A Cup of Tea and a Few Thoughts…
When you run a small business, it's amazing how many different jobs you suddenly find yourself doing.
One minute you're looking after a customer, the next you're sorting out an invoice, updating your website, answering emails or trying to work out why something that worked perfectly well yesterday has suddenly stopped working, and somewhere in between, you're supposed to find time to market your business, plan for the future and perhaps even have a cup of tea while it's still hot!
Sound familiar?
Chief everything officer
I think one of the things people don't always appreciate about running a small business is just how many different skills it requires. You might have started your business because you're brilliant at what you do.
Perhaps you're a therapist, a tradesperson, a consultant, a hairdresser or someone who's turned a passion into a business, but being good at your chosen profession doesn't automatically make you an accountant, a website designer, a social media expert or an IT specialist.
Yet somehow, you find yourself doing all of those things, and quite often, learning as you go.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should
Now, I'm a great believer in learning new skills and understanding how your business works. There's something rather satisfying about figuring things out for yourself, but there's also a point where doing everything yourself can become more of a hindrance than a help.
Perhaps you've spent an entire afternoon trying to fix something on your website that someone with the right experience could have sorted in half an hour, or you've spent hours creating social media content when you really needed to be focusing on your customers.
It's not necessarily about whether you're capable of doing something, sometimes it's simply about whether it's the best use of your time.
Where does your time actually go?
Here's an interesting thought.
If you added up all the hours you spend working on your business rather than in it, what would that look like? Not just the obvious things, but all those little jobs that creep into the day. The emails, the admin, the website changes, the marketing, the paperwork and the occasional technical mystery that seems determined to test your patience.
Individually, they might not take very long, but together, they can eat into an enormous amount of time, and time, particularly when you're running your own business, is one of the few things you can't get back.
You don't need to do everything
I think there's sometimes a feeling that asking for help means you're somehow less capable, but actually, knowing where your strengths lie and recognising when someone else could do something more efficiently is a valuable business skill in itself.
That doesn't mean outsourcing everything or spending money you haven't got, it might simply mean getting a little support with something that's been sitting on your to-do list for months, or finding someone who can take care of a particular task, leaving you free to concentrate on the work you really enjoy.
And sometimes, it's just about giving yourself permission to say, "Actually, I don't need to do this myself."
And finally, a thought over my cup of tea…
Running a small business takes a remarkable amount of energy, determination and resourcefulness.
And I think most small business owners deserve far more credit for everything they juggle behind the scenes. But perhaps the secret isn't learning how to wear every hat, perhaps it's knowing which ones fit you best.
So next time you're sitting there trying to be the marketing manager, IT department, accountant and customer service team all at once, ask yourself:
Is this really something I need to be doing, or could my time be better spent elsewhere?
Because running your own business should give you the opportunity to do more of what you're good at, not leave you permanently buried beneath a mountain of jobs you never intended to take on.
And on that note, I think it's time to put the kettle on.
Bev