Quitting the corporate world to go it alone and strike it rich is a dream for many of us, but if you’re not careful you can easily switch the 9-5 for the 9-9.
Just because you’ve set up a one-person business doesn’t mean you can’t get help from others. When you consider how much you’re worth when you concentrate on your expertise, tallying up how much time and money you spend on monotonous jobs or tasks that you don’t excel in can quickly add up. If you’re charging clients $75/hour for your work, but you end up spending half your time on jobs that you could pay someone $25/hour for, you’re losing out on huge potential earnings.
By hiring an expert to get help in different areas, you’ll not only see better and quicker results, but the work done will often top what you’d do yourself. It also gives you the time to focus on what you do best and, although there’s an expense involved in outsourcing, you’ll find that you often end up saving both time and money in the long run.
Taxes
Taxes are probably the most commonly outsourced task – they’re highly specialised and they take a long time if you don’t know what you’re doing, so hiring a good accountant can help you save money. For small businesses, getting a chain firm to handle this can be enough, but individual accountants can handle extra tasks such as payroll, general bookkeeping and also offer financial advice.
Data entry
Another type of job that’s good to get rid of is any that’s tedious, takes a long time and is cheap to pay someone else to cover. If you have data entry or any other kind of admin that you can get someone to do for you, those hours of dull work you’ve saved yourself can definitely be put to better use, and make you more money, elsewhere.
Other admin tasks that you can get help with – either on a one-off basis or by hiring a virtual assistant – include typing up documents or minutes from meetings, organising your calendar or keeping databases up to date.
Setting up a website
A website is a must for any modern business. Although it’s getting easier to set up a simple site by yourself, if you’re not familiar with doing this you can easily end up spending hours fiddling with code trying to change one small thing, or simply end up with something that looks old fashioned and unprofessional.
Hiring a local web design agency will give you peace of mind that you’re getting something done to the top standard. You should also consider hiring help with SEO, social media strategies and blog writing services. Be sure to research the companies you’re using, as a job done badly can often have worse effects than doing nothing at all.
Marketing
As well as online marketing, you may want to consider hiring help for your offline work. This can cover everything from logo and business card design to help placing ads in relevant magazines, newspapers or radio shows. Another facet of marketing that many new businesses either ignore or do poorly themselves is PR, whereas a specialist can help you get media coverage that can make a huge difference by bringing in more business.
Cleaning
Cleaning is a reality of any workplace, even if you have a home office, and just routine cleaning can take a couple of hours out of your week. Add the extras on top of this – wiping windows or getting out heavy stains – and you can find yourself spending far too long scrubbing and not working.
Take the hassle out of finding your help with Oneflare, an online marketplace connecting you to businesses in your area. From local cleaners to web design firms and accountants, you can find all the help you need in one space.
