Building your team is essential to growing your business…but is there a practical way to keep down costs and boost productivity at the same time?
Bringing your business idea to life is definitely a rewarding achievement. Even more so when you witness more and more people resonating with it. But being a one-person or founders-only team, as is the case with most startups, might not always be conducive to scaling your business.
Doing and managing everything when you’re just starting out is great for executing your vision the way you want AND learning the ins and outs of running your wellness coaching practice. But as your business grows, you will start feeling the need for support. While it’s tempting to hire left and right to build your dream team, with 70% of startups* ending up in the red because of premature scaling, this step must be taken with care and caution.
One practical way to begin scaling your wellness coaching practice is outsourcing.
Time-consuming tasks can take your focus away from doing the things necessary to actually grow your practice. Outsourcing allows you to control costs as you scale gradually, hiring only as needed to increase efficiency but without the heavy costs that come with hiring in-house. It also enables you to experiment with new strategies as you figure out the best way to scale your business.
Time to start crunching those numbers and slowly start building your team. But, where do you start? How do you know who to hire, first?
First, hire for non-core administrative tasks
Have you ever noticed how mundane and repetitive tasks take up so much time? And if we’re being honest, it is most likely more of a chore than a realization of your passion. But that’s the business side of things.
Things like bookkeeping or customer service are something that has to get done to keep the business running – up-to-date books are essential for keeping tabs on your finances, and good customer service is your first line of defense against bad reviews. But spending hours on these jobs isn’t exactly very productive in terms of growing your business and more so for maintaining it. Outsourcing these roles helps to boost productivity and free up time your time to be able to focus on more important business functions like networking or landing new clients.
This is also a great time to hire a virtual assistant, who can support you in making sure your operations run smoothly. Having someone to manage your emails, update your calendar, and perform data entry tasks would shave hours off your workload so you can focus on the business more.
Next, outsource for things outside of your scope
Let’s face it – not everything is going to be your zone of genius. And that’s ok!
Sure, in the beginning, you’re probably doing everything yourself – but some tasks likely take a lot more time or more brain space than others. Or maybe there are things that you put off implementing because you straight up have no clue how to go about them.
Let’s say you’re trying to automate more tasks, like your client onboarding workflows. Things like Asana and Dubsado are great options to get things organized and flowing. However, it might not just be your cup of tea. Luckily, there are plenty of OBMs – online business managers – and project managers out there that are a bit more “big picture” workers than just VAs, that help you whip up a worflow that will work for you, and manage it to make sure things are happening seamlessly in the client onboarding department, while you focus on what you do best – serving your coaching clients. Sure, you could learn the basics and do them yourself, but would it be efficient for you to do so? What could take you hours or days to do is likely to take an expert much shorter time to work on and allow you the ability to use them faster rather than have to go through trial and error on your part. That said, it’s also important to consider the cost and quality of potential outsourcing partners before making a decision.
Additionally, bring on creative support
Splitting your time into dealing with operations and creating marketing materials for your business will have you using both the left and right sides of your brain. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing, not being able to focus on one thing allows you less time for creative executions that resonate with your audience.
Bringing in creative support can have someone bring a fresh perspective on connecting with your audience. There’s also making sure your materials go out in a timely manner. Having someone dedicated to managing your newsletter campaigns and social media presence goes a long way in maintaining and growing that connection with your audience.
Consider working with them on a project basis – like for a specific campaign – before bringing them on your team long term. Creative work is subjective, and what resonates with one group of people may not resonate with another. This is one way you can see if their creative style is in tune with what your audience wants.
And finally, hire for more leadership roles
Being able to delegate tasks is something every leader needs to learn. As your business grows, so will the support you need for managing day-to-day operations. Imagine if you need to review all the work that your team does daily – just going through the materials could eat up the whole day, especially as you add more people to your team!
Outsourcing leadership roles such as managerial positions (i.e. project managers, creative directors, etc.) can help you boost productivity, so you don’t get bogged down with the nitty-gritty. This allows you more time to focus on taking your company in the direction you want it to go. These individuals could also help you strategically move your wellness coaching practice forward.
Not all businesses are the same, and it’s going to be different for everyone. It’s important to consider what your current business needs are in relation to where you want them to go in the future. Ask yourself questions like: How fast should I scale my company? Which area do I need to boost productivity in the most? Will it be sustainable in the long run? What are my contingency plans?
One of the pitfalls of an entrepreneur is spreading themselves too thin, trying to micromanage everything. Finding the right mentor or coach can help guide you in investing your time wisely. Studies have found that mentored businesses have a higher success rate and can grow as much as three times faster**.
Looking to help clients achieve lasting results, create more happy clients, and an experience a deeper sense of purpose and impact as a coach? Be sure to check out our most recent programs, on our brand-new website!
Resources mentioned:
