Hire people for what they do best

I recently flew from Seattle to Atlanta, I realized, just as we started our taxi, that it takes hundreds of support personnel to maintain a flight. I saw the woman at the check-in desk, security, pilots, baggage handlers, flight crews, air traffic controllers, and the physically diverse staff on the runway doing what people do on the airport runway.

Just as it takes hundreds of people to make a flight happen, it takes a small army to run a business. One thing I have learned in my short business life is the indisputable fact that one person can hinder the growth of a successful business.

I constantly find myself doing ‘administrative’ things like keeping track of past due accounts, keeping up with taxes and marketing details, and balancing the bread and butter of my business. It’s easy to get distracted by mundane tasks, it seems like just when I start a project, the phone rings.

I’ve also learned that letting go of some things can give you more control. Confused? Think about this: I spend more than 3 hours a week on accounting details. I don’t make money from it, my money comes from website design and business consultancies on their online presence. Why would I spend 3 hours NOT making money when I can make $ 45 an hour doing the natural thing? The answer: because it has to be done. By spending 3 hours a week, with a “loss” of $ 45 an hour, I am losing $ 135 a week, $ 7020 a year.

When I hired my accountant, I “saved” money. I am no longer losing $ 7000 a year on administrative tasks. Instead, I can pay you, much less than $ 7,000 a year, to handle my account needs. This frees me up 3 hours a week to engage with my clients.

I also have someone who takes care of emails, bills, and some phone calls. I get roughly too many “$ 50,000 Pre-Approved” notices every day. I needed someone to rip and shred my personal information and throw the rest away. This just saves me time, allowing me to focus on running my business.

Business owners are a special breed. We are often described as stubborn, strong-willed, crazy, smart, and lucky. Neither of those descriptors is negative, or shouldn’t be. Business owners are needed just as much as employees. This special breed often allows these words to become common practice, for some of you the idea of ​​delivering important aspects of your business is unrealistic.

How realistic is it to hire a lawyer to paint your house? How about hiring a carpet cleaner to install your computer network? Obviously these people are not incompetent to do these things, but it is not their profession.

Sometimes the less you have to worry about, this will help spark your creativity. I know a local photographer who insisted on designing her website, even though she had great creative ideas, the media were harder to come by for her. She didn’t know anything about search engines, or about cross-browser compatibility, or what a browser was. But it was excellent when it came to focus, lighting, and shutter speed. My point? Hire people to do what they do best.

My accountant is an accountant, he takes care of the accounting and mine. I’m not asking you to take a photo of me, design my website, or paint my house.

Put aside some aspects of your business, you can be the pilot and not have to worry about baggage handling or check-in desk personnel.