Sooner or later, every entrepreneur finds themselves asking the same thing:
“How can I increase my productivity?”
When you start your own business, you find yourself doing it all. In those early days, there’s no one else who will work on your company’s growth hacking strategy and refill the toilet paper in the same breath. However, as your company grows, you may find yourself spending 12 hours a day at your desk and still not getting anything done. It’s at this critical point where you have to pivot from the “I can do it all” mentality to the efficiency mentality. Your company will be stronger — and more productive — the sooner you outsource these three things:
Scheduling - There’s a big difference between being busy and being productive. An easy way to overcome the dozens of small tasks that eat up your day is to simply eliminate them. Repetitive “busy work” such as appointment setting, reservation confirmations and emails should be handled externally, leaving you to focus on the critical tasks that will ultimately help ramp up your company’s productivity.
Social Media - No matter your business’ size, industry or product, social media is an essential piece of any good marketing strategy. Social media helps you increase brand awareness, engage with your audience and boost leads and sales. However, as your company (and community on social) continues to grow, the more demanding it is to manage this online presence. If you’re starting out with a tight budget, consider outsourcing a social media manager on a part-time basis before investing in a remote team to focus 24/7/365 on growing and maintaining the health of your online reputation.
Bookkeeping - We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and, chances are, your strength does not lie in the general ledger. Even so, juggling too many things at once increases the chance of unforgiving — and costly — errors. Instead of dedicating valuable hours towards maintaining mediocre-at-best books, leverage the strength of an external bookkeeper to keep you sane at tax time. This keeps you focused on what you do best instead of making micro-improvements or having to repair things later.
As your business grows, it’s important to evaluate how you and your team are using your time on a regular basis. Identify your weaknesses and consider the possibility of outsourcing to fill those gaps. The savings in hiring a team in the Philippines vs. domestically, paired with your increased productivity will make you look like the smartest person in the room.
