Cast Your Burden - Time to Outsource

By Emily McHugh

As most budding entrepreneurs will attest, along with the exhilaration and sheer delight of entrepreneurship comes the Herculean task of realizing that most of the work to be done is all yours. A shrill cry rises above the accumulating mounds and crescendos into a serious scream for help. This is one of the hardest steps for an entrepreneur to take, acknowledging the need for help, and then actually getting it.

We all know that in the beginning, resources are scarce, but as you start to grow, even modestly, it’s time to lighten the load. Recently, my sister Helena, who is also my business partner, and I had one of our strategy sessions where we try to divine trends and forecast demand. We listed all the areas that were devouring our time and taking us away from our respective core competencies – for her it is product development and design, and for me it is sales and marketing. One of our biggest time guzzlers was order fulfillment. The process of preparing and shipping orders can be quite tedious. Now don’t get me wrong, having orders to fill is very good indeed, but be careful that you are able to make the process efficient so as not to interfere with continued growth.