When Should I Hire Help? Pros & Cons of Being A Solo-Prenuer

Are you at full capacity in your business and find yourself wondering, is it time to hire help? If so, this video is for you. We're going to discuss the pros and the cons of outsourcing, the three signs that you're definitely ready to hire a team. The first hire I recommend every business owner make first. Plus make sure you stick around to the end because I'm going to talk about the number one thing you must consider before making any hiring decision. Keep watching. Hey posse, what's up? It's Alex coming at you this week with a video for all my freelancers, small business owners and solopreneurs out there wondering when the heck or if the heck they should start expanding their one person team. But before we get into it, make sure you're subscribed to my channel to get the latest in all things entrepreneurship, marketing, copywriting, social media, and more. And don't forget to hit that bell to be notified when my next video goes live. All right, now let's get into it with some cold hard facts. Did you know that 99.9% of businesses across the US are considered small businesses? And over 80% of those small businesses have no employees. But hey, that doesn't necessarily mean they don't outsource help or hire contractors. Because when you hire an employee, that essentially means you agree to pay that person a set wage for a set number of hours worked, regardless of whether or not there's actually any work for them to do. When you hire a contractor or you outsource tasks, you are paying someone for a contracted period of time or a project. And this is a really, really great place to start if you're looking to exp your team. In fact, 37% of small businesses outsource at least one business process. So that could be marketing, virtual assisting, writing, web development, design, HR recruiting, or a whole host of other jobs. And whether you know it or not, you're probably already outsourcing one or two things in your small business like legal or accounting or bookkeeping. But when do you know when to hire your first contractor? What do you outsource and do you need to outsource in order to be successful? Well, the answer is is no. But, but, but, but it all depends on what success looks like to you. So listen, I worked as a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant for eight years making over $300,000 a year. And I did it completely solo. No team, no outsourcing. Just me. Okay? And my accountant. And listen, I loved it. It worked perfectly for me. I traveled the world, with nothing but my laptop in tow, had very, very few expenses and basically $0 in overhead. So it wasn't until I started the Copy Posse that I decided it was finally time to outsource and hire some help. I just didn't have enough time, energy or mental capacity to do it all myself anymore. I wanted to take my business to the next level and I knew I needed help to make that happen. So how do you know when it is the right time to hire for you? Well, here are three signs that you should hire help. 1. You're working too many hours. If you find yourself working long hours, 8, 10, 12 hour days and not taking any weekends off, and you are still struggling to keep up with everything and maybe battling burnout from time to time, yep, it might be time to start outsourcing some of your tasks. Number two, similar to the first one, you are getting overwhelmed. If you're constantly feeling overwhelmed and stressed by the amount of work you have to do or, and this is a big one, you keep missing deadlines or important things like admin tasks or inbox management are falling through the cracks, then yes, it might be time to start delegating some of those tasks. And number three, you're missing opportunities. Finally, if you find yourself turning down work or you're missing out on opportunities because you just don't have enough resources or bandwidth or time to make it happen, then it might be time to hire some help. Now, if you're like, oh my God Alex, everything you just said, that's totally me. I need to hire someone ASAP or else I'm going to fall behind. Hold up, just wait a minute because I know it can sound really, really enticing to save yourself some time, take on more clients, make more money and feel less overwhelmed. The reality is, hiring a team or outsourcing work isn't necessarily going to solve all of those problems for you right away. So. So before you decide to hire help, let's first talk about the pros and cons of hiring a team so the pros more time to focus on your strengths. Right? The very first hire I made was a virtual assistant and it's the reason I recommend every business owner hire a VA before they hire anyone else. Someone to take over all those time consuming but critical administrative tasks like invoicing, making appointments, scheduling tasks, bookkeeping, et cetera. You'd be surprised how much time business owners spend on admin tasks like these. So if you can hire a VA to do this stuff for you, you will free up quite a bit of your time and focus more on the high leverage, high revenue gener tasks that only you can do. That way, you're still getting some help and relieving some stress. But you don't have to worry about training or overseeing quality of work because you're still the one doing all of that really important creative stuff yourself. Increase productivity. Now, obviously, with a team to help you, you can theoretically get more done in less time. This means you can take on more clients or projects and grow your business faster. But be warned, this increase in productivity doesn't always necessarily come right away. In the beginning, there will be some training and feedback and extra time needed while your new team members really learn the ropes. In fact, you might find yourself being less productive at first. But eventually, as your team members get up to speed, you will start to get to a point where you no longer have to oversee every single little detail. And it'll allow your business to really be more productive and you can take on more clients and projects. Next, access to new skills and experience. This is probably one of the coolest reasons to hire a team. The fact is, you cannot be great at everything. You just can't be. No entrepreneur is. So when you're a solopreneur and you're doing everything by yourself, you're not just the founder, owner, CEO, president, you're the designer, the writer, the project manager, the social media manager, the sales rep. You get where I'm going with this. Not all of those things will be areas that you're great at. So when you hire a team, you gain access to a broader range of skills and expertise, which means the quality of the work that you provide generally improves because you're hiring pros to take on the tasks that you were previously attempting to do all on your own. So when I hired my social media manager, the quality and value shared in my social media channels drastically improved. Because while I was a great writer and I really loved design, I really wasn't great at consistency or repurposing content in a way that really made any sense at all. So hiring her really, really, really up leveled my social media. All right, so those are some pros of hiring a team. But now let's talk about the cons. Of course, the big one is the cost, right? Hiring a team can be expensive, especially if you're just starting out. So this is a big one to consider. When you hire a team, you're taking on a lot of responsibility. You're now paying someone and they're relying on you for that money. And depending on what type of business you have, you might not just be paying them a salary, but if you are taking them on as an employee, you might be paying benefits and insurance and office space and all of that stuff. So it's very important here to sit down with your account and take a look at your revenue to discuss if you can realistically afford it. And remember to base it off what you're making now, not what you hope to be able to make once you hire them. But of course you can expect that they will help you hopefully earn more money because you're going to be more productive management. So managing a team can be challenging, especially if you're not used to it. Right? You need to be able to step into that CEO role and delegate tasks, keep your team members motivated and responsible, encourage ownership, maintain a positive, healthy workplace dynamic and probably the hardest one of them all, Communication. As the boss, it's really up to you to set the tone and bar and precedence for the type of communication and atmosphere you want your team to have. So making sure everyone on the team is on the same page and deadlines are being met, all while encouraging a positive experience and ensuring your people feel seen, heard and validated. Yeah, a team that feels respected and valued is the key to a successful team. And the truth is, that can be a lot of work. And that is why it's so important to do your due diligence when hiring. Making sure the people you bring on are on the same page as you and value the same things as you is so, so important. Next up, quality control. Now this is another big one that holds a lot of business owners back from hiring. When you're a business owner, your business is like your baby, right? And it can feel really scary to release the control and allow someone else to step in and take over. Especially because there is no one who knows your business as well as you do. So there's this feeling that the quality of your work or business might suffer. And listen, hey, it is a valid fear. I totally get it. But again, this risk can be greatly reduced if you do a thorough job in the hiring process. Do not cut corners and hire the cheapest or fastest, or hire your friend. Don't ever do that just in the name of getting something done. At the end of the day, everything your business puts out is reflective of you. So if you can't afford to hire someone qualified or someone who's going to really represent your brand and business well, then it might be best to just keep doing the work yourself until you can afford someone who's qualified and reliable. That is the key. Reliable. Next up, security risks. I know, I know this one feels like a yucky one to talk about and no one likes to think about the worst case scenario. But the fact is, when you're outsourcing work or you're hiring, you're likely sharing sensitive information with these people, which is an obvious risk, right? So again, I don't want to sound like a broken record here, but it is really, really important to protect yourself by vetting hires through a robust hiring process. Use contracts, ask for references, and have other security measures in place to protect your data. You definitely want to use password managers and multi factor authentication and there are other safeguards out there that you can put into place to protect your information. Now, all of that is a lot to consider, right? So I'm going to make this really, really simple for you. This is the number one most important thing you want to consider before you hire. What is your real goal? So, unfortunately, I have seen a lot of freelancers and small business owners fall into the trap of thinking they have to hire a team and grow their business into an empire in to meet that false narrative of what it means to be successful. But what happens for some business owners is that they end up super unhappy because that's actually not what they want. They don't want to have a big business or manage a team. All they want is to pursue their passion, make a decent living, and spend more time with their family or travel or whatever else, right? So what they think they need in order to be successful is directly contradicting what they actually want and they end up very, very unhappy. Now, I'm not saying that either way is right or wrong. At the end of the day, both are amazing options as long as it's in alignment with what you actually want want. So please, please, please do not fall into the comparison trap. I recommend taking an inventory of every single task that you do in a week. For every task at the end of that week, label it as either do. Delegate or delete. Do are all the tasks that only you can do and you should continue to do because they drive your business forward. Delegate are all the tasks that you can outsource to make your life a lot easier and then delete. Those are the tasks that you're doing and to be honest, you don't even know why you're doing them and nobody needs to do them. So delete those completely. And then look at your do list again and ask, can I really delegate any of these things? Your delegate list is the perfect place to start when you're ready to scale your business and grow your team. And just remember, quality is so much more important than anything else. It's important to take time in the hiring process, vet your hires and invest some time into energy into training them properly and hiring the people who are a fit for you and your business. And if you're a business owner looking to hire an awesome copywriter, I've got really great news for you. You can hire a posse trained writer to help you with your copy, content marketing and more. These writers have all been through and successfully created, completed my eight week copywriting coaching program. They have learned my copywriting processes along with the proven frameworks and formulas and they have been trained by me in writing compelling sales, copy brand storytelling, direct response methodologies, email marketing, crafting hooks and so much more. So if you've been looking for that hidden gem of a writer, you know, the one that's talented, dedicated and excited to work with you and your brand long term, then the posse might just have the perfect writer for you. So you can actually check out the link in the description box below below for more information on hiring a posse trained writer. All right, I hope you found this video super helpful. Comment below. Let me know what you took away from this and I will see you next time with a brand new video. Until then, I'm Alex. Ciao for now. All right guys, if you enjoyed that video, make sure to check out the next one from me right here and you can click right here to get a free gift. So like me was tax season your nerve wracking wake up call? Like, oh, I guess there's more to this whole freelancer thing than drinking a lot of coffee and being a digital nomad. Well, well, you wouldn't be the first one to have had that epiphany. Keep watching for five tips for streamlining your freelancing biz to make it more profitable, rewarding and more importantly, stress free.