One of my favourite books about the business of freelancing is Company of One by Paul Jarvis. Paul questions growth-oriented assumptions about success, and makes a strong case for building a business that’s “better, not bigger”.
Just as we like to do on the 15 Minute Freelancer podcast, he calls for designing a business that works for you, where you can work on the kind of projects you enjoy, make an income that supports your lifestyle and goals, and build strong relationships with clients on your terms.
Success = growth = a bigger team?
As your business starts doing well – with more clients, better projects, juicier invoices – it’s time to start thinking about the next step. There’s a pervasive idea that this means adding more people.
Maybe your next step involves growing a team. Maybe starting your own agency has always been the plan. But as Paul suggests, there are other ways to run your business.
The thing is, even if you are firmly in the company of one camp, you most likely still need help. You can’t do it all by yourself (no matter how many automations you set up).
At some point in your freelance career, a question will rear its ugly head so many times, you'll no longer be able to hide behind your Trello board and hope that it goes away”:
”Is it time to start outsourcing?”
I have been thinking about this question a lot over the last year or two. Do I want to grow a team, or keep things simple and subcontract or outsource as needed?
I’m still figuring it out.
Which is why I was excited to be joined by Lisa Tennant on this week’s episode of 15 Minute Freelancer to break down exactly how to think about outsourcing and delegation in a way that supports your business goals.
If you:
have more work than you can handle (first-world freelancing problems 😜)
need help trimming your to-do list so you can start working on that side project
want to outsource or delegate but can't quite bring yourself to let go…
…this episode is for you.
You don't have to hire a team to grow your business, but doing everything yourself isn't the best plan either (and you probably know that by now).
Lisa Tennant is an outsourcing expert and runs a virtual assistant service specifically to help busy business owners claim back their time so the can work ON their business instead of IN it.
Our chat includes:
Why do we find it so hard to delegate
How to know when it's the right time to start outsourcing
How to carry out a time audit
How to not be a control freak about outsourcing (lol)
Finding people you can trust.
Listen here »
➡️ 15 Minute Action: Grab Lisa’s free time audit template to see where you’re really spending your time and figure out what tasks to delete/delegate. Whether you want to expand your team or not, this will help you reclaim time so you feel more in control of your day-to-day workload and set your sights on the road ahead.
Lisa suggests using a tracker like Toggl – just press start when you begin a task, press stop when you’re done, and add the task to the time audit template. At the end of the month, you can see where your time was spent. Was it on revenue-generating work or tasks you enjoy, or was your focus elsewhere because you were knee-deep in invoicing, admin, or piddling around on Twitter?
This also helps you decide what support you need. Could you subcontract some of your project work? Do you need support with specialist tasks, such as copywriting or design? Or maybe you need support to take care of general admin tasks. You’ll also see how many hours those tasks need, and whether you need full time/part-time/freelancer support.
As Lisa says, “you went into this business because you love it and if you end up stuck doing jobs you really hate you'll end up resenting your business.”
Oh, and a couple of other episodes that might be useful, if you’re thinking about outsourcing or just wrangling business growing pains:
Ep 22: Should you hire a virtual assistant (with Caroline Marshall)
Ep 30. Qs to ask as your business grows (with André Spiteri)
Ep 52: From solo freelancer to successful partnership (with Adam Pearson)
Would love to know what your experience is of subcontracting/outsourcing. How do you feel about delegating? Has this episode changed your mind either way? Hit reply and lmk.
Until next time, happy freelancing!
Louise xx