outsourcing

As a small business owner, it can often feel like you have a million things to do throughout the course of a day, and never enough hours in a day to get everything done. Truthfully speaking, you don’t need to have this kind of stress. Running a business is stressful enough. It doesn’t have to get any worse when all you have to do is begin outsourcing a lot of the little jobs that keep you from doing the more important jobs. One of my best friends, Lawrence Hopkins (a finance guy at LongHorn Financial), always reminds me to never do a $25 an hour job when you can be focusing on a $500 an hour project.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at seven things that small business owners should outsource:

1. Social Media Management

These days, social media plays a huge role in just about any business, so it is important to devote a certain amount of time to it daily. However, it can take quite a while to post things, and you could spend that time doing other important things. Seek out a professional who can take care of all of your social media management for your business. This way, you won’t have to worry about missing posts, and you will know that all of your social media content is always up to date.

2. Administrative Work

There always seems to be a million little administrative things to take care of, and not enough time to do it all. Hire someone else to worry about these things, so you can concentrate on running the business. Tasks that can be assigned to someone else include answering calls, handling emails, scheduling tasks, and even taking care of some of the social media work from time to time when necessary. When you look at the pros and cons of outsourcing, you will see that there are plenty of pros and virtually no cons.  Personally, I use a virtual assistant company (Shiq Assist Virtual Assisting) and she is amazing.  Be sure to check her out!

3. Website Maintenance

You can spend a lot of time on website maintenance. In fact, you could spend several hours daily on it, making sure everything is always updated. Rather than waste your own time on these details (which are important, but not as important as others), I would suggest hiring a specialist who can take care of all of your website maintenance, design, etc. You will never have to worry about your site being neglected, and you won’t have to do all of the work yourself.  It’s not always smart to cut corners trying to save when it comes to your branding.

4. Photography and Videos

Not everyone is great at taking photographs and creating videos. But, these are both things that every business will need for marketing and advertising purposes. Again, these are areas that should be left with professionals who can create amazing images and videos for your business. Plus, they already have the equipment, and it’s one less thing that you will have to pay for. If you do it all yourself, you can expect to shell out thousands for gear. I truly believe in professional visuals. These days, people are immediately drawn to pictures and digital content. Nothing turns people off faster than seeing pixelated images and blurry faces.

outsourcing


5. Marketing, Advertising & Branding

Many business owners believe all of the marketing duties are supposed to fall on them. This is actually not case at all. As long as you hire someone who specializes in marketing, you have someone who can take on all of this work, and free you up for other things. This is great for those who don’t have a lot of marketing expertise, but need to have great marketing campaigns for their businesses. Its hard to learn Facebook Ads combined with the numerous demo and keyword searches. Instead of spending days watching YouTube teaching your self you could hire an expert. Otherwise, you are just throwing s*** against a wall hoping something will stick.

6. Taxes and Legal Work

If you aren’t an expert with taxes and legal work, let others do the work for you. When it comes to running a small business, there are all kinds of tax laws and legalities you may not be aware of. It is best to hire professionals who are trained to do this sort of work, especially if it isn’t something you are trained in. Taxes and legal stuff are the last things you want to end up making mistakes with. Leave these things to the professionals. There’s nothing like spending hours on hours prepping your taxes and then getting them wrong.  Trust me, you never want an IRS Field Officer coming to knock on your door.  It’s not fun at all….#facts

7. Communications

One of the most important aspects of any business is communications. Unfortunately, it is also something that small business owners don’t always have time for.  As a result, they end up missing out on potential clients because they have drafted a document that doesn’t communicate things properly. It is better to hire a PR specialist who can take care of all communications for you, and do it right so you gain customers and clients rather than losing them because of poor communication. No one wants to spend hours on a press release, only to send it out and no one picks up your story.

These are just a few recommendations for entrepreneurs to make their lives just a little easier, and their businesses a lot more successful.  As the Publisher/Pandemonium Creator of DELUX Creative Agency. I had to learn how to delegate to do more and to make more — if that makes sense. DELUX Magazine over the years has become the go to agency when it comes to reaching demographics that are often over looking my general market messaging.  This didn’t happen over night.  But one thing for sure is there is no way it could’ve happened with out delegation.  Remember this — You are only as good as the people around you.  It’s very rare when I am the smartest person in the room.

 

Shoot us an email for a free consultation and we can assist you in your outsourcing needs.  We can even provide a great deal of suggestions!!!

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Here at DELUX we pride ourselves on celebrating the most inspiring and influential African American individuals by recognizing those who lead, inspire, innovate and demonstrate through their individual talents. The DELUX Brand celebrates the luxury lifestyle of urban professionals and influential urban consumers. Our editorial content, promotion, and brand extensions communicate to the appeal of urban professionals with an authoritative voice and modern design through digital and print 360 models.

We have a very passionate audience of urban business professionals that are truly engaged and looking for new tastes and experiences.

DELUX, established in 2008, has continued to push and uplift the culture by providing a platform for Black Excellence to be celebrated, loved, and respected.

 

 

READ: IF YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT MAKING ENOUGH MONEY

 

Keith Griffin II