Something entrepreneurs strive for is securing big contracts with fabulous clients. Although a good thing on the one hand, this can be a downfall if the consultant attempts to do all the work themselves.
How do I know about attempting to do all the fulfillment of a contract? In the past I’ve been guilty of doing this. The first time I secured a relatively big contract I made the mistake of thinking I had to do all the work myself. Although I delivered as promised, I was exhausted and I limited myself from securing more work from other clients due to lack of time.
Additionally, I was at risk of becoming resentful at how hard I was working. Resentment toward anything in our business can be detrimental on many levels.
Fortunately there was a point where I realized it was more beneficial to put a team of people together that could take care of much of the work I didn’t need to do. Not that the tasks didn’t need to get done, but I didn’t have to be the one directly doing them.
This is a realization any consultant has to come to if they want to have a viable, profitable and enjoyable business.
Assume you bid on a $4,000 job that will take 40 hours to complete and needs to be finished in one week. If you choose to do all the work yourself you will have time for very little else but fulfilling the contract.
However, if you hire one or two assistants to do 20 hours of work at $20 – $30 an hour you deliver to the client faster and have more time for other things – like securing more business, enjoying time with your family, leisure time or pursuing a hobby.
One of the greatest mistakes solopreneurs make is not building a reliable team to make their delivery of services more efficient, less stressful and a more enjoyable experience for everyone.
Take time to determine if you can better serve your clients by building a reliable, service oriented team. You may be surprised at how great this can be for you, your team and your clients.
