Even Superman can’t do everything himself, so you shouldn’t expect to be able to do everything in business. It’s impossible to be able to do everything to the highest necessary quality, whether you run your own business or you’re in a company in an area where you have to do it yourself. So the question is, how and why should you find your own ‘Justice League’ to help you out?
Firstly, you have to consider you own value, what is the cost of you doing all this work? If you take your salary, and you multiply that by three times, and then you divide that by 220 days (as that’s really the only days that you will be working) and then you divide that by 8, that will give you an hourly rate for your value of your time.
Once you have that number, you have to ask yourself, is there someone else who could do this job, someone who may be more skilful, or someone who might just want to do it more? How much is it going to cost to have this person do the job? If the amount is less than your hourly figure, it should be a no brainer to outsource that work to someone else, freeing up your own time to focus on what you’re good at and enjoy.
If you need something done fast, call in the Flash. An issue in the water, call Aquaman. Need someone to act in a diplomatic situation, outsource it to Wonder Woman. A crime to be solved and you need a detective, Batman has the necessary skills.
This is an exaggerated example, but the analogy works. Play to strengths in business and you will ensure success. An accountant can’t really wear a marketing hat and a marketeer would struggle to wear an accounting hat.
Determine your value, recognise your strengths, and acknowledge your weakness. You may already have the staff around you who can complement you and who you can delegate tasks to, however you need to be prepared to look outside the business. It may not be viable to employee a person who controls the day to day marketing of your business, or you may not be able to find somebody with the necessary knowledge and experience. Payroll is another thing that is time consuming, and if you don’t understand how the process works, or the myriad of compliance, errors could compound the overall issue. You need to have the open mind to recognise and acknowledge that somebody else could do this better.
This gives you time, and it gives your employees time, to do what you, or they, do well and in a way that doesn’t waste time or money.
Outsourcing isn’t just limited to business, it permeates all aspects of life. Think of home, and say to yourself, do I like cutting the lawn, do I like doing the ironing, or should I get someone else to do that for me, should I outsource it to give myself time to either spend with my family or to go and do what I want to do – sit by a beach, read a book. That’s outsourcing as well, don’t underestimate where you can outsource to make your life easier.
You have to realise that you can’t wear all the hats, nobody can, not even Superman. Don’t fear outsourcing, it will make your life easier. Outsource what you don’t want to do or what you actually can’t do. There will be somebody who is better suited, find that puzzle piece and your business will run better as a whole.
John Glover, Author of ‘The New World of Work’ and CEO of Pendragon Management – Back Office, Salary Management and Visa Outsource Specialists. Need advice… talk to us… 02 9407 8700 [email protected]
