How Many Hats Are You Wearing?

Living in entrepreneur-land is sometimes all about how many things you can do on your own without a team or a sidekick. Sometimes we just want to do things ourselves because we feel it will save us time and money. But sometimes wearing too many hats just makes things worse! Think of things this way … If you were to assign every role, task or project to a particular hat, with the skillset and all the glorious responsibilities those comes with, how many hats do you think you’d be wearing? How does it feel to wear all those hats? Especially when you’re wearing them all at once. Probably very much like a crazy balancing act!

I myself have been in this hate wearing scenario way more times than I can count. Even quite recently. In my business, as well as most of the work I do for my clients, I am the graphic designer, the web designer, the social media guru, the IT specialist, the “help desk”, the virtual assistant, the proofreader, a brand specialist, the accountant, the project manager, the business developer, the operations manager, the sales manager and this list literally goes on and on (and ON!) forever …!

I still, to this day, have more hats than I can count, but now I try not to wear them all at once. I have learnt over the years to combine them but never more than 3 or 4 at a time. Why? Because every hat deserves to be worn, appreciated and admired separately. And really … It’s not a good look for you, your business or your bottom line.

Getting rid of some of your hats really boils down to two main things: organization and outsourcing.

Organization:

And, nope, I will never get tired of expressing the importance of this. LOL!

In this step, it’s time to get clear on the work that needs to be done in order to succeed. Put your work into context so that you can truly understand all the things that need to happen in order for things to work the way they’re supposed to. The way you want/need them to. And, don’t forget to prioritize.

So, before you begin prioritizing your daily to-do list, think about where each of your tasks/projects falls into quadrant. Then schedule them accordingly. Remember, there is a huge difference between important and urgent. And yes, making time to work on your business (not just in your business) counts too!

OUTSOURCING:

Time to hire the experts. Yes, sometimes resources are tight and as entrepreneurs we try to fill those gaps in all by ourselves. It’s usually because of time or funds. And sometimes due to time, we wait too long to hire additional staff then more hats just pile up. But skimping on “the help” can have a detrimental effect on your ability to grow, support your clients/customers and even a loss of new opportunities.

So, now it’s time for the hard stuff …. sitting down to objectively assess your own strengths and weakness. By doing this you will have clear eyes on where you could best get assistance from a pro (designer, social media guru, accountant, virtual assistant, coach, etc.). It’s always best to try to maximize your own strengths then try to fill in those gaps rather than just hire for “lower wage” work because it seems like the easier decision.

So, to end things off for this glorious Spring morning, let me ask you this …

How many hats are you wearing on any given day?

And what choices do you plan on making, going forward, to decide which hat to continue to wear, which ones to share and which ones to drop?