A Jack of All Trades: When to Find Support for Your Small Business

“𝑨 𝒋𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒏𝒆.”

A solopreneur, while usually an expert in their field, must become a jack of all trades when it comes to the rest of the business. This is acceptable for a while but with growth, comes the need for support.

When the to-do list becomes so overwhelming you don’t know how you will ever catch up, think through these questions:

𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦: Can I automate this work in any way to either get it off my plate or speed it up?

I often see owners doing a task manually because that’s how they know to do it and haven’t questioned whether they could automate it. Your website, mailing list tool, work management tool or CRM probably has options to automate certain activities fully or partially. Zapier can help with automations between tools. Work that gets completed without your time is ideal!

𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦: Am I the only one who can do this or can I let someone on my team handle it?

You would be surprised how reasonably you can hire someone for one specific project through Upwork or Fiverr. This may give you breathing room to focus on the rest while you let someone with experience give you a leg up. A virtual assistant or part-time employee may be the right choice depending on your needs.

𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦: Is this work that will directly make me money or move me closer to my goal? If not, delete it (at least for now) and see if you really needed to be doing it at all.

It is easy to get in the trap of doing work for the sake of doing it. But if it isn’t making you money or getting you closer to your goals, why do it? Remove it from your list, at least for the next month, and see if it makes a negative impact.

If it clears all the areas above, you go ahead and 𝑫𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌.

The work you need to do should be in an online tool, scheduled out based on priority, and time to complete is estimated. I recommend Click-up [You can use the free version or get 15% off a paid plan here] for managing your work. I use it for my business, and it is the first and last place I go each day.

Once you see the work in a calendar or list view, with dates, priorities and time estimates, it will become very clear whether you have too much on your plate. While we like to believe we can do “all the things”, that’s far from the truth.

Hustling should only happen for short bursts, not the duration of your career.

If you need help with all the areas I’ve mentioned above, including getting it all set up in an online system, please reach out. I love seeing the look of anxiety turn into relief during my client's renovations. Let’s do that for you too.