When Is It Time to Get Help With Your Small Business?

When you first start a small business, doing everything yourself usually makes sense. You answer emails, deal with customers, send invoices, manage your website, and keep track of your expenses. Keeping costs down is important, and there may not be enough work to justify paying someone else. Eventually, though, doing everything yourself can start holding the business back. You may find yourself working late just to catch up on administrative tasks, or putting off things that you know need to get done.

When Your Time Becomes Too Valuable

One of the clearest signs that it’s time to get some help is simply running out of time. If you’re spending hours every week on paperwork, emails, bookkeeping, or other administrative work, think about what else you could be doing with that time. This is especially true when you’re spending a lot of time on things outside your expertise. Small business owners often learn how to do their own website, bookkeeping, marketing, and social media because they don’t want to spend money on outside help. That’s completely reasonable when you’re starting out, but there eventually comes a point where doing everything yourself isn’t necessarily the best use of your time. A task that takes you five hours might take someone with experience only an hour. If that gives you five more hours to work with customers or bring in new business, the cost of getting help may be worthwhile.

When Things Start Falling Behind

Another sign is when important tasks keep getting pushed aside. Maybe you’ve been meaning to follow up with potential customers, update your website, organize your receipts, or catch up on your bookkeeping. It’s easy to tell yourself you’ll get to it next week, but next week can quickly turn into next month. Bookkeeping is a good example. As a business grows, there are usually more invoices, expenses, subscriptions, payment transactions, and accounts to keep track of. If you’re continually putting off your bookkeeping because you don’t have the time, outsourcing your bookkeeping could be worth considering. The same applies to other areas of the business. You don’t necessarily need to hire a full-time employee. A freelancer, contractor, or specialized service provider may be able to take one responsibility off your plate.

Start Small

Getting help doesn’t mean you have to hand over your entire business. In fact, starting with one task can be a good way to see whether outsourcing actually makes sense for you. Think about the responsibility that takes up the most time or causes you the most frustration. Try getting some help with it for a few months and see what happens. If you have more time to focus on customers, fewer things to worry about, and less work following you home at the end of the day, it may be money well spent. There isn’t a magic revenue number or customer count that means it’s time to hire help. Every business is different. The better question is whether you’re spending too much of your time on things someone else could reasonably handle. You don’t have to do everything yourself just because you’re a small business. Sometimes, getting the right help at the right time is what allows you to keep growing without becoming overwhelmed.

About the Author

Andrew Kim is an Edmonton-based small-business bookkeeper and owner of YEG Bookkeeping.