You don’t have to be in business to outsource, although I’ll get into that later. I coached a single mom who has a full-time job and a 5-year-old son. She wanted to spend more time with her boy, but she was just overwhelmed. Between the cleaning, cooking, laundry, prepping lunches for them both, and getting him to daycare and back home, she had about an hour a day of free time to spend with him before it was time for bed – and start up the whole merry-go-round again the next day. She felt her son’s childhood was disappearing in the mist. To help her spend more time with her son, I gave her the following suggestions.
Outsourcing for the single mom
Answer the following questions to the best of your ability.
- How much do you make an hour?
- Write down all the tasks you now perform and how long they take. Multiply the hours they consume by your hourly wage. This is how much these tasks “cost,” even though no money is changing hands.
- Which ones cause the most stress? This is because either you don’t know how to do it well, or you hate doing it. Mark those with a star.
- Make a list of all your human resources. These could be partners, parents or other relatives, neighbors, etc.
- Write down everything you buy now with your disposable income – the money that remains after you pay for the necessities, such as rent/mortgage, utilities, transportation, insurance and so on.
- How much do you spend on non-essentials in a month?
- How can you reallocate what you spend on non-essentials to help you free up your time?
- Look at your starred tasks, the ones you hate to do. Where can you find people who can take those tasks off your plate? Check with your inner circle and see if they have any recommendations.
- Find out how much it would cost to outsource your various unsavory tasks.
You may not be able to afford a house cleaner every week, but maybe you can hire someone to come in once a month for a full house cleaning, or some part thereof. Maybe keeping the floors clean is the biggest chore; see if you can find someone who will do just floors once every so often (whatever your budget can handle). If you hate to do laundry, is there somewhere nearby where you could drop off your clothes once or twice a month? The same principles apply to yard work, house maintenance, cooking and so on. Instead of telling yourself you can’t, look for ways that you can. Don’t ignore your human capital; these friend/family members/neighbors might be willing to take on some of these tasks for you – possibly at a reduced rate. Or even trade services. Never hurts to ask. Compare what you now “spend” doing these tasks yourself with the cost of outsourcing. If you make $30 an hour, for example, and you can find a house cleaner who will do it for $25 an hour, you’re golden. We’re done here! 
Even if outsourcing costs more than your hourly wage, don’t dismiss it out of hand. This exchange is about more than money for services; it’s about doing what you want to do, what makes your life meaningful.
Outsourcing for business owners
This should be a no-brainer, but I hear so many business owners say, “I can’t afford it!” I did, too, until I did the math. My hourly rate is much higher than what I pay to others to do things for me. It makes sense to get the help of people with expertise in handling finances on board to help your business out.
But when your business is skating that thin line between black and red, it’s hard to take the outsourcing step. The formula I used for single moms works for business owners, too. People start businesses because they have a special talent or have great solutions to common problems – not because they wanted to struggle with their bookkeeping or social media.
. In today’s fast paced world, most functions of a business can be outsourced one way or another. For example, some multinational and global companies use an outsourced system to manage their payroll It’s all about finding new and alternative ways to streamline the necessary functions of a business.
A recent example from my own life: I want to create a calculator for coaching prospects that would help them determine how much disposable income they could reallocate for improving their lives. I can deal with Excel at a basic level, but I knew – having tried more complex spreadsheets in the past – that it would take me at least 2 hours to design a calculator. At least 2 hours, and because I’m picky and anal, it still would not be good enough. And it certainly wouldn’t have the professional look I want.
So I called my sister, who is an Excel master (and has the certificates to prove it), told her what I wanted to do and asked her if she could build one for me. “Sure,” she said. “It will take me about a half hour.” I damn near wept. Thirty minutes for a document that would take me hours to design? Sold! I give her the info I want in it, she puts together in a killer design and I can focus on my specialty – which is helping women become their best.
Another example from several years ago – bookkeeping. I hate it. I would put it off, end up paying late fees, bounce checks and get nastygrams from various government functionaries regarding my still-unfiled paperwork. It was horribly stressful. I found a virtual bookkeeper in a businesswomen’s group we both belong to and voila! She handles everything for me, including all the prep work for my tax returns. She’s a lifesaver.
We all know that one of the biggest responsibilities we have in our adult lives is to file our taxes, regardless of whether its business-related or personal. And if you don’t pay close attention to this process, then mistakes can easily be made.
When business owners outsource work intelligently, they can more than offset in new revenue what they’re investing in outsourcing. Not to mention lowering their stress levels and freeing up time to do fun things, too. Do you outsource? If so, what service and how has that impacted your life? Please share!