What led to my decision to outsource work for my company. I am a mother of two beautiful girls, a wife to the love of my life, married for eight wonderful years. I am also a full time Atlanta newborn and high school senior photographer. I run and manage my business all while playing mommy, house wife, and ALL that goes along with those titles. Suffice to say I have quite a lot on my plate to keep me busy a round the clock.
Before I go into my business and outsourcing I want to take a moment and talk about just a couple of days into my life. Last year I had doubled the amount of clients from the year before and when I tell you I had no time to hardly rest, I could barely find time for a peaceful bath or to sit and watch a movie. I am an extremely scheduled person, having every day mapped out down to the last second. The problem I was discovering was that there simply was not enough time to schedule consultations with potential clients, schedule sessions, go on the shoots, edit images, write blogs, reply to phone calls and emails, schedule preview sessions, place orders, deliver orders. Doing all that while making sure that my beautiful babies had the proper time and attention they needed, helping with homework, fixing boo-boo’s, making snacks, cleaning, laundry, studying, making dinner and SO MANY other things. It became an obstacle I couldn’t overcome.
I became so overwhelmed and was losing my joy. I didn’t think there was a solution. My husband one day came to me and said you need help, why don’t we hire it? And my first thought was WHAT!?? I was a little upset because naturally I like to think and believe I am superwoman and can handle it all, however I had to face facts. I did need help, that’s when my husband helped me to appreciate outsourcing.
Now most of us say I can’t trust someone else to edit my images, type my blogs and make sure they are edited, or work on my website. No one can do it the way I would. That’s the perfectionist in me. This may be true, but if you take time and have a little patience you can find someone to do it pretty darn close to the way you would yourself. And if you invest that time to find a reliable and trustworthy person to handle smaller tasks it is so worth it!
Example of some outsourced work
I honestly believe and feel that you can not and WILL NOT grow your business if you do not outsource in some avenue of your work. You simply can not do it all yourself. Outsourcing does not mean you have no involvement with your business, it just means that your involvement is now focused on more important areas. I outsource my image editing, and many other small tasks that actually take up a lot of time but can be performed by others without my attention. In return I am able to give my clients the proper attention they deserve and spend more time with my family! Outsourcing was the best decisions I have made and has allowed me to grow my business beyond what I could handle alone. There is no looking back for this full time business owner and mommy!