring someone. Not just the situations I mentioned above, but all the things you could be losing out on by not spending the money and doing all the work yourself. Now take that list or total (if you can quantify it) and compare it to the total of what you would be paying a new hire.

Most times, you could hire a freelancer/independent contractor for a fraction of the cost you think it will take when you realize what’s at stake.

While deciding to hire help is not an easy one, at some point, it will become necessary for your business to continue to grow. While you should be careful with your hard-earned money, you should also consider what your competition is doing and if you can keep up continuing to do business the way you have been.

If after going through this list, you feel you are ready to take the leap, consider hiring a business manager - like me. Online business managers (“OBMs”) work virtually and have the expertise to handle the foundations of your small business, as it grows and in the future.

OBMs have the expertise to help you with marketing, project work, and creating efficiencies - all contributing to the long-term growth of your business.

Are you ready to take the leap?