Do you need to be a jack of all trades to run an online business? This episode explores the dilemma of having to wear multiple hats as a business owner. I share my personal experience and how I balanced my passions with the demands of running a business. Listen to learn how you can grow your business without sacrificing your sanity — and still indulge in your favorite business activities.
In this episode, you’ll hear…
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DISCLAIMER: Although Sam is an attorney she doesn’t practice law and can’t give you legal advice. All episodes of On Your Terms® are educational and informational only. The information discussed here isn’t legal advice and isn’t intended to be. The info you hear here isn’t a substitute for seeking legal advice from your own attorney.
Mentioned in this episode:
Legal Workshop
Do you feel lost thinking about how to legally protect your online business? Head to mylegalworkshop.com to sign-up for immediate access to my free 1-hour legal workshop, 5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow your Online Business.
Hey there, and welcome back to On Your Terms.
Speaker:I'm your host, Sam Vander Wielen, an attorney turned entrepreneur who helps online
Speaker:coaches and service providers legally protect and grow their online businesses using my
Speaker:DIY legal templates and my Ultimate Bundle training.
Speaker:this week we, are talking all about when you should do stuff in your business versus when
Speaker:you should outsource. Do you have to be good at everything in your business?
Speaker:Do you have to be a marketer?
Speaker:Do you have to be a copywriter?
Speaker:Do you really have to wear all of these hats when you own an online business?
Speaker:I think it's a really interesting question.
Speaker:as I talk about in this episode, I'm somebody who likes a lot of what we do and is also
Speaker:somebody who's inclined to be like, "I'll just do it.
Speaker:I'll just do it. I'll just do it." And that, well, you're going to have to listen.
Speaker:I shared how that went.
Speaker:And I shared what I did instead to actually grow my business, not drive myself crazy, but
Speaker:also how I still do some things I love in my business even though I don't have to.
Speaker:So, we're going to get into it.
Speaker:we do, I want to give a shoutout to Megan FS.
Speaker:She says, "I've been following Sam for a while.
Speaker:I joined the Ultimate Bundle and now I've been bingeing the podcast.
Speaker:It's like having a conversation with a friend while also learning a ton about the legal
Speaker:side, being an entrepreneur, and how to build an online business.
Speaker:I feel more confident knowing that I have the tools to build a legally legit business.
Speaker:But even more than that, like I'm connecting with a real person that I can relate to in so
Speaker:many ways. Sam and her podcast are fantastic." Thank you so much, Megan.
Speaker:I so appreciate that very kind review.
Speaker:And we are friends.
Speaker:you can also leave a review in Apple Podcasts of my show, On Your Terms, and you'll be
Speaker:entered to win a $20 Starbucks gift card.
Speaker:All you have to do is just leave a review on Apple.
Speaker:It's simple as that. All right.
Speaker:With that, let's hop in to this week's episode.
Speaker:the age old question, when should you do something versus when should you outsource it?
Speaker:How many things do you hold on to your business versus how many things do you try to hire
Speaker:out for? Plus, what do you do when, you know, budgets a little tight?
Speaker:You can't go around hiring everybody to do everything.
Speaker:It's a really tricky balance.
Speaker:what I often see is that on the one hand, people will hang on to things way too long and
Speaker:try to do everything themselves in the business and wear all of the hats.
Speaker:And I think we all know that there are many, many hats to be worn.
Speaker:And then, that ends up holding us back or it actually costs us a lot of money.
Speaker:Ryan always tells me - my husband, in case you don't know - that one thing he thinks I'm
Speaker:really good at is seeing time is money, even in our own life.
Speaker:Because I'll just be like, "No.
Speaker:It's not worth us doing that.
Speaker:We can get somebody else to do this and then we can go off and do this other thing."
Speaker:ourselves a lot of money by not hiring people to do certain things.
Speaker:And then, in fact, that's actually costing us a lot of money, for the reasons I'm going
Speaker:to break down in this episode.
Speaker:And so, we might maybe have a little bit of a mindset shift in that area today.
Speaker:also the idea that somebody else could be better at it.
Speaker:On the flip side, I think a lot of people think that somebody can't be better at it or
Speaker:that it won't be done to your liking.
Speaker:That was something that I held on to for a long time, not that I wouldn't be better or
Speaker:that anyone could be better at stuff, but that it wouldn't be done to my liking and it
Speaker:would end up costing me more time.
Speaker:So, it was not that I thought I'd be better at it, but I was like, "I'll just get it
Speaker:done." Because that way I don't have to go back and forth.
Speaker:was also a really easy out for me to not have to express preferences to people because I
Speaker:didn't like giving feedback and saying like, "Hey.
Speaker:I don't really love the design on this." So, if I just designed it myself, I didn't have
Speaker:to give any feedback, right?
Speaker:So, it was a little sneaky way around that too.
Speaker:on the flip side, I see people also outsource things a little bit too quickly sometimes
Speaker:or outsource things in their own business because they are really nervous, and they're
Speaker:not really owning it, and they're not trusting themselves, and listening to their
Speaker:instinct, especially as a marketer.
Speaker:And so, they'll outsource certain things to people that I'm like, "Ooh." That makes me a
Speaker:little nervous because, at the end of the day, I do think as marketers, we have to be the
Speaker:ones who are the experts in our businesses on our clients and what they want, and kind of
Speaker:have our finger on the pulse of the market in what's going on, and be kind of dictating
Speaker:that down to other people.
Speaker:And so, we want to hire experts and we want people who are going to be better at things
Speaker:than we are. But at the end of the day, you're signing the checks.
Speaker:Your name's on the digital door.
Speaker:Like, this shit is on you.
Speaker:So, that's the way that I always think about is that, at the end of the day, I'm
Speaker:responsible for all this.
Speaker:And so, I can hire other people.
Speaker:I can let other people do a lot of stuff.
Speaker:But I do also have to trust my instinct that, like, I've been here the longest, I've
Speaker:spoken to the most amount of people, I've really gotten to know what's going on around
Speaker:here. And if something doesn't feel right, I have to say something.
Speaker:So, that's kind of what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker:I have to tell you, I pride myself in being somebody who loves all parts of my business
Speaker:and online business and running one of these kinds of businesses.
Speaker:I mean, how much time do you have?
Speaker:I love writing.
Speaker:I love copywriting.
Speaker:I'll preface all of this by saying, I don't think I'm good at all of these things.
Speaker:Just I thoroughly enjoy it.
Speaker:But I love writing.
Speaker:I don't mind creating all the content.
Speaker:I love creating these podcast episodes for you.
Speaker:It's an absolute joy and a privilege.
Speaker:I love our team meetings.
Speaker:I love creating my products.
Speaker:I love digging in, answering people's questions.
Speaker:People have such good questions.
Speaker:I really love the strategy side of things.
Speaker:I'm obsessed with funnels.
Speaker:I love all the data.
Speaker:I'm just one of those annoying people who really, truly loves all of these things.
Speaker:Oh, I even love SEO.
Speaker:I know that was just probably the nail in the coffin.
Speaker:I love SEO.
Speaker:I love doing the website.
Speaker:I like all of those things.
Speaker:I had that attitude, first of all, I was like, "No.
Speaker:No. I just love it. I love it all.
Speaker:Don't worry, I love all of this stuff." But, also, it's just easier if I just do it
Speaker:myself. I would, like, dip my toes into the arena of hiring out a graphic designer or
Speaker:hiring somebody else to do something.
Speaker:And then, I would get some stuff back and it wouldn't totally sit right, and I would be
Speaker:like, "Oh. I'll just fix it myself."
Speaker:I mean, a lot of what we all do is very subjective.
Speaker:I mean, there can be spelling errors or something like that.
Speaker:But otherwise it's very subjective.
Speaker:And so, a lot of what we do is just up to our preferences.
Speaker:And so, I wouldn't see things that were up to my preferences, I wouldn't love it, and so
Speaker:I'd just be like, "Oh. I'll just fix this myself."
Speaker:that time. And what do you know, shocking, when the stuff would come back, it would be
Speaker:exactly the same.
Speaker:And I would just fix this stuff, again, myself.
Speaker:Never saying anything.
Speaker:Easy out, first of all, to not have to say, "Hey.
Speaker:Great job with this, but I would love it also from now on if you could do this like that
Speaker:or I like it better when this looks like that." It was a great way to avoid having to do
Speaker:that, which is stuff I have to do every day now.
Speaker:also, it just kept me really, really busy.
Speaker:I was just running around like a chicken with her head cut off.
Speaker:If we can imagine, an office building that ran Sam Vander Wielen LLC, it's like I'm
Speaker:running from the art department, to the copywriting department, to the finance
Speaker:department, to the legal, to the customer service center, back to social media strategy.
Speaker:And I was just like running between these doors all day long.
Speaker:you know, I built a nice little business doing that and it was fine.
Speaker:And I was really tired.
Speaker:I was working a lot.
Speaker:I really liked what I was doing.
Speaker:I enjoyed it.
Speaker:But I was like, "How am I going to actually grow this thing?
Speaker:I don't understand." Like, I just need to sell more and more and more, but I don't
Speaker:understand how to do that because I don't have another minute to spare.
Speaker:So, I thought at that time that I was actually saving money by not hiring anyone.
Speaker:I prided myself on not having any employees, any contractors.
Speaker:I was like, "I do it all myself." It's like a badge of honor.
Speaker:I thought I was saving money.
Speaker:I thought I was keeping my profits crazy high.
Speaker:Which, my profits were really high.
Speaker:My profits are still really high.
Speaker:But at the time it was insane.
Speaker:And it was just like, "But look how profitable I am." It's just kind of funny for me to
Speaker:look back now.
Speaker:And I remember, and maybe you can relate to this, but I also worry that I wouldn't have
Speaker:enough for them to do or I had this very irrational fear that the moment that I hired
Speaker:somebody, all of a sudden, everything would stop.
Speaker:Like, there'd be no more money coming in and no growth.
Speaker:And all of a sudden, I was going to have hired all these people and then there would be
Speaker:nothing. I was so worried about it.
Speaker:I've talked about this many, many times on the podcast before and now I talk about this in
Speaker:my free legal workshop - which I will link to below - I really had this flip into this
Speaker:mindset of starting to prepare for the business I was becoming.
Speaker:So, I was running around thinking, "Great.
Speaker:This business is doing okay now, but what if it doesn't in the future?
Speaker:So, I'll just keep acting like, not only maybe even what it is like now, but what it used
Speaker:to be." Or, "Great, that it's growing now.
Speaker:But what if I don't see any change." Or, "I don't know if the business of this size
Speaker:technically needs a VA yet."
Speaker:I am becoming X type of business.
Speaker:It truly does not matter.
Speaker:I don't care whether or not your goal is to have a business that makes $10,000 a year or
Speaker:$100,000 a year, $1 million a year.
Speaker:It doesn't have to.
Speaker:Screw all the figures and all this crap that we see online.
Speaker:None of that matters.
Speaker:Whatever that matters is what's important to you.
Speaker:And so, you need to know what kind of business are you building here.
Speaker:I would love to see you have goals that are like, at least for the business to get
Speaker:better. I just also want you to be very kind to yourself, but that can be really
Speaker:different for a lot of people.
Speaker:Yours doesn't have to look like mine.
Speaker:Mine doesn't have to look like another person's.
Speaker:So, you really start thinking of this is where I'm going.
Speaker:And based on that, this is what I need to have in place to become that kind of business.
Speaker:So, we start acting today like the business we're already headed towards.
Speaker:We kind of just start assuming that that's where we're headed.
Speaker:It's kind of like if you were driving from New York to LA, you would have this road trip,
Speaker:and you would make decisions on what highways you take and where you stop and all that
Speaker:kind of stuff, what direction you go in based on the fact that you know you're ending up
Speaker:in LA, even though it's going to take you - I don't know - five days or something to
Speaker:drive there.
Speaker:that's kind of how I want you to think about it with your business, like I already know
Speaker:I'm headed there, so let me just start acting like that.
Speaker:And that doesn't mean spending irresponsibly and acting willy nilly.
Speaker:But there are some simple things.
Speaker:There's a very careful balance between that whole, like, jump in head first kind of
Speaker:mentality. I'm not one to tell everybody to, like, leave their jobs and just throw your
Speaker:life away and start a business.
Speaker:there's also not going to be this perfect planned point where everything becomes super
Speaker:easy and crystal clear.
Speaker:So, there is a little bit of start before you're ready, kind of.
Speaker:And it's a balance.
Speaker:And I think that people need to be more responsible with that advice that there's a way
Speaker:to do that in a very tempered way.
Speaker:And I think that that's what was key for me, is that I stopped acting like the business I
Speaker:was at that moment and I realized that I was never going to become the business that I
Speaker:had in my mind, when I really let myself dream, and I really worked on my mindset.
Speaker:And so, I started to drop some of these stories and these limiting beliefs that I had
Speaker:about myself, and my business, and my worth, and my ability to be seen.
Speaker:once I started working on that and I got clear on what that vision was for me to build
Speaker:the kind of business I'm building right now, I was like, "Oh, shoot.
Speaker:I will never get there if I keep doing this." That's never going to happen because I'm
Speaker:just going to keep running. Remember the image I gave you of this digital office
Speaker:building? I'm just going to keep running between all those doors, and there's no way that
Speaker:this can ever get any bigger.
Speaker:I have to get out of the way for some of this stuff, and I have to leverage.
Speaker:And there are people who can do this better.
Speaker:There's time that can be spent better.
Speaker:There's so many different things that could be done differently.
Speaker:I think that there are a couple of skills that all online business owners should
Speaker:strengthen, flex, sharpen.
Speaker:And that you're really never going to 100 percent outsource even if you hire people as
Speaker:experts.
Speaker:You're still going to be the CEO.
Speaker:You're still going to be the one calling the shots.
Speaker:You're still going to be the one that's responsible for strategy.
Speaker:And, also, you're always going to be the one who's here.
Speaker:Team members can change.
Speaker:And you're going to be the one that's here and you have to own this at the end of the day.
Speaker:And it's also going to be your responsibility at the end of the day.
Speaker:what are some of these skills that I think all business owners kind of have to own?
Speaker:Well, one of the biggest, I would say, is marketing.
Speaker:And so, kind of like if you have this voice that's coming up in you that's like, "I'm not
Speaker:good at marketing. I don't know about that.
Speaker:I'm not good at this. I'm not good at that." As my therapist says, if we could just ask
Speaker:that to step aside for a moment and just keep an open mind, I think that it's something
Speaker:that we can become better at, first of all.
Speaker:definitely think that some people, they have an innate sense for marketing and it's just
Speaker:very natural to them.
Speaker:But I also think this is something you can strengthen.
Speaker:And so, I don't want you to count yourself out if you don't feel like you're coming into
Speaker:this at an Olympic level marketing person.
Speaker:It's okay.
Speaker:think when we break down what parts of marketing you really need to own, there are at
Speaker:least three that I can think of, which is the voice of customer.
Speaker:I would say, really being very, very clear about what your customer is struggling with,
Speaker:what they would like to see instead, what kind of stuff that they've tried, what they're
Speaker:really, really worried about.
Speaker:At the end of the day, when we break it down, what are they actually worried about
Speaker:happening? What do they actually wish would be different?
Speaker:What do they actually wish would be the best case scenario?
Speaker:Really knowing the voice of customer.
Speaker:also includes how your customer actually talks about you, what you do, and your topics,
Speaker:and stuff like that. Just to give you an example, when I'm talking about legal stuff, I
Speaker:can't use lawyer language.
Speaker:I try my hardest every day when I'm writing something or I'm creating titles or I'm
Speaker:writing captions or something like that, I'm like, "How would they say this?" Because
Speaker:it's not about how we would say it.
Speaker:So, that is one of the biggest things because it's such a starting block, because if you
Speaker:don't speak their language, then no one is ever going to talk back.
Speaker:So, it's a really, really important part.
Speaker:when you go to hire a really good copywriter, for example, to do sales copy for you for
Speaker:the first time or nurture sequence for the first time or write a sales page for you, you
Speaker:need to tell them like, "This is what my customers do.
Speaker:This is what they're worried about.
Speaker:These are the kinds of words they use.
Speaker:These are phrases I hear over and over and over again.
Speaker:This is really at the core of what my customer is worried about and what they want and
Speaker:what they hope for.
Speaker:And here's little snippets of their day." It's so much of that.
Speaker:you start to hire more and more experienced copywriters or funnel strategists over time,
Speaker:they'll actually ask to speak to your customers and they'll do customer interviews.
Speaker:That's why they're doing it is to get voice of customer research, and that's super
Speaker:helpful.
Speaker:resources to do that yet.
Speaker:And so, it was really important that I knew that.
Speaker:And then, when I was reviewing copy, I'd be like, "They would never say that" or "We
Speaker:don't use that kind of language in this community." So, it's really important that you
Speaker:own that.
Speaker:second part of marketing that I think you have to develop and strengthen is social
Speaker:strategy and social media - I would call it - awareness.
Speaker:Let's say, whatever platform it is, I think one or two platforms like Instagram and
Speaker:YouTube or Instagram and Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, whatever, you would have to really
Speaker:understand those platforms and truly how they work.
Speaker:Kind of get a flavor for who hangs out on them, how they're used, how people are
Speaker:consuming content there.
Speaker:think staying a little bit on top, this is where you have to be very careful.
Speaker:I'm not talking about black and white where either you don't know anything or you spend
Speaker:your whole day scrolling TikTok.
Speaker:It's somewhere in the middle about just knowing generally speaking what's going on.
Speaker:Like, what's going on on these platforms?
Speaker:How are people using it?
Speaker:What are some of the trends?
Speaker:as simple as on Instagram, what are the different surfaces that are available?
Speaker:What are the main types of content in my industry that are being shared?
Speaker:How are people engaging?
Speaker:What kind of patterns do I see?
Speaker:That kind of stuff.
Speaker:again, when you go to hire someone, if you hire someone to create social graphics for you
Speaker:or write captions for you or create social media post for you, you need to be able to
Speaker:analyze those and say, "That's not it.
Speaker:I want to take this strategy.
Speaker:I want to try that." Or going back to voice of customer, like, "This doesn't match up
Speaker:with my customer." So, we really do need to know a little bit about that and that's
Speaker:something that we develop over time.
Speaker:It's also the benefit to only picking - which I think you should anyway - one or two of
Speaker:these platforms anyway because you can go deeper and not wider.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:development. For you, this might be like program development, offer development,
Speaker:depending on what you do.
Speaker:I think that's where it becomes really important for you to be the one to know what is
Speaker:the demand in the market.
Speaker:Like, is there a demand for what I want to offer?
Speaker:Who's looking for it?
Speaker:What are they looking for?
Speaker:Obviously, doing pricing research and all this kind of stuff, you have to really own the
Speaker:development of your product to even make sure that there is a demand, a want, a need for
Speaker:what you're trying to offer.
Speaker:otherwise, what you're going to do is you're going to go to a person, you're going to
Speaker:outsource the creation of something, or hire an ops person to set up your product or
Speaker:something like this and be like, "I want to offer this product.
Speaker:Go set it up here." But you have to be the one who knows that that's even a successful
Speaker:idea in the first place as much as we can ahead of time, but we have to know that.
Speaker:right. So, those were the three parts of marketing that I broke down, the voice of
Speaker:customer, the social strategy, and the product development.
Speaker:But outside of marketing, there are three other things, I think, we have to own.
Speaker:One is copywriting.
Speaker:And I don't mean that we have to own this entirely because this is definitely a great
Speaker:area to outsource over time.
Speaker:But what I mean by this is that, I think that as online business people, people who
Speaker:market their online businesses for a living, we have to be good at copywriting.
Speaker:Period.
Speaker:And if you completely outsource your writing stuff, it's never going to sound like you.
Speaker:Or if you don't know basics about copywriting, then when you get copy from a copywriter
Speaker:and it doesn't feel right, you're not going to know.
Speaker:Or worst case scenario, you're just going to get copy from a copywriter, assume that they
Speaker:know the best for for you and your business and go with it.
Speaker:And then, when it doesn't land with people, you're going to be like, "I wonder why that
Speaker:didn't work?"
Speaker:copywriting is even so helpful for your day-to-day running in this business.
Speaker:So, I think about it every single time that I go to write an email.
Speaker:I write all my weekly emails to the list.
Speaker:I write so much that I feel like it's so important that I have a basic working
Speaker:understanding.
Speaker:I'm not as remotely skilled as a copywriter.
Speaker:But it means I have to have some skills as a copywriter or a person who writes copy for a
Speaker:living, because I essentially do.
Speaker:I write it for my business.
Speaker:Not for someone else's.
Speaker:And it's also an area where I can learn a little and then have a lot of practice.
Speaker:I write a lot.
Speaker:I write things that flop.
Speaker:I write things that go really well.
Speaker:And I just learn over time with reps, more and more and more reps.
Speaker:So, I think copywriting is a great place to invest some of your time and energy and money
Speaker:because I think that it's great to learn about and it'll help you overall.
Speaker:also think you have to own customer service because I think that you have to decide
Speaker:pretty early on what kind of business do you want to be, what kind of experience do you
Speaker:want your clients to have.
Speaker:And you have to set the tone for how do you want everybody to be treated, and is this a
Speaker:premium level, Nordstrom level experience, or is this a Walmart where we have smiley
Speaker:face, but we're more about getting as many people in here and as many people out as we
Speaker:can.
Speaker:you're going to set the tone for when you do hire somebody to interact with your
Speaker:customers, to say like, "Hey, here's how we do things around here.
Speaker:We go above and beyond.
Speaker:We're super helpful. We're super responsive.
Speaker:We're known for being responsive.
Speaker:We have sarcastic wit and we include jokes in all of our stuff." Whatever it is, we have
Speaker:to own customer service.
Speaker:but not least, we have to own our craft.
Speaker:I mean, we have to be really good at what we actually sell for a living.
Speaker:You know, I feel like so many times in online business, we hear all these people talking
Speaker:about selling you courses about here's how to create a course or whatever, here's how to
Speaker:make this many figures and this many months, and yada, yada.
Speaker:we don't often hear about people really encouraging you to do a really good job and try
Speaker:to be really skilled, and taking a lot of pride in what you do, and taking ownership over
Speaker:the fact that you're putting yourself out there, you're taking people's money for your
Speaker:skill. And that doesn't mean being perfect and it doesn't mean knowing everything, but it
Speaker:means continuing to invest in ourselves, in our craft, and in our actual programs and
Speaker:offers and products themselves, and making them the best that they can be right now given
Speaker:the information and the tools that we have.
Speaker:And I think that that's a really, really important thing for us to own.
Speaker:Now, all of the things I've just talked about, marketing, copywriting, customer service,
Speaker:and our craft, one of the reasons I think that we have to be so good at them is that,
Speaker:well, first of all, we do them every day.
Speaker:But two is that they are things that we can eventually outsource.
Speaker:They're probably some of the last things as you make more and more money in your
Speaker:business. But when you do, they are the things that I think you still have to have a good
Speaker:grasp of in order for you to outsource them.
Speaker:with other things, let's say you want to get a new website, you can hire a website
Speaker:designer and a web developer or their team.
Speaker:You don't need to learn how to do your own website and then hire a website person.
Speaker:In fact, it would actually be more helpful if you knew something about copywriting and if
Speaker:you knew something about marketing and strategy so that you could tell the website person
Speaker:what kind of layout you want, or what calls to action you want to highlight, or what
Speaker:kinds of marketing things you want to drive and write some of the copy.
Speaker:That would be cool.
Speaker:But you don't need to learn certain things like that.
Speaker:You don't need to learn about web development.
Speaker:You don't need to learn about branding, like creating logos and color schemes.
Speaker:If you had a good idea of the voice of customer and you had a good idea of the vibe and
Speaker:the kind of environment you're really trying to create, then you can communicate that to
Speaker:an expert and they can easily turn that around for you.
Speaker:I also think that legal and accounting are another two areas where I just don't think you
Speaker:need to waste your time. You don't need to learn how to become a lawyer to run your own
Speaker:business. You don't need to learn how to be a CPA to run your own business.
Speaker:Those are areas where I wouldn't invest much of your time to really learn all about them,
Speaker:other than the basics with legal of, like, learning how to talk about what you do,
Speaker:learning how to answer client's questions, and just learning how to set things up pretty
Speaker:easy to form a business or to send off contracts or protect your content.
Speaker:Having that kind of information is really empowering, but you don't need to be your own
Speaker:lawyer. That's why I've created what I have.
Speaker:That's why I have templates for you.
Speaker:I have the Ultimate Bundle for you.
Speaker:But the point is, you don't have to become your own CPA.
Speaker:You can outsource that kind of stuff.
Speaker:And you don't need to beat yourself up that that's not something you know how to do.
Speaker:last thing I wanted to chat with you about was that - I thought this was interesting when
Speaker:I was preparing for today's episode - I want you to think about are there things that
Speaker:naturally interest you in your business that are investments in your business or that can
Speaker:bring you a return.
Speaker:Like, you could ask yourself, This thing that I like to do in my own business, does it
Speaker:bring in leads or does it generate sales?
Speaker:That's kind of how I would think of it.
Speaker:So, for example, when I started my business, I liked SEO.
Speaker:I thought it was really interesting.
Speaker:I also thought it was a genius way of building up a lot of momentum in traffic by way of
Speaker:leads in my business because I was capturing people's attention who were already
Speaker:searching for something.
Speaker:I didn't have any kind of social media presence.
Speaker:And so, I felt like I was really starting from the bottom back then.
Speaker:And I was like, is there another way where I can do this?
Speaker:so, I just genuinely thought SEO was interesting and it was a huge place to spend my time
Speaker:in the beginning where I would be like, "Okay.
Speaker:I'm going to write ten blog posts that are super SEO targeted." So, I would do some SEO
Speaker:research and phrases and questions and words that people were searching for in my
Speaker:industry. I would then write a little outline using keyword-rich headings, subheadings.
Speaker:And then, I would write the post and I would kind of use SEO plug-in on my site to further
Speaker:optimize the post once it was done being written, and then I would post it.
Speaker:That was something I was spending a lot of my time on and it was an investment in my
Speaker:business, something that, to be honest, brought in a lot of the initial sales and really
Speaker:got things off the ground.
Speaker:And some of those blog posts that I wrote six years ago are still pulling in doing that
Speaker:too. But if I was obsessed with bookkeeping, for example, that wouldn't have paid off.
Speaker:If I was just in a bookkeeping, all that that would be doing is saving me the amount of
Speaker:money I had spent on a bookkeeper.
Speaker:when I really liked to do SEO and I only did it for probably a year or so, probably two
Speaker:years, actually two years in my own business, I thought that that was one area that I
Speaker:could be like, "Okay. I understand that I could hire someone." I didn't really have the
Speaker:funds to hire somebody at the time, but at least this is something I enjoy doing and it's
Speaker:an investment in my business because it's actually leading to leads, and then those leads
Speaker:are bringing in sales.
Speaker:So, it was then making the business more profitable, which then allowed me over time to be
Speaker:like, "Okay. Now, I can afford to pay somebody else to do this." And they have all these
Speaker:examples now to learn how I like things done and how I like things written.
Speaker:was another area that I wanted to strengthen my skill in because I knew that if I was a
Speaker:better writer, it would be a big driver of both leads and sales.
Speaker:So, I just wanted to put that out there just to think about there might be some part of
Speaker:your business you're like, "But I like doing it." If you like doing it, just ask
Speaker:yourself, is this an investment in the business or is this something that's literally
Speaker:just a trade off for I'm just saving myself the 100 bucks to pay a bookkeeper a month to
Speaker:do this.
Speaker:could spend that time investing in marketing or investing in something else that's going
Speaker:to drive leads or sales, then let's get to that.
Speaker:So, that's why I think the sooner you can get some of these non-revenue generating
Speaker:activities, especially repetitive tasks that can be optimized and SOP'd, then that way,
Speaker:again, you do it so you run through something.
Speaker:not ever having anybody come into the business where you've not done something yourself
Speaker:before, but you do it, and then you're like, "Here are the steps that we take when we
Speaker:find a copycat online, we have an SOP for that." And then, you can hand that SOP off to a
Speaker:very talented and capable person who can go and execute that every single time that it
Speaker:happens, and then you don't have to do it.
Speaker:So, I'm a big believer in choosing a couple of things you really love to do.
Speaker:I know that you can also outsource everything and you can outsource everything all at
Speaker:once. It's a lot.
Speaker:It's expensive.
Speaker:But over time, the goal is generally to remove you from those tasks and start finding
Speaker:people who are specialized in it.
Speaker:And because you've done things yourself before, because you've walked the walk, you're
Speaker:going to be such a better leader and you're going to be able to give better feedback and
Speaker:advice.
Speaker:me know, like, what is the one thing that you're really interested in now that we've had
Speaker:this chat that also was an investment in your business?
Speaker:And what's one thing that now you've listened to this you think you could let go because
Speaker:you realized it's really just a trade, like a time, money trade?
Speaker:I'd be so curious from you.
Speaker:Just send me a DM, @samvanderwielen, on Instagram.
Speaker:hope that you liked this episode.
Speaker:It was a lot fun on my part.
Speaker:If you're ready to start legally protecting your business, make sure you click below to
Speaker:watch my free legal training, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online
Speaker:Business. And with that, I will see you next week.
Speaker:Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker:so much for listening to the On Your Terms Podcast.
Speaker:Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to
Speaker:podcast. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more
Speaker:at samvanderwielen.com/podcast.
Speaker:You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal
Speaker:workshop, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business, at
Speaker:samvanderwielen.com. And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram,
Speaker:@samvanderwielen, and send me a DM to say
Speaker:hi.
Speaker:remember that although I am a attorney, I am not your attorney and I am not offering you
Speaker:legal advice in today's episode.
Speaker:This episode and all of my episodes are informational and educational only.
Speaker:It is not a substitute for seeking out your own advice from your own lawyer.
Speaker:And please keep in mind that I can't offer you legal advice.
Speaker:I don't ever offer any legal services.