Ep122 How to know when to grow your team to grow your business

There is something so awesome about being a solopreneur. You've got all of the freedom, all of the flexibility, you answer to no one, no one answers to you, you are Footloose and Fancy Free. But, what I see in so many businesses, especially female ran businesses is you get to the level where you hit that plateau, and start wondering why you're not growing at the rate that you have been to this point. A lot of this has to do with team. 

Of course you can do all of the things! You created this business. You know the in's and the out's of it. It's your baby. But, you are now at this point, where you are only doing the things you "have to do" to survive, rather than doing the things that will help you scale, grow and reach new levels of success and heights. 

So often, it can be scary to ask for help. Hiring staff can seem overwhelming and a very vulnerable place. You are trusting someone else with your baby! But, if you get it right, it can be OH SO rewarding. Suddenly, you have all of this time back in your life, and your creative juices start flowing and you are operating in your zone of genius. All of these brand new incredible ideas are formed, and you have team members to implement them - and thus, the beautiful cycle of growth begins. 

Too often, people wait too late to hire someone else, or jump the gun too early. Here are 7 key signs to look out for to know when it's time to hire someone to help you grow:

1. You are exhausted at the end of every single day - Now, I'm not talking about normal work day tiredness. I'm, talking about the type of tired where you can't even string a sentence together, and you would be lucky if your brain had one thought that made sense. Full on Zombie mode.

2. Your to-do list is a never ending, climbing mountain - Sure, everyone has to-do lists, and as business owners, ours are always going to be bigger than the average persons. But, it's when you are continuously drowning in simple tasks, the every day admin tasks, that you just can't get on top of. 

3. You're inadvertently limiting yourself from more customers, because you're worried more customers = more time - Now, this is like a double edged thing, because I've worked with a lot of people that tell me they don't want to launch again, because they can't handle the influx of new customers. I just think, oh my gosh, hire someone! Get some help! But also, if more customers are taking more time, work on your systems and automation. So you can get that scalability.

4. You're only doing the things you have to do - This is similar to what I mentioned before. When you're only completing the every day "admin" type tasks that you need to do in order to survive. When you go the extra mile, when nobody's watching, It's going to to make the biggest difference to your revenue, to your profit, to your lifestyle - to everything! But, what a lot of people do is they don't have time for those growth activities. So they keep staying on the list, but they keep getting parked. 

5. You've got a lot of profit in your business, but you're not spending 20% of your revenue on team to help you grow - If you don't have enough time on your list, get some staff. Look at your profit and loss statement and work out where your profit is at, and is it enough profit to keep me sustainable. If you're in a healthy business stage, where you've got about 20% to 30% profit in your business month on month, then that's a healthy business where you are profitable and sustainable, and can make that investment on hiring staff.

6. You're spending your time doing the things that you're not best at - As i said at the start of this blog. You can do all of the things. Of course you can, you built this business! But, that doesn't necessarily mean you are spending your time the best way possible. You need to work out what you do each day, what you don't like doing or what is taking up too much of your time, and then be able to offload them to your staff. This way, your time becomes freed up, and you can start doing those things that you've been parking on your to-do list that are going to help your business scale and grow, and serve your customers which such higher energy levels, valuable content and take your business in directions you've always dreamed of.

7. You are literally out of time - As women, there is such a higher expectation of us to do all of the things, and we do put a lot of pressure on ourselves. You're looking at how can I be a good partner? How can I be a good parent? How can I look after my health? How can I prepare really great meals? How can I look after my team? How can I look after my customers? How can I do the marketing, the systems, the finances, working out my profitability, working on growth? There's so many things that are important to us. So, as soon as you start getting that money in, start looking at that 20% and hire that person for five hours a week, and then up to 10 hours a week, and then 20 hours a week, and then full time. Before you know it, you will start to get time back and be able to hand over things that you know you don't have to do, and can focus on all other areas of your life that are important to you.

Want to hear more about hiring and excelling with a small team in the online course business world? Listen to my latest episode now: tinatower.com/122