TréCreative Tips&Tricks - Outsource Your Weaknesses

As a small business owner, there is always a pull to continue working even after "set business hours" have ended. Setting boundaries between personal and work life is always hard. Stephen and I struggle with this on a daily basis. Sometimes we are so consumed in editing a project we can often times forget what time it is. When you get on a roll you just want to keep rolling! Sometimes we just go ahead and finish, but other times we aren't as productive because we're tired or get physically and mentally exhausted. Boundaries are not easy and we are constantly working on how we can improve our boundaries and therefore improve our business to better serve our clients!

There's a temptation to do everything ourselves because we think we can be experts in every field of our business, sure we can do that, right!?! WRONG! We quickly learned trying to be the experts in every aspect of our business only takes away from our true passion which is in the creative photography and videography side of our business and investing in the relationships we form along the way. As creatives, we've tried to do all that and more on our own. And it worked okay...for a while that is.

We became emotionally drained and the friendships we wanted to grow began to lack. We soon realized we needed to outsource areas of our business to truly see growth and let go some of this pressure of trying to do everything on our own! We had to swallow our pride and let experts in other fields take over the areas of our business that Stephen and I are not experts in. At the end of the day, after blogging and editing and doing what we love, we didn't want to spend two more hours doing what we don't love! Taxes, bookkeeping, and other business routines we knew other professionals could do WAY better than us.

So you might be asking yourself, why are you sharing this with me? Well when we first started outsourcing specific areas of our business, whether it was taxes, packaging/branding materials, finances or even some email responses, I (Chelsey) needed another human to give me permission to do so. I felt the pressure to be perfect and run everything in our business. But what I really needed was to let go of some of the control so both Stephen and I could focus on the areas we want to be the experts in. Capturing timeless photos and creating moving stories through film. I needed someone to look me straight in the eye and say it's okay to let go, to not let fear hold you back, and know that someone else will do a much better job than I ever could. Letting go, while it may cost some extra money, frees us up for more time to invest in our couples, serving them better and having more restful times during non-business hours.

Think of an area of your life where you just need to let go, for the greater good that is! Whether it's outsourcing your something like house cleaning, running errands, answering the phone, emails, hiring that new web designer to finally get your website in the place you've always dreamed of. Just because you're capable of doing something doesn't mean you should! Let go of something and then say yes to the things that really matter.

I needed someone to say that to me, and now I want to say it to you. You have permission, let go!