If you want to hire an assistant but you're not quite sure how you're going to pay for them, grab a seat (and a pen and paper).
This is especially for you if you have not yet started outsourcing at all and are wondering whether you can afford it or not.
I want to share with you the process that I took way back when I started my health and nutrition business and I was making very little money. I’m talking the first $50…
It may seem silly to even consider outsourcing so early on, but here’s why I did. I didn’t start my health blog as a hobby. My goal from day one was for it to be a business that would eventually replace my day job (and day job income).
But, I also knew I had very little time to spend on this biz- what with a full time (hectic) day job and a young family to raise. And I knew that if I was spending those few weekly hours I had on admin tasks and social media, growing the biz was gonna take forever.
(Have we talked about the fact that I’m impatient yet?)
The first thing I did was break down where I was currently spending my time in 15 minute increments that added up to those few hours per week.
At the time I was sharing mostly recipe blog posts and the income was from affiliate commissions for ingredients I was linking to. My goal at the time was to do more of the same. This was before I released my first ebook which changed that trajectory quite a bit.
So I set out to break down the recurring activities in my business into sequential steps, listing beside each one what absolutely needed to be done by me and what could be done by someone else.
Pro tip: When you make that list for yourself, don’t worry just yet about who you’re gonna hire for each thing. Just mark the things that are truly your unique zone of genius and which aren’t.
You’ll likely find that 20% of it (if even that) requires you and 80% of it could be easily (and probably affordably) done by someone else. Possibly even someone who is quicker, better at it, and enjoys it more than you do. #truth
Another surprising thing is that it will likely be (a lot) longer than you thought it would be.
My advice? Start with a process that is recurring in your business, such as your weekly blog posts or social media shares. That way you can build out 1 process and have it keep working for you for many months to come (as opposed to a process you only do once in a while, which you can get to later).
Example of that workflow on my health blog/biz way back when:
- Test recipe (me)
- Photograph recipe (me)
- Type up recipe (assistant)
- Format recipe (assistant)
- Title/Design image (assistant)
- Insert affiliate links (assistant)
- Write intro (me)
- Proofread (assistant)
- Share on social media (assistant)
The truth of the matter is I probably could have outsourced the 3 things that say “me” as well but these are the tasks I wanted to do anyway.
As you can see, most of it, could be done by someone else.
So I set out to hire as assistant that could help me with that.
The result? Instead of publishing a post once a week I was able to publish posts 3 times per week and with the affiliate revenue model I was working with at the time that meant tripling my income in no time, and it gave me my weekends back.
By the end of that month she had paid for herself with the extra affiliate income we were earning as a direct result of her work and shortly after we went on to work on ebook # 1 and the rest is history.
I know the outsourcing, hiring and managing peeps thing doesn’t come easy for everyone, which is why I put together a bite size 1 hour long mini-course to simplify it as much as possible. You can get instant access here.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done something like a recipe post but I thought it would be the best simple example I could give for those of you just starting out. My mini course will also help you if you’re ready to hire your second or 3rd team member and aren’t sure how to manage a team without things slipping through the cracks or having a shrink on call.
After hiring for celebrities for a decade in my past day job and currently running two online businesses with 3 kids at home, I’ve put together a few tips that are sure to make your life easier.
Get instant access to the mini course here
Now I’d love to hear from you! Tell me in the comments below, have you hired an assistant yet? Why or why not?
And if you found this video helpful, I’d love it if you shared it with your friends.
