The other week Adam and I were at court finalising our divorce…
Yes ok, it’s a strange start to a business blog, but stay with me here.
You see, we decided that we could do the whole thing without lawyers involved – we wrote our own parenting plans, I was served the papers and then we self represented in court on the day. (Just as a side note here: we are still good friends and the divorce is VERY amicable! Which helps a lot!)
Which made me stop and think about business for a second – how do you know when to outsource and when to just learn how to do it yourself?
Most couples would have outsourced the divorce process, but it was a simple case, required very little time or learning new skills and we both knew exactly the outcome we wanted (we didn’t want anyone else to add their 2-cents and try and convince us otherwise) – so just doing it ourselves was the best step.
Business is exactly the same – sometimes it’s great to outsource tasks. You can read countless blogs on hiring a VA (virtual assistant) and how to outsource your tasks – but honestly, there are times when it is better just to do it yourself.
Now don’t get me wrong here – you can’t do everything yourself and you shouldn’t try.. but….
Don’t just outsource the tasks you don’t want to do anymore – outsource the ones that need to be. The ones that are too complicated, that take too much time or that take expertise that you don’t have.
And keep the tasks focusing on the tasks that make you the most money, require your expertise or when you need careful control of the results.
Take stock this week, are there tasks that you should be outsourcing? Are there tasks that really you should be doing yourself?
– Sam