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Are you constantly behind? So far behind that you feel like you’ll never catch up? As a contractor or business owner, it’s easy to get to this point. What ends up happening is that you become totally overwhelmed and your production tanks even more. Next thing you know, you’re dropping projects and losing out on opportunities. In today’s episode, we’ll be talking to Stephanie Hudson about how you can overcome overwhelm by hiring out tasks.
Stephanie is the co-founder of FocusWP, which is a company that helps agencies outsource their website and content tasks. She knows first hand how easy it is to become overwhelmed and need help by hiring out work.
1. What Are The Top Reasons That Entrepreneurs Get Behind?
Running a business usually starts with doing the thing you love…the main moneymaker for the business. But as time goes on, all business owners end up taking on more admin related tasks. This leaves very little time for them to do the work they love.
For example, the techy person gets behind admin work because they’re not good at the social interactions. And the social person hates to do tech-related things. In the book Rocket Fuel, Wickman mentions having the right combination of people to make your business a success. Many business owners attempt to be a lone wolf, trying to handle everything that needs to be done but some of the aspects of the business don’t suit their strengths.
2. How Do They Typically Handle The Overwhelm?
Most often, entrepreneurs end up feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work they have to do. This causes them to hit a point of burn-out. For some people, this leads to them completely shutting down until they are able to recoup. Others will try and solve the problem by charging their clients more money, but even then, they reach their time limit. The best solution is to outsource work, especially the boring admin work that most business owners prefer not to do anyways.
3. What Kind of Work Should You Hire Out?
Virtual assistants are easy to find and can take on a lot of admin work that may be bogging you down. Next should be hiring out anything that isn’t one of your strengths, whatever that may be, for you personally.
4. What Are Other Solutions Have You Found That Has Helped You Get Caught Up?
If you can, taking a break and get away from your computer. Sometimes is a very important and useful way to recuperate from a crazy schedule.
5. If You Had to Describe Your Workflow, Would You Describe Yourself as a Tortoise or a Hare?
Stephanie likes deadlines and considers it to be a motivator for her work and has a burst of energy like the hare in the story of the tortoise and the hare. Because of her tendencies, she often chooses to work on anything other than the big thing she needs to do till the very last second.
6. What Kinds of Things Cause You To Be Less Productive?
She finds that having too many things that she needs to do at once causes her to become a complete mess. When she has too many things to do, quite often, she is left unable to complete any of the tasks successfully.
If you’re looking for a way to get in touch with Stephanie, you can check her out at FocusWP or join her free Facebook group.
If you have any questions for us, email us at [email protected] if you have questions for us!
Until next week, get out there and start breaking the mental chains that are keeping you from producing!
