Am I a Solopreneur or Entrepreneur?

A solopreneur, put simply, is someone who sets up then runs their business single-handedly. They are focused on building their own personal brand. They can be freelancers, small business owners or consultants.  They embrace working alone and don’t outsource. An entrepreneur on the other hand seeks to build a business to make a profit and then sell it. They utilise other specialists and hire staff to meet their objectives. So which one are you?

If you’re a solopreneur reluctance to outsource could be about saving on start-up costs. Or it could be much deeper than that. You could simply not like delegating, and like to have total control over all parts of your new business. You may not trust others to do as good a job as you.  But the trap that a solopreneur can fall into is that their business consumes their lives, and they run themselves ragged trying to do everything. They spend their time on tasks not associated with their core business. At some point you will need to let go and reclaim more of your life.

Here’s how to know when it’s time to stop being a solopreneur and outsource.

Are you a solopreneur? Then you need to let go #solopreneur #outsourcing Click To Tweet

Here’s 10 reasons why you should outsource

1. You don’t know how to do the task – If you don’t know how to do something like set up a website, then your time could be better spent leaving it to the professionals. If you have to spend a lot of time teaching yourself the technology to get started a professional could achieve the same and often better, in fewer hours.
2. You don’t enjoy the task – If invoicing or chasing up unpaid accounts is not your thing, a Virtual Assistant could be ideal for you. There’s lots of other things like accounting and bookkeeping, editing, proof-reading that can be outsourced as well.
3. The task is stressing you too much – If you have deadlines looming and administrative tasks, it’s a good idea to seek outside help.
4. If doing it all affects the quality of your paid work – If you are running yourself ragged trying to do everything, then it’s time to back off and focus only on the tasks that you get paid to do and do them well. After all, your business will suffer if you aren’t performing at your usual.
5. If other tasks are taking you away from your core business – If you are spending more time on the other business tasks rather than your core business then seek help. If you are spending time developing extra things on your website, or trying to design your own logo, or documents then you’re better to outsource these tasks to professionals.
6. If you are mentally exhausted – Running your own business has its perks, but unfortunately you often can’t switch off. There’s that endless to-do list to work through that solopreneurs quite often can’t let go of, especially after hours.
7. If you don’t have the resources – If you don’t have software for a particular part of a job, then it’s a no brainer to outsource. And if you don’t have the time resources as your schedule is full, then you refer work to someone else. You take a referral fee and you don’t stress about the extra time needed to undertake the task.
8. The task can be done more cheaply outside of your business – If a task can be outsourced more cheaply then it makes perfect sense to outsource it.
9. When there’s urgency – If there’s a major problem that requires attention and it’s part of your core business then you need to outsource. Having the website you built fall over and you can’t work why will cost your business, so it pays to get someone in the fix it quickly.
10. When there’s research involved – If you need to research a new system, quotations for a product or different service companies to use, outsource. Research takes time and is a task that is not core to your business.

 

What can you outsource?

With so many freelancers and small niche businesses out there, it’s pretty easy to outsource a lot of your small business tasks. While you may have the skills to do a lot of these jobs, it often a much better use of your time to outsource. If you can earn a lot more doing what you do best, then it’s time to outsource things and free up your time for the things that you do best.

Here’s some things that you can consider outsourcing.

1. Administrative tasks – travel planning, calendar management, setting up documents and templates, data entry, writing of emails.
2. Technical tasks – website design, website development, web page updates, content management
3. Financial tasks – book keeping, invoicing, accounting
4. Marketing tasks – branding and logo design, graphic design, social media marketing, competitor research, developing sales and marketing material, business development
5. Specialist tasks – blog content or copywriting, business planning, project development, SEO, proof reading.

 

 

Still not outsourcing? Here’s why as a solopreneur you should. #solopreneur #outsource Click To Tweet

If you’re finding you have little time to do what you set out to do then it’s time to outsource. If administrative tasks are eating into your precious time, then the money you spend outsourcing is a time savings that you can use elsewhere. If there’s tasks that you don’t enjoy doing which can be outsourced then it’s a good decision to let it go.

How did you know that it was time to outsource? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.