Are you an idealist or a realist? A perfectionist or a procrastinator?
The truth is, it doesn’t matter how you identify because when it comes to time management, everyone on the scale benefits from outsourcing.
The idealist thinks they can accomplish everything on their to-do list in record time and at breakneck speed. The realist knows it can’t all get done, but feels overwhelmed over the fact that everything on their list needs to get done. The perfectionist and the procrastinator both get stuck with making forward progress, just from opposite ends of the spectrum.
Then, beyond your personality characteristics, comes the unavoidable juggling act of being booked in the treatment room, constantly studying to stay on the up and up on the latest and greatest trends and science in the esthetic industry, managing a business, and, oh, yes that thing called a personal life.
With all these factors at play, it’s no wonder you might be feeling bogged down and unable to make the strides you desire for your business growth or in your personal freedom. However, when you know how to harness your superpowers and embrace the concept of outsourcing, you stand to not just gain back more time, but also increased income and sanity (and who doesn’t want more of that?!).
Here are my favorite ways to maximize your time with the power of outsourcing:
1) Bring On Virtual Administrative Help
How many times have you had a task like “create new web page for XYZ service” or “upload blog posts” or “create event invites” on your to-do list and you either leave them to the last second or never really get around to them because 1) there isn’t a hard deadline and 2) you’re not really sure how to get the task done (especially the tech stuff).
Rather than continually pushing those items off until you “have the time” or “figure out how to [ fill in the blank with task that’s been on your list entirely too long]”, you can easily hire virtual help at a low rate to help you with any number of tasks.
With sites like Fiverr and Thumbtack, you’re hiring an independent contractor to complete a task, which is great because they take care of all their own taxes and you don’t need to worry about jumping through employment, benefits, or HR hoops. Simply outline what it is you need help with, post a call for help, and get eager assistants ready to take work off your plate.
Ideally, the more you use virtual assistance help, you’ll find either one or a few people you can consistently turn to for repeat tasks.
2) Get Your Social Media Managed
Let’s be honest, social media can be a total time suck.
One minute you’re hopping on Instagram to post a quick update and then you’ve been scrolling for 10 minutes. And that doesn’t even include the time it took to take or craft an image, write a caption, pick your hashtags, and…you get where I’m going here.
Social media is important for your business, but unless it’s an area you’re truly passionate and creatively excited about, we recommend leaving it to a professional.
With outsourcing this task, you’ll still have the ability to control your brand identity and overall vision but won’t have to deal with the stress of keeping up with the strategy and or creating all the imagery and additional elements that go into a well-crafted social post.
Our favorite content guru extraordinaire is Root to Petal Creative!
3) Save the Scrubbing and Hire a Cleaning Crew
The last thing you want to do with your day off is spend it scrubbing baseboards, swiping blinds and dusting all the nooks and crannies of your spa. However, it’s critical to have a clean space, but that doesn’t mean you have to be the one to do the cleaning.
Instead of forgoing a day taking care of yourself and spending time with your family and friends to deep clean, we highly suggest hiring a weekly or monthly cleaning crew to help take the big cleaning days off your hands.
If you’re keeping up with the day-to-day cleaning of your space, a regular “deep clean” won’t be that intensive for a cleaning crew, and it’s very easy to cover the cost simply by raising the costs of your services by a few dollars.
4) Nix the Grocery Trip
By the time you plan out what you need and make a list, go shopping, unpack all your groceries, cook, eat and clean up throughout the week, you’re looking at several hours of work!
Thanks to the ease of online ordering (and Amazon buying Whole Foods) cutting out the trip and time to go grocery shopping takes just a few scrolls and clicks. And if you’re not great at pulling together a meal plan, sites like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron make it even easier to cook healthily while only spending a fraction of the time you’d typically take to do everything on your own.
As an esthetician who’s often booked solid from the start to end of the day, it’s critical you take care of yourself by eating healthy meals, and outsourcing your groceries ensures you’re getting the nutrition you need from whole foods and not from a drive-through lane!
5) Say No to Stacks of Laundry
Your own family and home’s laundry is a big enough chore in and of itself, so why tack on the task of washing all your spa towels, too?
With the amount of additional water and energy you’re using to wash them at home, you have little to lose by sending out your sheets and towels to a laundromat (which typically charges by the pound) that can wash, dry and fold the laundry for you.
In fact, not only will it be a comparatively small investment compared to what you’re spending to do the wash at home, you’re saving yourself a massive amount of time which you can now spend enjoying more of your time off or spending to grow and scale your business.
6) Listen and Learn
While this one isn’t technically outsourcing, listening to podcasts is one of my favorite ways to productively multitask by spending time working on personal and professional development.
Whether you listen while driving and commuting or while prepping meals and cooking or during a workout session, there is a ton of time you can find in the in between to further your education, get your creative juices flowing or simply work on yourself for yourself.
If you need encouragement in the areas of outsourcing, leveling-up, and shifting your mindset, these are some of my favorite empowering podcasts:
Spa Marketing Made Easy with Daniela Woerner, Girlboss Radio, Self Service by Jerico Mandybur, The Beauty Business Podcast by Adam Chatterley, The Goal Digger Podcast by Jenna Kutcher, and Jen Gotch is OK...Sometimes podcast.
The bottom line is that you are the CEO of your business and of your life, and time is a finite resource.
It’s up to you to decide how you want to spend your time to reach your goals, and if you decide it’s best spent in your zone of genius and harnessing your superpowers as well as enjoying your life, well, that is the beauty of outsourcing!
Now my challenge to you: pick something from this list that weighs you down the most and take that off your plate by outsourcing it. Let me know how it goes!