Do You Even Know What You Actually Do (and why you can't hire someone until you do)
When I first left my 9-5 (only 6 months after launching my biz), I wondered how I would fill my days and if I would just always end up on Facebook or Instagram. For all of my client work, I used Toggl to track my time so I could see how long things took me and if I was undercharging for my services. The first week, I looked back at my tracker and wondered what I did with my other time not on client work.
You see, I was under the impression I still needed to be working 8 hours a day and have something to prove that I did. So I began time tracking myself as I wrote newsletters, hung out in Facebook groups, commented on Instagram, created blog content and graphics. I truly thought I would need to show my parents that I was still hustling just as hard as I had been and not just slacking off. But wasn't the whole point not to be working 40 hours a week or staying up late after the day job?
Yes, yes it is. There's a lot of work that goes into the business before you can reach that point and it's important to know what those steps are, but - Pro Tip: you DON'T have to time track yourself, you just need a little business breakdown! As I got to the point when I wanted to bring on my own team member, I was able to look back at all I did for my business and for my clients to see what I needed taken off my plate.
Are there weeks in your business where you wonder what did I even do? Not because things didn't get done, but because they were the type of second-nature tasks you didn't have to think about doing? Or were they so behind the scenes you know no one else would notice them if they didn't get done and almost didn't do them?
Those are the types of tasks you still need to break down into processes so that you can hand them over to a team member. In my head, I know what needs to be done each day for each client and rarely even use my checklists in Trello for my sake. But I know there are amazing reasons to begin the business breakdown process of everything I do - which is offloading more to my team members! The same goes for you. If you are looking to bring on a freelancer or a team member, you MUST know what it is that you do in your business every single day.
Take some time today to truly break down every single part of your business. After you break down your business, grab the Daily Business Hour worksheet so you can put them into action. Again, you've got to work on your business every day in order for it to grow.
