As an online service business, you may find it difficult to grow after obtaining a stream of loyal, regular clients. You have regular, monthly clients you’ve come to count on, but you want to grow beyond this point. That’s why I want to share the smart woman’s guide to growing your business.
Included In This Guide:
- Introduction
- Definitions
- Steps One to Seven
- Resource to Help You
- Final Thoughts
Defining:
Success for You! Before you begin bringing on more clients and growing your business further, deciding what success looks like for you is important. Have you ever sat down and written out what success means to you?
“You want to be certain that your definition of success aligns with your core values, beliefs, and business goals without sacrificing what is most important to you.“
Tammy
Step One: Determine Your Why Before Growing
Why do you want to grow your business? Is it simply to grow, or do you have tangible goals in mind?
Keeping this at the forefront of your mind while moving toward your goals will help you move forward even when it gets difficult. Your ‘why’ may be to better your family’s life, make more money, or purchase a new home. It could be a multitude of reasons, so write it down and keep it in front of you where you will see it every day.
This is not easy, so this reason will be crucial on those days you are having difficulty. Creating your mission statement (if you do not have one) can keep you focused on moving forward.
Step Two: It’s Smart To Stop Doing It Alone
There comes a time in any solopreneur’s business that they must decide if it is big enough and they want to keep it as it is, or if they want to bring on others to help them grow it.
Being maxed out, overtired, and working long hours does earn you bonus points. In fact, the smartest option is to begin to outsource the work.
One of the smartest moves a woman entrepreneur can make is to begin to build a team
before you are completely overwhelmed.
It is not an easy decision; however, if you want to grow, then you may not have a choice. This does not mean hiring employees for your online service business, but you can subcontract with other online professionals. This is a much easier step.
Before you get completely burned out, take the necessary steps to begin building your team.
Subcontractors or Employees?
One of the choices many entrepreneurs struggle with is whether to hire an employee or subcontract.
Bringing on subcontractors to work on your client tasks is a much better solution than hiring employees, especially for online work.
If you hire employees, you also have to offer benefits. This can include sick pay, vacations, insurance, and paying half of their social security, not to mention keeping up with all their withholdings and submitting them quarterly.
Whereas, having a subcontractor join you means you only need to have a good contract and a clear understanding of the scope of work (which should also be explained in the contract). Most subcontractors already possess the skills needed to help your clients and can begin with little training.
Step Three: Women Working Smarter, Not Harder
What does working smarter, not harder, mean? It means trading time for money. If you value your time and if one of your core values is your family, it means bringing on a subcontractor to help you do your client work.
It may seem easier to do it yourself; however, there are a few things to consider:
- Age of your children (if any)
- Reason why you want to grow
- Parents’ or spouse’s health
- Desire to travel
- Lifestyle you want
- And many other considerations
If you were to lay all of these items on one side of a scale with the cost of a subcontractor on the opposite side, the less expensive option always comes out to bring on the subcontractor. Why? Because time keeps moving and you will keep aging, as will your children, parents, and spouse. If you want to build a business that supports the lifestyle you desire, then getting help is one of the best and easiest ways to do this.
You can still be the face of the company and have monthly meetings with your clients, but the day-to-day work can be handled by your subcontractor. This means you manage the business and do more work on not in the business, as well as take sales calls.
Bringing on a subcontractor(s) to perform your client tasks is one of the smartest ways to grow your business in the long term.
Step Four: How to Grow By Multiplication, Not Addition
Subcontractors often have their own business as well, so make sure to share a percentage of the revenue they are helping to generate. I always offered a strong percentage of the package price that the client was paying.
Growing your business this way means that you will multiply your company’s productivity and revenue. As one subcontractor reaches her bandwidth, then you can add another, and another, and continue to do this as you continue to add clients.
So, rather than trying to add more clients and more work to your day, you work smarter by adding subcontractors as needed to work on those additional clients.
Step Five: Processes And Systems
One of the most essential steps to business growth is your processes and systems.
It is essential to have all of your processes and systems documented in a secure place that is easily accessible by your team. This is the first thing you should do if you have not done it already before bringing on your first subcontractor.
Start with the processes of the first client you want to outsource to your subcontractor.
You can work on the other processes after you have your first subcontract set up and in place, working well. Then all you need to do is continue to document processes and then multiply your steps.
This saves time and gives your team a fallback after training with you.
Step Six: Signs You Are Ready To Build Your Team
Signs
You may be asking, “How will I know it’s time to build a team?” Several signs can tell you it is time.
- Feel overworked
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Turning new clients away
- Your family is asking when you can spend time with them
- Your children bug you to stop working
- Friends commenting that they miss you
- Generally, feeling stressed and maxed out
- Want to scale and grow your business before you burn out
These and certainly indicators that it is time to make a change. The smartest and best option is to add subcontractors to your business, as this will multiply your business in the long run.
You should always take stock of your business before making changes. This can be done simply with a worksheet that records your expenses and revenue, and hours to see where you are before adding a team. This is helpful and should be done before any major decisions or changes to your business model.
Resource
To help you find out which tasks make sense to outsource first, download my “Boost Your Growth by Outsourcing Checklist”. It will help you know what to delegate first.
Boost Your Growth By Outsourcing: Build Your Virtual Dream Team & Delegate the Right Tasks
- Are You Ready to Boost Your Growth?
- Need a Simple Tool to Help You Delegate while Building Your Virtual Team?
- Are You Considering Outsourcing?
This Checklist May Be Just The Thing You Need to Help You Get Started!
Step Seven: Finding and Onboarding
Once you decide subcontracting is the way you wish to grow, then you must find someone you can trust with your clients. There are a few places I always recommend.
Finding a Subcontractor
#1: Freelance University has great training, but also has amazing freelancers and specialists to help you. Check out the directory. The bonus is that if your virtual professional is from here, they are continuing their education and upgrading skills. Which also means they will easily follow your processes.
#2: VA Networking is a virtual assistant training and community that has a directory as well.
#3: CAVA, the Canadian Association, is another great resource. They have a directory and other resources to help you find the perfect subcontractor just right for your client’s task.
You can also find good freelancers/subcontractors through referrals from others and online communities.
Onboarding
After you interview and find the perfect person to help you with your business then it is time to onboard them. This includes the welcome letter, any tax documents they need to complete, and the contract.
After these items, you will also want to create a company email for them and invite them to the project management system you use.
There are, of course, many other steps involved; this is only to serve as an overall guide to help move you in the right direction. If you are ready for help, set up a short session with me to get you started!
Final Thoughts
A smart woman will choose to grow through subcontracting a virtual team to help you work on client work. You may eventually decide to have your team work on some of your tasks, also, but I recommend first having them work on client tasks.
Tammy Durden is a thought leader, speaker, and business coach for online service solopreneurs, helping her clients learn to earn more and work less.
Tammy has established herself as an authority figure over the last 17 years of owning several online service businesses. She specializes in helping solopreneurs scale by outsourcing – adding a virtual team to grow your business.
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