The Joys of Doing Everything Yourself

Hey'up,

You've been flying solo, chasing your passion and finding your feet for a while now. And you've been successful. That's fucking great, I love that. But the more you do, the more you find you have to put on ANOTHER hat to get your business to work. Oh, now you're a video editor.

Now you're a marketer.

Now you need to learn how social media algorithms work.

Now you're a promoter.

Now you're a public speaker.

Now you're an admin assistant to... yourself.

Now you're a photographer.

Now you're a photo editor.

Now you're burnt out.

And suddenly you don't actually have the energy to do the actual thing you got into this position to do. Now you no longer have the passion to chase your dreams, because you got so caught up with working ON your business that you lost the passion to work FOR your business.

So you crawl onto your sofa and retreat to comfort watching your favourite show again, or watching other people play video games until your brain leaks out through your ears. Or is that one just me?

Either way, you've just discovered the Joys of Doing Everything Yourself.

It's a common mistake that freelancers and "solopreneur"s (although really, what's the difference between the two?) make when they first get into this world. And while it's a totally understandable mindset to fall into when you start out self-employed (or just chasing a non-work passion. I see you, subscribers who are just doing something cool on the side). Heck, I've fallen into the same trap before, and I've seen the damage it can do to a business. I think the reason people fall into this trap is twofold.

1. I don't know if it has legs

People don't want to be pouring lots of money into a business idea without knowing if there is money in it. And on it's face, this seems like sound business and money management, right

"Are people interested in "DogDogs, the hot-dogs for dogs"? Because if they're not, I don't want to spend £10k on a branding guy and a product photographer and a copywriter to come in and make all this content for a company that won't exist in 6 months."

But then, if in 6 months they've only sold 6 DogDogs, that proves in their head that it was a good idea to not invest in those jobs. The thing is, if they had got that team in, rather than relying on Canva Templates, the camera on their iPhone and ChatGPT, there would have been three professionals in charge of making sure people got interested in this esoteric canine treat. You have people who's entire days are devoted to this task, and who have years of experience in knowing how the task is done right.

Compare that to you, juggling 7 different hats when all you really want to do, all you really know how to do, is sell dog treats, and the difference will be night and day. Your mind is too cluttered with conflicting information, trying to learn too many new skills at once so none of them are actually setting in. And this actually converges nicely into the second reason I think people fall into this trap

2. I'm self-employed, that means I do it all myself

People leave employment because they're sick of the systems. They're sick of the grind. They're sick of being told what to do by their boss, having to rely on other people to do their job. So of course, when they escape that to start their own company, they want to stay as far away from those downsides as possible.

No grind. No bullshit systems. And no relying on other people to get the job done. Like my dad always said, "If you want a job doing right, you gotta do it yourself."

And I am self-employed. That means I do it all myself.

Right?

No. You're self-employed, that means you're the boss. And good bosses delegate. Think back to your best boss. They didn't do everything themselves, did they? Nah, they found the best person for the job, and if there wasn't one, they got someone in.

So when it comes to building a website, are you the best person for the job?

When it comes to writing product descriptions, are you the best person for the job?

Probably not. Your job is to do the core, important part of the business. To carry on with the example from the last bit, your job is to make sure those delicious treats get made and that dogs love 'em.

And lets face it, you don't like doing all this extra stuff anyway, do you? Your passion is in the core of the business. Your passion is in making the main thing. So bring in the experts to do the other stuff. They're better at it than you, they do it quicker than you, and it gives you more time to focus on the bits you're good at. So every single part of the business improves, not just the bit you bring them in to do. It's win/win/win. And that is how you sidestep the Joy Of Doing Everything Yourself.

If you're interested in being the best boss and delegating, then here's a good place to start: me. I have the Retainer Scheme, which gives you ten hours of graphic design work every single month. That's ten hours of menus, posters, social media posts, whatever you need, even video editing.

That's ten hours you can spend being the boss, doing the main thing. Doing the thing you love.

Email me if you're interesting.