Are You a Lone Ranger in your Small Business? See if You Are!
Probably one of your biggest concerns is how you’ll be able to pay for it. But let’s be honest here: without help, we cannot function as a lone ranger. We’ve done it for several years, and We see nothing wrong with it. Then you need a team on your side to help you bring your vision to life.
In other words, a “Small Business Lone Ranger” is someone who does everything themselves.
The Lone Ranger handles every project no matter how big or small. The reason for this is either fear of losing control or the inability to hire help. What’s your take?
Why is it bad to do everything yourself? Well, managing every little detail makes it difficult to grow your business. If you want to grow your business to its fullest potential, you need to let go of control or consider hiring help.
Test your Lone Ranger status by taking this 10-question quiz.
We have a few suggestions to help you get rid of this business-stifling affliction, so don’t worry if you are!
- Are you a solo worker?
- Are you confident that there is no one who can do your work quite like you?
- Feel like there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done?
- Is your website maintained by you?
- Can you do your own billing and accounting?
- Are you responsible for writing your own sales and marketing copy?
- Is your own mail delivered to you?
- What office supplies do you buy yourself?
- What products and services do you create or deliver yourself?
- Are all your sales fulfilled and shipped by yourself?
It looks like you are a lonely ranger if you answered “Yes” to all of these questions. Don’t worry.
Because you cannot afford to hire help, you may have to wear many hats when you run a small business. How do you decide when to delegate tasks to others? When you have to spend time on administrative tasks in order to keep your business running, you cannot spend time growing it.
At least 60% of your time should be spent marketing your business. Your product or service is best marketed by you. Your business will grow and flourish only if you market it well. As a result, if you’re too busy running around paying bills, getting mail, checking emails, and picking up office supplies, then guess what? There is no time for marketing. You can’t grow your company.
A Small Business Lone Ranger wonders, what’s the solution? Check out these six tips:
- You should write a list of all the tasks you can do without requiring specific expertise (like arranging mail, purchasing office supplies, and filing).
- In the next section, list the tasks that occupy a large part of your time and that are not related to your specific area of expertise (for instance, maintaining your website or managing your business finances and accounting).
- The amount of time you spend on each of these tasks per week should be determined.
- If you didn’t have to perform these other tasks, consider what additional sales and marketing you could do.
- With that additional time spent on marketing and building your business, how many additional clients or sales could you generate?
- Make a decision whether you need an assistant, bookkeeper, website manager, or whatever specialists are necessary. Find out what you are able to afford from Step 5.
Probably one of your biggest concerns is how you’ll be able to pay for it. But let’s be honest here: without help, one cannot function as a lone ranger. We’ve done it for several years, and We see nothing wrong with it. Then you need a team on your side to help you bring your vision to life.
It would be wise to hire an assistant to handle the work that isn’t worth your time. We don’t have to hire a full-time person; I’m just looking for someone to work a few hours a week to begin. You should also hire a bookkeeper to manage your finances — not only will they relieve you of your accounting responsibilities, but they’ll also help you keep more of what you earn. Read on:
