The Best Investment You Can Make to Grow Your Business

Sooner or later you’ll feel the itch to grow your creative business — but how? When you’re the sole body running the behind the scenes, you don’t always have more time, energy, or money to pour into your business. It’s easy to feel that you’ve been backed into a wall or you’ve tapped out all of your resources… but you KNOW you’re on the verge of something bigger. If you don’t want to settle for playing small anymore, it’s probably time for you to explore outsourcing.

What you need to know about growing a business is that outsourcing is the one thing that's going to take you to the next level. In order to put all of your energy and focus into growing your business, you need to hire experts to do the jobs within your business that don’t fall within your core genius.

I know, it sounds great, doesn’t it? The problem is that outsourcing effectively takes strategy (and money).

It’s easy to get sidelined by the chicken-or-the-egg issue: You need to spend money on outsourcing in order to free up time to make money to grow your business. But how can you spend money when you aren’t making money?

There is a tried-and-true way to break through this catch-22, and it’s all about 1-to-1 selling.

Two Simple Steps For Massive Business Growth

1. Open your mind (and business) to personal selling.

Yes, I’m talking about that 1-to-1 selling, the artform that might seem a little old-fashioned in our automated world. (No, I’m not referring to Facebook ads or webinars.)

“But Christina, I’m not good at personally selling to people! It’s icky. Can’t I do something else instead?”

(Pet peeve alert: Saying you can’t do something if you haven’t actually tried it. Personal selling doesn’t mean having to knock on doors and sell a $20 discount card to the local pizza shop. It’s about forging better connections with the people who already know who you are.)

You may have heard me shout from the rooftops about the beauty of sending potential clients a personal email. Here’s the key: Don’t think of it as a pitch, think of it as a conversation.

Simply open up Gmail and start typing, “Hey, Bosslady! I’ve had this idea in my brain for a while now, and I think it’s something you’d be interested in. [Insert details about the product or service you want to create.] Let me know if this sounds like something for you.” Then press send and repeat with other potential clients who you think would be a good fit for what you have to offer.

Once you’ve generated some cash flow, it’s time to...

2. Make the investment and outsource.

At first it might feel a little strange, and you might take home less than you want for the first month or two because you’ll have to pay someone else, but just think of all the free time you’ll have to level up from there!

If you’re unsure about which items on your to-do list should be outsourced, start with your small business tasks. You might have the skills to do a lot of these jobs, but it probably isn’t the wisest use of your time. You should be spending your time creating new products or selling your services, not making blog graphics.

Check out these tasks that are perfect for outsourcing:

• Admin tasks: Writing emails, document templates, calendar management, and more.

• Technical tasks: Content management, website design/development/updates, etc.

• Finance:Bookkeeping, accounting, invoicing.

• Marketing: Logo and graphic design, branding, social media marketing, business development.

• And so much more!

Those are just a few of the many, many things you can outsource as you become more comfortable with this new era in your business. Once you free up your time, make sure you’re using it to work on projects that align with your goals (whether it’s self-care time, more sales, new products, etc.).

Tiny Read:

Make sales quickly by actually trying personal, one-to-one, selling. (It’s only as icky as you make it. Think of it as a conversation with someone who genuinely might need your product or service.) Once those sales start rolling in, invest that money back into your business by outsourcing tasks that don’t fall within your area of expertise. You’ll instantly feel the freedom and motivation to take progressive steps towards growing your business.

Now I’d love to hear from you. If you’ve outsourced some tasks, did it help you grow your business? If you haven’t outsourced yet, what’s holding you back?