Are you finding outsourcing difficult?
Outsourcing: sometimes it’s a dirty word. Do you find it hard to let go and trust someone else to take care of some of your business tasks? Today, in this ‘behind the scenes’ blog, I’m sharing with you my struggles around this in my business.
My outsourcing background
Prior to starting Admin Army in 2016, I was involved in providing outsourced services in one shape or form for over a decade:
- From working in the finance department of a large NGO who provided outsourced finance and HR solutions to smaller NGO’s allowing them to pool their resources and stretch them further,
- To managing a busy office that serviced two main companies and six smaller companies.
However, I had never really had to make use of outsourcing services myself.
I’m a self-confessed control freak when it comes to my business tasks.
As a small business owner myself, I know that it is impossible to believe that anyone cares about your business, that you pour your heart and soul into, day in and day out, as much as you do.
And if they don’t care about your business the way that you do, how on earth will they do as good of a job as you will when you hand a task over?
Does that sound familiar to anyone?
The problem with doing it myself
When starting out, like many of us, I bootstrapped my initial set up and built my own website on the Squarespace platform. I received heaps of great feedback about it too.
But, my website and I had a dirty little secret. And as much as I hate to share this secret with you, as I feel like I’m about to show you my dirty underwear, it’s important to the story.
My website’s bounce rate was 90%. That is, 90% of people who visited the Admin Army website, went no further than the first page they landed on.
Why? Because while I was able to create an ok website, website design and the way a user interacts with a website weren’t my area of speciality, amongst other things.
How could I fix it?
I knew that to improve my business, increase enquiry and get the true value out of my website that I believed was there I had two options:
- I could spend a whole lot of time, late at night and on the weekends, tinkering with my website and making changes in the hope I could improve things on my own. This would involve a lot of upskilling, and while I love a good opportunity to upskill, I just didn’t have the time. Just like all business owners – I often put my client’s work or immediate deliverables before that of my own business.
- I could outsource it to a web design company. It just so happened that I shared an office with the SocialKiwi team, meaning that through my exposure to them I had built up a fairly high level of trust in their end product. This trust helped a lot when it came to making this decision. Some of the websites I’d seen them build were awesome! But, this option would mean I would have to take a huge leap of faith and part with some (gulp) money.
Time to invest
In the end, I decided I believed in my business enough to make the investment into outsourcing my website.
Don’t get me wrong, this was still a really hard decision and process for my inner control freak!
But… wow! It was worth it!
The website they built me was so cool! The resource they put into it (copywriting, photography, etc.) really took it to the next level.
By having them focus on the bits they did best, it also freed me up to take the time I did have to work on my business and use it to create some pretty cool (even if I do say so myself) content (lead magnets, case studies, etc.) to enhance my website.
That bit I mentioned earlier about upskilling – I learnt so much anyway by working alongside them while they were building it. I learnt more about calls to action and SEO than I ever would have if I were researching it all myself (I’m a very practical, see it in action, type of learner).
The results
Oh, and best of all… that bounce rate is right down now. The highest I’ve seen it since the updated website went live is 30%.
That’s right, I’m now retaining 60% more traffic, plus I’m now sending much more traffic to my website.
My dirty laundry is now clean, pressed, folded and put away! ?
What’s the point I’m trying to make?
It’s not that everyone should pay squillions for a new website. Although I absolutely recommend the investment – for me, my results I’ve experienced speak for themselves.
My point is that it would have been really easy for me to keep trying to do everything myself. But I honestly don’t believe I would have gotten the same results in my business overall (as my focus would have been different) if I had reworked or completely revamped my original website myself.
It’s okay to let go and trust someone else with parts of your ‘business baby’.