Every small business owner is short on time, but if you’re a mum running a business part-time, your time is even tighter. If you add up the hours you have to work, then subtract the time you spend on admin and marketing you may be surprised how few you have left. Worse still, if your normal working day is squeezed into evenings and pre-school hours, you don’t have any spare time to do extra work. You’ve got no contingency at all. Having too much work seems like a dream when you’re just starting out, but that day could arrive faster than you think.
If a big order or project landed in your lap tomorrow, would you be able to handle it?
That’s why you need to think about growing your business now.
Here’s what you could do…
Keep an eye out for freelancers
There’s a great pool of talented freelancers and small businesses out there who would love to work for you. But it will take you a while to connect with the ones that are right for you, so it’s a good idea to start looking well before you need them.
Keep an eye out for accountants, bookkeepers, virtual assistants now so you’re ready whenever you need to give them a call.
Make sure you’re charging enough now
If you’re making your own products or selling your own time by the hour, it doesn’t matter too much if you don’t pay yourself the going rate. Of course it makes sense to pay yourself as much as you can, but your business will still run smoothly even if you don’t take home as much money as you could. This changes when you start to outsource work. Not only will the person doing the work need to be paid the going rate, you will also need to charge extra above that if you’re to make a profit. In fact, under-charging could keep you stuck in a cycle where you have too much work, but you aren’t making enough money to get someone else to help you out.
Looking at your pricing now will mean you can sort out your finances before you need to outsource work.
Start a joint venture
Some projects are too big for one person alone, especially if you’re working part-time. Working together with someone else could enable you to take on projects together. You could have similar skills or different but complementary ones.
Look at your home office, workshop or storage space
Could your work space cope with growth? Is the spare room full to bursting? What will you do when you can’t pack any more stock on those shelves?
Does home-working drive you crazy now? If so, how will you cope if you get busier?
Think about your childcare
Are you likely to need more childcare hours? Could your current provider cope with the extra demand?
This is one of the most informative pieces I ever read on the web. I agree with the sentiments expressed to the extent that I wish I’d written it myself. If the object is to build a sustainable business, then having growth as part of one’s thinking would yield results.
Thank you!
Totally agree that charging at the right level is important no matter how new the business – I’ve seen so many people get stuck charging the rate they thought they had to charge to get their foot in the door. Bad idea.
Thanks Sally, I agree that charging too little can cause so many problems apart from the obvious one – that you’ll be poorer! It’s not as easy as you think to raise your rate later and it can give out signals that you’re a beginner or not as professional as those that are charging the going rate. Added together with the point I mentioned in the post about not being able to outsource work and grow your business, charging to little can leave you totally stuck where you are now.