It’s been a few weeks since you’ve heard from me, mainly because I’ve been recovering from all my work putting together the Authority Summit. The whole month of September has flown by, and I’m heading up to another birthday in just about 10 days. I generally use the week before my birthday as a time to take stock of the previous year. This year is no different.
In reviewing the highs and lows of the past year, I find that I have much to be grateful for. I have learned a lot, and have made some new friends and professional connections which have been both fun and helpful. I have become better at pacing myself in terms of workload, and I’m really excited about some of the new projects coming up for me.
What I realized, just today, is that I keep getting busier, without actually getting extra help. So, my commitment for 2008 and beyond? To stop meandering towards outsourcing- and just head directly to it.
I realized that I’ve been gathering a team of people to work with me- not consciously, or even all that directly, but this past year has been filled with new people entering my life and helping me with bits of projects I’ve been working on. I’ve been coming to the realization that it’s much easier to run my business when I have experts handling things for me. Especially the things I’m not so great at doing. So, I figured— more of this has to be better, right? (I know that’s not always true!)
My commitment for 2008 is to hire more help, more regularly, and take the extra time to focus on bigger picture things. Even though I have always intellectually understood the benefits of outsourcing, it never really made emotional sense to me until just recently.
Even though it’s taken me a while, please don’t let it take you this long. If you are working long hours and are still finding that your work isn’t getting done, it’s way past the time to outsource. Even if you can only afford a few hours a week or a few hours a month, that is a good start.
For me, I’m going to commit to about 10 hours of help each week, just for starters, and then bump up from there. I am already excited about getting a whole day to myself each week.
If you’ve never considered outsourcing, you definitely should. If you’ve been delaying on getting help, now is the time to do so.
Just consider this a bit of business-wise advice!
