A lot can happen in 11 years...
To be honest, a lot can happen in 11 minutes. But this month (February 2020) is a celebration of 11 years of being an entrepreneur. Last year I spent my 10-year anniversary really sick in bed for a few weeks. I was sick, with a sick husband and a sick toddler… ALL of February. Yeah. It was definitely a hard month. On top of that, there was no escape from the rain and dreariness.
This year is different. I am taking some time to celebrate and smell the roses (which are actually white blooms from the tree outside my home office window). <3 It has been a gorgeous spring in the Bay Area, so I am trying to take advantage of that.
This month marks 11 years as a small business owner—more specifically, 11 years as a social media marketing entrepreneur. And it wasn’t until this past year that I really started to own that title.
I AM an Entrepreneur.
I’ve always said I was a freelancer, or that I’ve sporadically had “real jobs” with a paycheck versus a 1099, at places like Resonate Digital and Democrasoft.
I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur—maybe because I never had employees under me. I guess when I think of entrepreneurs, I think of A traditional “small business owner” like my dad, who has employees, and a brick & mortar carpet company. This mislabeling of myself didn’t arise from a lack of confidence in what I do. From the feedback I have received, I am good at helping marketers and small business owners with social media.
I realized that my mindset—thinking of my work in such a small way—was holding me back from spending money on myself and on my digital marketing business.
That’s definitely changing.
Over the last 11 years, I’ve spearheaded a lot of new ventures for my business: creating my Squarespace website, revising my own logo & branding, doing my own SEO (with some help from Mark Kithcart), figuring out how to do MailChimp email marketing, remembering to send emails intermittently...and only sometimes creating social ads for my own business.
This is the same issue that a lot of small business owners have. They are great at what they do, but not necessarily great at marketing their own business. Even when they work IN digital marketing!
(Sidenote: A lot of this actually had to do with the fact that I was busy with client work and marketing for clients instead of my own company. I also have received a lot of my work through word-of-mouth, networking, and speaking engagements as opposed to social media marketing tactics.)
I also fell into the trap of being the “default parent” when Ryeson was born, since I worked from home. I was the one who took days of work to watch him when he was sick, or had to go to the doctor for any of his checkups, etc.
I love being a mom, but it was challenging to be a mom entrepreneur and run the day to day operations of my business. Thankfully our move to the East Bay has helped with my husband’s time and we have a lot more perks like last-minute professional child care at home now that we are closer to through his office at Cisco.
Image via Loren Hansen Photography in Sonoma County.
Outsourcing for Entrepreneurs
I know firsthand that investing some money in outsourcing responsibilities comes back in the way of more sales for my online social media marketing courses, in-person classes, and even the occasional one-on-one social media strategy sessions. Delegating tasks to others that I’m not great at or that I don’t have time to do leads to long-term benefits for both myself and my business.
The mental energy I wasted over stressing about editing my blog posts and articles used to stop me from wanting to write more. I love writing, and I don’t mind editing others’ content, but I don’t like editing my own work.
So I started outsourcing two years ago, and I couldn’t be happier. Shout out to Elizabeth on Upwork. (If you haven’t tried this website, I highly recommend checking it out. I also hired a freelancer to help fix my Mailchimp tags and audiences and Squarespace landing pages!)
You may have heard the quote about things that worked in the past not necessarily getting you to the future of your business (something like that). If you keep doing the same thing over and over again, you will just remain at the status quo.
My status quo isn’t all that bad. I have a few ongoing clients I love; I get to write about food, wine, parenting, music, and travel in Sonoma County; and now I get paid to do event marketing with Harness_U (versus being on the board at PMG North Bay and volunteering my event marketing hours). Read more about why I started working with Harness_U based on my personal value of collaboration. I get to speak at events and have an online course on Instagram, and I am planning a few more classes on social media marketing—both in-person and online. So I am not complaining here…
But, I know my own business can be so much more. I’m excited about that opportunity as I move my own business forward over the next 11+ years. It took me too long into my entrepreneurial journey to outsource, so please don’t make the mistake that I did.
Tips on Celebrating Wins + Outsourcing even if you work for someone:
Even if you work for a company I believe you can take some of the tips from this blog post and utilize them with your company. Because even great employees need some help with their work.
So, next time you hit a milestone at your work, whether it is your 5-year anniversary or you hit 10K on Instagram, ask your boss for some help to outsource part of your work to help the company. Maybe it’s paying for a new photoshoot for great photos for social media marketing, or SEO help from an expert to help optimize your website. Trust me - there is always another way to market your product or service, and outside help can be just the push your business needs.
Steps to Figuring out What to Outsource
Identify which parts of your business you are truly great at (and only YOU can do).
Write down which parts you dread (or take too long doing). Be honest which it is - because you may find that a little training could help the tasks you take too long doing, and you might find you love it).
See if you can spend a little bit of money to outsource the parts that are not your strong suit (check out Upwork, or ask around on Facebook to hire someone).
Start small if you want. Some editing, some VA services, and scale up if you find the need to.
Focus on what you are good at, and what you LOVE doing and see the business grow!
In addition - for any human - they need to celebrate the small wins. So, please join me online to celebrate small wins, like seeing the mustard flowers bloom on the hill across the street from my house, as well as the really big wins, like being an entrepreneur for more than a decade.
I will be celebrating with a day of self-care (a massage is NEEDED), and then I’ll spend a day later this month focusing on JUST my business. Client projects are always important, but so is some professional me-time.
