I know that a lot of us as women, we just we don’t think of outsourcing. 

We try and do everything – within our business and our homes, ourselves. 

Let me tell you, it’s a really, really fast way to get burnt out and when you’re burnt out, business isn’t fun anymore. It’s not fun at all. We don’t want to do it. We might even be questioning WHY we’re still doing it when we’re exhausted all the time, and we haven’t got time for other things in our lives that we used to enjoy. 

I often ask my coaching clients “What does a GOOD day look like?”, so ask yourself, what do you WANT your day to look like?

And that’s a really powerful question when you think about it. Do you want to be running around like a headless chicken trying to get everything done? Do you want to work on all the clients? Do the social media, any of the pre work for promos or specials that you have coming up? Do you want to be doing your website work? Do you want to be doing your washing and ironing and folding and putting away?

It’s important to remember that as women business owners, we also have this whole other role in our home life – lots of us are mums too; we’re the cook, the cleaner, the laundry lady, the pet carer, the family manager! And while that can sometimes be fun to do, it’s all very time consuming and exhausting.

I don’t know about you, but even when I’m planning a holiday, I do so much research on where I’m going to stay and what’s the best way to get from the airport to the hotel, and before I know it, i’ve been researching for six or seven hours and I still didn’t book anything!

My business coach from a few years ago said “can’t you just pay someone to do that Lauren?” And I was like, “NO! I can’t possibly pay someone to do that! There’s nobody that can do that for me.” And the reality is there 100% IS people that can do that for you. So that’s why this is a really important subject because I am a little bit of a feminist I will admit I am very, very passionate about helping women. Obviously, most beauty businesses are owned by women. I know that some are owned by men, but you know, the majority here are owned by women and run by women and staffed by women and we do just take on too much, we try and do everything. And I know that I am still guilty of doing things that aren’t the best use of my time but I have gotten a lot better over the years at asking myself that question and trying to delegate wherever I can. 

We need to focus on the things that we are best at. So I always like to ask the question, can somebody else do this job for me? Can they do it faster and better than I can? And those two things are very, very important things to think about because I might be good at something, but it takes me forever. Like web design. I am pretty good at it, but I am so slow. When I used to think about redoing my salon website, I would set aside time in the Christmas break when we are closed for a week. Now, I enjoy the week off with my family and pay someone for a couple of days work. Mostly for just changing the design and updating the look. And I know when a job is too hard to be bothered with because I procrastinate on it for a long time until it’s stressing me out.

So, what can you outsource? 

A virtual assistant!

Someone that can help you do administration tasks within your business. Whether it’s calling clients back or changing appointments around or cleaning up your email inbox. It could be something as simple as that that’s going to make your life a whole lot easier. We need to focus on the things that we are best at. 

So I always like to ask myself these 2 questions: Can somebody else do this job for me? Can they do it faster and better than I can? And those two things are very, very important things to think about because I might be good at something, but it takes me forever!

A Bookkeeper. 

I don’t know about you, but my brain does not work in reconciling bank transactions. It is the most boring thing ever. And this is another job that I used to put off. I used to get into my accounting system, do the wages and be like “ah, I should really reconcile the account. But, the BAS isn’t due for another few months so I’ll just do it next week or the week after or next month even. Or I’ll put it off for three months and do it when my accountant is pushing for it to get done before the BAS is due. So, again, it’s another one of those jobs that just stresses me out and it’s not it’s not a fun thing to do. I’m more of a creative person. I’m a beauty therapist. I like making people feel good and I like making people feel pretty and look pretty and I don’t need to see that green tick that comes up up there at the end of the reconciliation report. My brain, actually my whole being, does not align with with doing that sort of thing. And on that topic, you need a good accountant. You don’t want to be responsible for lodging your BAS or your monthly income to the Tax Office. I speak to so many of you and you don’t have good accountants or you’ve got an accountant, but you don’t have a really good relationship with them, find one you love!

I’ve already mentioned it but… Website designer/graphic designer.

You don’t want to be spending hours, upon hours doing your website or letting the idea of your website drag you down. I have a graphic designer that I always work with. I know a lot of people do their own design work now in Canva. And look, I love Canva; Canva is a wonderful, web based platform that has allowed the modern person to quickly whip up professional looking graphics from templates, but if you want a really professional looking and original sort of edge to your business and your branding, I think it’s good to have a qualified designer do all of your design work.

A cleaner. 

I know so many small business owners that do the cleaning themselves. They will clean their salons on the weekends or on Monday when they’re closed and they will spend hours in there making it look amazing. And trust me, when you can pay a cleaner $35 an hour while you can be getting some relaxed time in with your family or doing something else that actually generates revenue. It is worth paying a cleaner $35 an hour to go in and clean your salon.

A Social Media Manager. 

It’s a very good idea if marketing and social media is not one of your strong points and you don’t enjoy doing it. If it stresses you out, it’s time consuming and you just don’t want to do it and you don’t want to learn how to do it, just pay somebody else to do it. You will be surprised how cost effective it can be. And like I said, if you’re struggling with your marketing, if you are not on social media at the moment or if you haven’t got an Instagram account, which a lot of people now refer to as their ‘digital storefront’, then you need to be! People will go to your Instagram nearly before they go to your website now. So if it doesn’t look good, if you haven’t posted anything in six months, they’re probably not going to book in with you because they might just think you’re not doing it anymore or you’re not very professional or you’re not taking on new clients or something like that. So you want to make sure that all your social media marketing is on point so outsource that if you need to. 

You might find that some of the things in your home are easier and/or cheaper to outsource than some of the things in your business. And a lot of people will say to me “oh no Lauren, I could never get a cleaner. What’s my mother in law gonna think? What’s my husband going to think?” 

I’m sorry, but who cares? Who cares what anybody else thinks? This is your life and you need to think about what your time is worth. How much is your time worth? If you can be earning over $100 an hour in your salon. That’s where you need to focus your efforts. It’s not on folding up washing. It’s not. You could pay someone $25 an hour to come and do that for you. Or you drop washing off and they iron it and fold it all up or they come in and then cook your meals or you may want to get Lite’n’Easy or another meal prepping company to do your family meals for the week. If dinner time is stressing you out and you value eating well and your family eating well, then this might be something that you want to consider. Yes, it might be slightly more expensive than it would be going to the supermarket and buying all your own groceries and creating a meal plan and prepping all your food for the week and cooking it. But if this has taken you hours of time, maybe it’s time to think about outsourcing that task. That is a very, very easy one to outsource. And I know people that have done this and they just felt like a massive weight has been lifted off their shoulders because they’ve been able to put more time into their marketing or they’ve been able to put more time into their ads, or they’re just physically in their salon for longer, earning money doing services. So how much is your time worth? Like I said, if you can earn over $100 an hour with clients. Maybe you should be doing that rather than washing dishes. I don’t know. I know what I would be doing, and DO do.

I outsource quite a lot of stuff but I also have a fantastic husband that does all the cooking. We don’t have traditional gender roles within my house. He does the cooking, I order HelloFresh because I don’t want to have to think about what I’m going to buy from the supermarket each week. I don’t want to have to try and think about different recipes, so we just get HelloFresh and he cooks it all it’s really easy. Like I said, it is more expensive than if I just went and got stuff from the supermarket but I’m looking for things that save me time so I can focus on things that create more money. So spending $20 extra a week on groceries. It’s not a deal breaker for me. My mind is made up, I’m going to take the easier options, while not compromising on quality. You know the food is still great and we eat nice home cooked meals every night.

A Gardener. 

I outsource a gardener. Nobody at my house wants to spend their time mowing and weeding. $150 every two weeks to have all my lawns mowed, my weeds pulled, all the edges done. And my yard is looking good all the time. It’s worth its weight in gold. And $150 I can make that in one hour in my salon. And that gets me back maybe four or five hours of time in a fortnight (Well it gets my husband back because I am never going to do that!) I would rather spend time with my family and do fun things on the weekend than be in my yard. I do understand though that this is a job that some people really love doing. They love gardening they love getting out in the yard. They love being outdoors and in nature on the weekends or after work. And that’s great, if it’s something that you really enjoy and value. If it’s if it’s a drag, and if you’re struggling to fit it into your schedule, and it’s something that just never gets done and it’s contributing to your mental load and you can earn more money in your business, then it’s probably time to outsource it. 

Babysitting/Childcare.

You don’t have to be the one that looks after your kids all the time. And I don’t believe that you need to feel bad about it either. You know there are a lot of beliefs in our society that we have to be the ones looking after the children all the time. I know when I started my business I got asked quite a lot where my children were and who was going to look after them and bla bla bla, and I was just like “they’re at daycare!” Or “they’re with their Dad!” It’s a funny (sad) thing that as women we get asked that, but men never get asked that at work. My husband has NEVER been asked once were his kids were and I constantly get asked! I still get asked to this day, usually in the school holidays now that they’re a bit older. I know that I need to be working to make money so that they can have a great life and we can do the things we do. You have more freedom. That’s essentially what I believe – money is freedom. It gives you more opportunity to choose what you want to do. And obviously if you’re making more money, you do have more to be able to spend on outsourcing things.

So I urge you to weigh it up. Seriously think about what you can outsource. If you are approaching that burnout stage in your business because you are just trying to do it all and you haven’t got any time for yourself and what you enjoy doing. You haven’t got time for self care, or your kids because you were so busy at the salon, doing clients, doing the marketing, doing the admin work, calling everyone back, cleaning, and then you came home and you had to do six loads of washing and you had to make dinner and you had to clean your own house and you had to mow the lawns. It’s definitely worth thinking seriously about if you want to grow and if you’re serious about business growth. You can’t be in a growth mindset if you are exhausted. So have a think about that. I would love to know your thoughts. What do you outsource? Is there anything you’re outsourcing right now? Are you or have you been thinking about outsourcing something within your business? I would love to know. Send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook or email me at hello@laurenlappin.com.au

Lauren x