Hired help

A few of you have asked me to write a blog on this topic over the last few months. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to write. Until I needed help.

At bp I was pretty independent. To the point of being a bit prickly when someone suggested I work with someone else. Most things that were in my broad remit I could do myself. Even a few technical-ish things, like building websites, graphic design, and (while I don’t shout about this at parties, I’m a chartered accountant so can do) a bit of bean-counting.

And to begin with it sort of worked. I did rely on the experience of mentors and friends and family cheering me on from the side lines. But I sorted my own company setup, VAT, website, branding, banking, offer development, content, sales and marketing…

And then suddenly things became more serious; I became more serious. And I needed to up my game in areas for which, previously, I was prepared to hack together a solution, or show up green and keen.

Then the VAT had to be submitted and I worried I’d done it wrong. Googling help suddenly seemed a bit risky. I’d set up Lexicona in September 2020, so don’t I need to file company accounts soon? As I started to promote Familiarize on Instagram and LinkedIn, I suddenly became aware of how shabby the website looked, how amateurish the logo was (I had made it in powerpoint, from a graphic I’d nicked from bp’s investor day slides!)

So in a pretty short space of time, I realised I needed help.

I got myself set up with a decent accountant who can handle the company returns and VAT and keep me on the right side of the law.  And I invested the princely sum of £250 in an amazing chap (Lewis, highly recommended) to design me a new logo for Familiarize. I couldn’t have done something nearly as good…WDYT?

But I couldn’t put such a beautiful logo on such an ugly website.

I’d been sick of it for a while. I built it on WordPress because I thought I could build my product here. But I can’t. I need help for that too – so I hired Harleen.  Wordpress is cheap and flexible, but I’ve spent hours failing slowly to perfect it. So I switched to Wix and I’m building a slick new site in a fraction of the time.  Through Wix I’ve also got help with search engine optimisation, Stripe payments, email marketing, client meeting bookings…all at a relatively small, but nonetheless mounting, cost.

Is hiring help a slippery slope?

Within just a few weeks my costs have increased quite a bit, when my revenues have not (much). This makes me a bit uneasy, because I am supposed to be bootstrapping.

Am I just perfecting perceptions of my business? Not sure.

I do feel like I’m very slowly scaling, professionalising Familiarize, reducing both compliance risk and the risk that a customer visits one of my channels and thinks “Amateur, not for me”.

Here’s a few tips to get the right Hired Help balance:

1. Draw a circle around your core offer and capability. Then add two more rings - add the things you know you’ll never do well or will increase business risk in the outer ring – and things you will attempt while bootstrapping in the middle. Be realistic.

2. Look for cheap ways to solve your problems… subscription services can often help you with ‘good enough’ solutions.  Buying time from a real person can be expensive – but Fiverr and Upwork present affordable solutions.

3. The genuine Bootstrapper looks to get maximum value from his or her Help. Although I was annoyed paying for three different Wix subscriptions, I can at least now cancel subscriptions to Calendly, Bluehost and MailChimp.

4. See if you can reduce your cost – or get more for your money – by making it easier for your Hired Help. For instance, I worked up a pack of assets I’d created, as well as a document describing Familiarize’s purpose, ambition, customer and product to help Lewis my branding friend on Fiverr nail the logo, palette and font first time.

5. Leverage your network. Not just for recommendations but whether you can trade services and avoid cash outflows.  I’ve been helping a VC I know sharpen up his offer in exchange for him promoting me to his network.

Hiring Help is a sign you’re growing – and that you know your limitations and your strengths. But as Corporate Escapologists don’t let’s fall into the old trap of outsourcing too much, splashing the cash or deferring our go-to-market in pursuit of perfection.

Every penny we invest in Hired Help should pay out several times over, by freeing us to grow our businesses. Not perfect our businesses.