Build your team

What’s the point?

Gone are the days when you have to start a business with a whole team on your payroll and an expensive office. The only way you were able to connect with people was the Chamber of Commerce, a ton of cold calls, unsolicited post where you had to use a stamp and an advert in the yellow pages in the hope you will get customers.

You can now run a global business on your phone, you can have a business meeting via Zoom whilst you wait for kids to finish one of their many activities, you can get a new logo without even knowing what the designer looks like and you can reach the world whilst walking from the train station on an Instagram live.

Business has changed and it is easier for you to start a business by yourself with nothing more than a laptop at the kitchen counter.  However, one of the biggest traps that I find new business women fall into is the “trying to do it all” trap.

What ever you do as a female entrepreneur, you have a skill, knowledge and experience and there is a value to that and a value to your time.  When you are working from a startup budget and you are not sure when the business is going to start consistently rolling you have to understand the pennies. Where the mistake happens is when you try and do everything yourself, thinking you are saving money but that instead costs you time and therefore costs you money. 

For example, and I have used this story before. I was at an event and was speaking to this woman who was a chocolatier and she created the most amazing chocolate pieces. Her business was doing really well and she was a female entrepreneur in the true sense of the meaning. She had a full chocolate kitchen in her garden a where she could create her edible art in the exact conditions it takes to make chocolate and all she had to do was walk down the garden path.

How amazing is that? She had taught herself how to make the chocolate, it was her passion that she had turned into her business. I wrote about this in recent post Passion = Business = Lifestyle.  However, she also learnt how to create her own website, but this was not her business, it was not her passion, she did this because she was trying to save money.  Instead, although she didn’t realise this, she had cost her business money. That time she spent, trawling through code books and trying to write and design her website, probably took her ten times longer than it would an expert web designer for whose passion it was to design websites.  To be honest, the website was not good, it was really poor quality, designed really badly and after Google changed its algorithm where it would only index mobile responsive website it was valueless.  Now any web designer knew that was coming and would have been designing for that since the introduction of the first smart phone but she did not and all that work would have gone to waste.

My point is don’t spend time trying to do a task that you don’t understand, you don’t have time to do or there is someone that can do it better. When you can outsource that work and you can spend time on your business in the area that inspired you to start a business in the first place and is actually income earning activity. 

No need to add anything to your payroll, but you need to build a team that you can rely on and send work to when the need arises.

A team of people and businesses you trust, who understand your brand and your business and will deliver on time and with the quality you expect for your business.

 

 

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1) Cleaner

This is your most important investment. Cleaning is a time consuming activity that takes away from everything else in your life. One of the first investments you should make, if you don’t have one already, is to get someone to take away the household chores. 

Everything else should be shared amongst the family.   I can’t stress this enough, I think particularly for women, they don’t even recognise how much time they spend doing these chores. I have had several clients that come to me and claim they don’t have enough time and when we go through their daily and weekly activities, I found out that a huge amount of time is being taken up with unnecessary and over the top housework.

An investment in a cleaner gives you back time and headspace.  Female entrepreneurs have no time for pride in this respect. To ‘Get Shit Done’ you need to give the shitty jobs to someone else.

Moment of honesty, it goes without saying, if your cleaner ends up stressing you out then find a new one. A cleaner is supposed to take the stress away not add to it.

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2) Virtual Assistant

Day to day admin tasks are exhausting and can really take up so much time in your business. To bring on the services and invest in a Virtual Assitant can save you a fortune.  They can take on accounts, answering emails, ensuring that all your general day to day processes are efficient and effective.

There are many incredible Virtual Assistant who are those people we are all jealous of. Who seem to have efficiency running through their veins.  They also have years of experience in relevant roles and transferable skills that make them excellent VAs. I know many who take on huge projects from large companies, manage many clients and walk their walk in their own business and life.

A moment of honesty. I am going to be brutally honest though, VAs have become, in the recent past, the domain of, “wouldn’t it be nice to be a VA” type business.  I have many people who have told me they are VAs and I am not sure why. They just considered it the ‘business du jour’ because they thought it would be easy.  A poor VA will cost you money.    I have had more clients than I should have who I have had to tell to move on from their current VAs because they don’t deliver the right standard of service. 

Make sure the work you want them to carry out, that that they have the requisite skills to do it.  Social Media is a big one, so many clients outsource social media to VAs who have no clue how to do it, you then may as well through your money down the drain.

A good VA will feel like an investment a bad VA will feel like a cost

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3) Graphic Designer

Another good one to have on hand, if you don’t understand design, if you are not good at it, don’t spend hours trying to create a handout when a good graphic designer can pull it together in half an hour.

I split graphic designers into two categories, those that have a very specific skill and have niched; so graphic designers who only work on brand or graphic designers who only work on websites. But, there are also good graphic designers who will like to do a whole variety of things, that is the person you want.  Someone you can send a leaflet design, brochure creation, set up a landing page, a set of social media cards for a campaign, a document design and an endless list of design activities. 

A moment of honesty.  Make sure you find a graphic designer, that understands brand, look at their previous work and see if you like. Also you want a graphic designer who delivers on time, if they let you down once don’t go back again

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Photographer

4) Photographer

At first, you need to ensure that you have professional headshots and you will also need unique images for your website.  At the beginning, unless you sell a product, that probably is enough. But over time, as you grow your business and you have more money to invest then you should seriously think about a photographer you trust and like to work with. 

All influential bloggers have taken the time to learn about photography and I think that is an important skill, just because of how visually led we are today. But when the time is required they will bring in their photographer, whether they are a food blogger, a lifestyle blogger or a fashion blogger they all have photographers they call on to take and edit professional photos for them. this is 

A moment of honestly  know what you like, there are so many different styles and you have to be able to work with them. Don’t just work with them because they are cheap, work with them because they feel like an amazing investment for your business.

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5) Copywriter/Editor

Again depending on what your business is about writing can be a time consuming and for some, one of the most frustrating things to do if you are not confident writer  The best time to first employ the services of a copywriter is when you create your website.  However, you may want to add a good copywriter to your team when you consistently add pages or products to your website. 

The same with an editor and sometimes these people will go hand in hand and that is why you have put them together. If you create a lot of content for your business, ebooks and books then you will need an editor, they can prove invaluable.

Moment of honesty check out the website of anyone you are thinking of outsourcing to, to see if you like their voice because this is important as how they will write for you.  Also, make it clear what you want from them, you hire for knowledge and attention to detail and I have paid for editors who have missed mistakes in my content. Don’t allow it.

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Videographer

6) Videographer

As a female entrepreneur, today video is really important. Off the cuff videos are fine for stories and a chat but if you are going to vlog and add video to your website they are more effective if they are professionally filmed and edited. So having a good videographer on your team is well worth it.

Moment of truth check out their videos, if you don’t like them don’t use them if they are cheap not always worth and also check out how long, taking an editing can take time and you don’t want a videographer who can’t deliver on time.

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7) Social Media

This is one of the ones you need to hand over to a professional straight away. This is probably the activity that seems to be hardest for most business women to understand and to find time to do consistently and it is one of the biggest factors that is going to help you grow your profile. 

It is also often a task that is given to unsuitable VAs. You need to outsource this work to a specialist, to someone who understands brands, who understand digital marketing and who is able to get real results for your business and not just some who knows the basics of posting to Facebook.

Moment of honesty, lots of people claim to be good at social media and they are, to be very honest, shit. I also look for people who walk their walk when it comes to social media and will not choose anyone else.

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8) IT

Nothing is worse than having to clutter around trying to get IT working. Even if you have a certain level of knowledge sometimes it is not worth your time trying to sort it out.  So to have a contract or contact with a professional company that you can call on to get you set up properly, make sure that you are up to date and be able to sort out any problems with you, in the long run, will save you time and money.

Moment of honestly Do your homework with this one. It can be expensive so you need to know that you are getting the level of service you require for your business.

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Accountant

9) Accountant/Book Keeper

You need both. An accountant who can officially complete your accounts and help you with tax planning. Then a bookkeeper who can take, off your hands, the day to day work of organising your accounts. 

This is one of these tasks that you can hugely procrastinate about but when organised can take no time at all. So don’t spend months worry about receipts piling up in your bag invest and get organised it will help ensure that money is not being wasted and being paid late.

Moment of honesty, I have had some shit accountants, you need to lay down what you want when you expect work to be delivered and also use them. Don’t just send spreadsheet through,  use them for advice.

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10) Merchandise Specialist

This is a standard one if you need personalised products you can find a company off the internet. However, it is always good to have a real specialist on your team Someone who knows this business understands brand and will have good relationships with suppliers.

Moment of honesty check them out with small numbers and see who you work with best. You may need to have a few relationships. Also use their advice a good merchandiser will be chasing you to get Christmas merchandise printed in the Summer, not in December.

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11) Child care

A very important one, something not many men have to think of when they start a business but for women, for some reason, inequality means that this becomes a factor of women. A lot of women I have met start businesses purely to be able to work around school and school holidays. However, if you want huge success for your business then a level of child care will be required.

Moment of honesty, I don’t have children so it is not on my list but it goes without saying, child care should not cause stress it should bring comfort to know that your babies are being cared for by someone who has all of the skills of a Mary Poppins.

 

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Brain Exchange

12) Mentor/Coach

I may be a bit biased but by making this investment straight off the bat, before you even name your business, investing in a coach or mentor can help you not to make many of the common mistakes that new female entrepreneurs make.

I have a discovery call with a potential client not so long ago and she had gone all in on her business, expensive office, employees and then straight off she had the stress of bringing in a certain amount of income because she set up business up as if it was 1988 and not 2018.  Had she invested in a coach before she had made these decisions a good coach could have saved her from her self and all the stress she was now putting herself under.

A good coach will help you to ride over the fear, help you to plan, help you map out a direction for your business and hold you accountable to ensure that actions are completed.

Every successful female entrepreneur I know has a coach.

Moment of honesty, as your business grows you will need to move on to a new coach who can take you to the next level and any good coach will recognise this.

To end

This may seem very overwhelming but this can be a slow growth. The reason for the post is to urge and advise you not to do it all by yourself. There are people with very niche skills who can fill in the gaps of your knowledge and skills and can absolutely add to the success of your business.

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