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Recently myself and Ali have been under the kosh. Both of us are up to our necks in work, kids, life, yada yada, a tad scatty and then we both got ill pretty much one after the other. During my sickie time (I’m technically still ill but kids and being self-employed seem to kill your right to languish in ill health), it’s been dawning on me that I have really got to adapt my working style because I’m not a machine, I can only be in so many places at once, and more importantly, I really can’t do everything. It’s obvious I can’t but it only takes a quick look at my to-do list to know that I’m ballsing up trying to be and do everything as it just won’t frickin’ shrink!
I read something a while back about knowing the value of your time. Basically, in trying to avoid spending money we often do things ourselves. Trouble is, if you can do it in the time you need and get everything else done – great! However, more often than not, in trying to do things that you either can’t do, so need to learn how to do, or can do, but the amount of time it takes to do it becomes prohibitive because it eats into your ability to do other things or even costs you money, you essentially end up making a rod for your own back.
Now I appreciate that we can’t all run out and outsource the crap out of our business/lives but there comes a time when you need to get real.
I’ve been fannying around trying to finish a re-edit on my ebook which is also going into print. I kid you not – it’s taken months! Sure I could have sold a shedload in that time! Yesterday, I hired someone to finish the edit – it’ll be done on Monday.
Whilst I still have to do lots of annoying mundane stuff around the house, I found a new cleaner who does in two to three hours what takes me several hours to do in dribs and drabs.
The value of my time per hour/day versus the amount spent on something like a cleaner is greater.
Let’s say an hour is worth £30 and to get someone to redesign your website is £500.
If you’re not very tech minded and attempt it yourself, it may take hours of your time over a period of weeks or even months to get your site up. In that time, you could have hired someone, finished the site and been selling to customers. On top of that, other things you know how to do and do more effectively are likely to have been neglected.
I’m still doing See It, Do It, Think It, Do It but I will now be putting my efforts where I am most effective and most billable and speeding up turnaround by getting/hiring help where possible.
Check out sites like Elance and People Per Hour and Guru, also read my recent post on Swapsies, and don’t forget the joy of Twitter – I asked for help finding a proofreader and had someone within the hour – the atmosphere of recommendation was brill!
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I can relate to this. I have a cleaner 3 hours a week who is much more efficient than me. I’d have trouble giving work out to other people though as I prefer to keep control of it myself and enjoy doing it. I’m not good at delegating.
Just seen this comment! I think ‘delegation’ is a challenge for a lot of mums. We worry about whether they’ll do it in the way that we want. Trouble is that we’re stressed anyway! I *really* need to learn how to delegate more although I am gradually learning. We have to ‘let go’ a little so we’re free to do more of the things we can do or enjoy