Learn when it’s time to grow your business through outsourcing, and find out how to successfully delegate. Our webinar with the HoneyBook Pros can show you how to work with experts and use the new Pros Marketplace to find the support you need.
No one can do it all on their own, and they shouldn’t have to! Growing your business relies on your talent and hard work, but you’ll also need help along the way. By learning how to use outsourcing at every stage of business, you can manage your time more wisely and focus on long-term goals.
We recently hosted a panel with three HoneyBook Pros to get the best tips about outsourcing and working with experts. Learn how to know when it’s time to outsource and the best way to delegate to external partners. Watch our webinar replay or read on to find out how you can use the HoneyBook Pros program to get one-on-one support.
When to Consider Outsourcing
When you’re thinking of outsourcing, first determine if you’re ready to invest in your business and growth. This will be clear if you know you’re ready for the next step in your business but you can’t get there without help. You may also notice blockers that you need to hand off to feel more at ease with your workload. If there are tasks that someone else can do in less time, it’s a good idea to invest in the right help.
Here are some signs that it’s time to invest in outsourcing:
- You feel like you’re always running short on time and like you’re never checking anything off your to-do list.
- You complete daily tasks that you wouldn’t pay someone your rate to do. This means you’re losing money.
- Some of the work drains you instead of excites you, or it isn’t part of your zone of genius.
- You feel you’re ready to put trust in others with your work.
- You’re capable of follow-through and meeting the needs of anyone who might be working with you.
You might relate to many of these signs, but still think you can’t outsource. Many business owners have the misconception that you need to be well established to start outsourcing, but finding support is for everyone regardless of your business stage. In fact, it’s hard to become more established if you don’t outsource.
If you’re focused on every small task in your business, you won’t ever have the time to focus on the broader strategy and growth. You might be just a few critical resources away from business success, which is why outsourcing is an important investment in yourself.
How to Hire and Manage Help for Your Business
Once you’re ready to outsource, it’s time to find the right partners. HoneyBook Pro Terry Rice recommends getting in front of your audience, whether it’s on LinkedIn, Instagram or elsewhere, and asking for recommendations. From there, do your due diligence by reaching out directly to testimonials and asking about their experiences. Having a good idea of what you want and need will help you find the best pool of candidates.
Vetting Potential Partners
When you’re interviewing candidates, ask about their industry-relevant experience. Along with the skills, someone with experience in your niche will have some knowledge about your business. This can allow them to get up to speed faster with your specific goals.
Pay attention to the questions your candidates ask you as well. A vendor takes orders, while a partner can understand your blind spots and offer powerful solutions. If they’re already eager to understand the ins and outs of your business, they’ll be a great fit.
Keep in mind that you may need to invest to find the best partner. You can offer compensation for a hiring test to see how different candidates complete the work. This way, you can assess their skills as well as their working style.
Determining What to Take On vs. What to Hand Off
When it comes to managing vs. delegating, start by writing out all of your daily tasks. Where are you spending your time? You might be surprised! Put a dollar value on each task to determine what you should prioritize, and consider what you love doing as well. Are you working in your zone of genius? From there, you’ll have a clear picture of what you should handoff.
As business owners, we can absolutely do every task, but we don’t need to. It’s about figuring out where we should be spending money vs. what we can do best.
Ally Bauer
It will also be a give-and-take process with your to-do list. When you outsource, there may be set-up work you need to do up-front to provide direction before handing off tasks. As a business owner, you should always have the final call. This means you won’t necessarily be able to unplug from everything, but anything that saves you time in the long run is worth it.
How to Prepare for Delegating
Delegating takes trust, and trust takes time and communication. Before delegating, make sure you and your outsource partners are willing to communicate about needs and requirements. Take the time to determine what each team member wants to do and excels at.
HoneyBook Pro Sydney Lynn Young reminds us that delegating responsibilities makes your partners take pride in their work and feel more excited about what they’re bringing to the table.
When delegating, always be clear about the expectations and outcomes. Give your idea of what success means, and communicate clearly. As business owners, we should always be setting the expectations for clients, this pertains to our partners as well.
You can hire an expert and give them horrible information, and you’ll get horrible outcomes. Clarity is the precursor to confidence.
Terry Rice
Hiring a Coach for Business Success
It’s one thing to hire a partner who can take tasks off your plate, but how do you know when it’s time to hire a business coach? Our HoneyBook Pros say it’s best to work with a coach when you’re struggling with the direction of your business. Don’t hire a coach just because you think you need to, but make sure you have a sense of your end goal first.
When you’re hiring, interview enough people to get a feel for how they align with your values. You’ll need to feel comfortable with them and also have confidence that they understand your clients’ needs too.
Coaches are experts in their field, so they should already have structured processes in place. Before hiring, spend time to understand if that process will guide you to the end result you’re looking for.
With business coaches, it’s even more important than other partners to also find someone who complements your personality. Their recommendations should make sense for you and your strengths. Above all, you should feel a connection to know that they’re the right fit for you and your business. Trust your gut!
Who Are the HoneyBook Pros?
If you’re looking to get help for the next stage of business growth, consider exploring HoneyBook Pros. Our Pros work for you, not HoneyBook, but they’re vetted for their expertise in design and branding, business strategy, systems setup and more.
HoneyBook Pros will work with you one-on-one when you’re ready to outsource, and they’ll provide support that’s unique to you and your needs. Whether you know exactly what you need help with or you’re looking for guidance, our Pros can set you up for long-term success. Find relief through handing off anything from small tasks to broader strategy.
By focusing on your business goals and your HoneyBook account, a Pro can help you map out your processes and translate them into an optimized client flow. Our Pros are business owners just like you who’ve already been where you are, so they have the specific experience to help. Meet some of our HoneyBook Pros and browse their services to learn more!
Terry Rice
Terry Rice is a consultant who helps entrepreneurs like coaches and consultants to monetize their businesses. As a HoneyBook Pro, he can offer comprehensive support with business strategy as well as marketing and sales. By working with Terry, you can count on more clarity around how to promote yourself and get in front of your ideal audience.
Terry says he’s felt aligned with the HoneyBook community for a long time, and becoming a HoneyBook Pro was a great opportunity to get more directly involved.
When it comes to outsourcing, Terry’s experienced the “aha” moment when you know you can be smarter with your time. With his moment, he spent three hours trying to format a document before paying someone to have it done in minutes. He realized he was wasting time outside his zone of genius instead of prioritizing what he does best – helping business owners build their brand and revenue.
If you’re not going to be doing these tasks over and over again, you should probably outsource it.
Terry Rice
Ally Bauer
Ally Bauer of Ally B Designs can help you create a brand that speaks for itself and creates confidence in yourself and your clients. With comprehensive design services, Ally works as a HoneyBook Pro to build cohesive brands with websites and collateral to match. Instead of cookie-cutter designs, she incorporates your services, your audience and what makes you unique.
Ally says she started using HoneyBook because it helped her simplify everything for her own business. Instead of overcomplicating all her tasks, implementing HoneyBook for everything helps streamline her work. As a HoneyBook Pro, she’s excited to help others do the same.
Ally recently had her own experience with outsourcing when she found the right virtual assistant for her design business. At the time, she sat down and wrote out the exact list of tasks she wanted to achieve with help. She spoke with about four to five different VAs before she found the one that matched her personality and needs. The right VA brought new ideas to the table and had the right energy.
Even though I’m the business owner, I want them to want to be in my business.
Ally Bauer
Sydney Lynn Young
Syndey Lynn Young is a full-service systems strategist who offers everything from HoneyBook setup and optimization to business strategy and design. By focusing on coaching her clients, she helps build businesses that are profitable for the long term. As a HoneyBook Pro, she can help you translate optimized processes into your account for more streamlined work. With a background in bookkeeping and website design, she also has an industry niche for tax professionals and bookkeepers, photographers and event specialists.
As a HoneyBook user, Sydney knows firsthand how reliable and efficient it can be. Through her work as a HoneyBook Pro, she aims to help members see the same benefits. With clients, she starts with a strategy session to look at processes and figure out how to break them down and customize them in HoneyBook.
Some of Sydney’s clients have fully manual processes that she’s able to restructure and allocate more time for them and their business priorities.
Her “aha” moment with outsourcing happened when she was helping her three-year-old with a lemonade stand. She received several notifications on her phone that projects were moving along and being booked through HoneyBook. Seeing her business run smoothly while she was spending time with her child is how she knew outsourcing was so important.
This is the time and freedom to be able to do this kind of stuff with my child, and this is what I want every business owner to experience. This is why outsourcing is so important.
Sydney Lynn Young
How to Use the HoneyBook Pros Marketplace
Ready to grow your business this year? Outsource to an expert through the Pros Marketplace. Start by browsing through our four service categories:
- HoneyBook Setup – Get set up for success by working with a Pro to move your business into HoneyBook and create templates, workflow automations and much more.
- Improve Your Account – Already setup? Optimize your HoneyBook account with advanced client flows, integrations, automations and more with client workflow automation software.
- Design and Branding – Improve your branding through expert design and brand collateral. Work with a Pro to create a professional aesthetic that wows your leads and clients.
- Business Strategy – Find the coaching you need to grow your business to the next level. Work with Pros who’ve been in the same shoes as you and have the experience to help.
Once you choose the category that fits your needs, you can refine by filtering the exact services you need. For example, under HoneyBook Setup you can filter to find Pros that focus on Template Setup and Integrations. You can also filter by industry expertise to find someone who’s worked with businesses just like yours.
After you’ve filtered through services and industries, browse different Pros’ profiles. You can see their starting prices, reviews and portfolios to get more information about their background and work. When you’ve found the Pro that looks like a great fit, contact them to schedule a meeting (you can also use our online meeting scheduler to schedule meetings) . From there, it’s up to you and your Pro to determine the budget, objectives, timeline and more.
It’s that easy! Once you’re working with a Pro, you can count on quality work and less on your plate to focus on where you’re needed most.
