You want to grow, and you’ve raised your prices (or don’t want to or can’t). You need to hire help.

I am a big proponent of outsourcing everything you can to other companies, before you make the leap to actually hire someone to work for you. I’ll explain why below, but first, let’s look at the steps you need to take to get another company to help.

Here Are The Steps

1. Make a list of all the tasks in your business that you hate. These are the first tasks you need to get help with. The more time you spend on things you hate, the less time you spend on what you love to do, and are good at. In our perfect world, you figure out a way to spend 90% of your time doing the things you’re best at, and outsource or hire employees to handle the rest.
2. Now that you have this list, are there things on it that other companies could do for you? For many business owners, this list contains the words “bookkeeping” and “administrative tasks.” Luckily for us, there are thousands of other small businesses whose business it is to do this work so you don’t have to. Talk to your accountant for bookkeeper and ask around about virtual assistants. There are many other solo entrepreneurs whose sole business it is to do the bookkeeping and the administrative tasks for people who don’t like them, so those people can focus on doing the tasks they enjoy, like serving customers.
3. Need someone to help with your monthly newsletter? A person to clean your office? Someone to enter your new networking contacts into your database, or send out your postcards? Or even an independent sales representative to help you get in front of more potential clients? Get outside help first.
4. Talk to your other business friends to get recommendations of people/companies to talk to. Because you already have the list of the tasks you hate, you can share it with the people you might hire to help you. Get an estimate from them about how much they’d charge to help. If you don’t know anyone using outside help, try Elance, or the International Association of Virtual Assistants.
5. Look at your revenue and spending. Enter these new expenses into your forecast and see what your new bottom line looks like. Can you afford help now? If the answer is no, how much more revenue do you need to generate to get help? Open a savings account and start saving a little money each month toward the goal of hiring someone to help you.
6. If the answer is yes, you can afford to get help, write a contract (or at least a letter of engagement) with the people you’re hiring. Get specific about the tasks and how and when you want them done. Put in a review process so you both know how and when to talk to each other to make sure things are going the way you want. Say how long you want this relationship to last—maybe you only want it to go for three months so you can re-evaluate.
7. Take the plunge!

Why You Should Try Hiring A Company First, Before You Hire Employees

The point of getting your first outside help from other companies is that the commitment to them is not as strong as it is to someone you hire as an actual employee. You can experiment with them and try different companies or different working arrangements, and God Forbid, if something happens to your cash flow, you can more easily let them go if you have to. Hiring other companies to help you will also give you practice in hiring (and possibly firing), so if the time comes that you need an employee you’ll have some experience.

Have you hired a company to help you? Tell me about it below.

In the last post I talked about what blocks people from doing their marketing. The fear that comes up over and over is this:

If I do my marketing regularly and well, I’ll attract too much business, and end up working seven days a week. My service level will drop off, everyone will get mad at me, I’ll lose a bunch of customers and be back where I started, except worse off because a lot of people will be mad who weren’t mad before.

Three Alternatives

Of course there is another alternative to this scenario. Three, actually. Raise prices, start a waiting list, or hire people to help. This week we’re going to talk about raising prices.

This option frequently scares people. It’s also not right for everyone. There are scenarios where you can’t raise your prices; and perhaps even if you could, you wouldn’t want to. That’s up to you to decide; but before you reject this idea out of hand, read on.

Raising Prices

If you absolutely love doing the primary work of your business and you don’t want to delegate any of that to someone else, and you don’t want to supervise employees, raising your prices is a good option.

How Do I Do It?

Here’s what to do. First, delegate everything you don’t enjoy or aren’t good at (bookkeeping and administrative work being two possible candidates). You can hire other companies or other solo entrepreneurs to do this work for you so you don’t have to directly employ anyone. Independent bookkeepers, virtual assistants, organizers, and lots of other kinds of administrative support people abound. Talk to your business friends about who they use and take the plunge. This should begin to free up some of your time.

If You Are The Spiritual Type

Next, if you are the spiritual type, read this blog post by Mark Silver about setting prices using your heart.

If this idea makes you scoff or cringe, read this blog post anyway. It contains some very practical advice about how to price.

If Your Are the Analytical Type

If you can’t stomach the spiritual approach, research your competition on line, even risking calling some people in your same business outside your competitive area and asking them what they charge.

Now Do It

Then raise your prices. Don’t go crazy, obviously, but I’m guessing that in your research, or in doing Mark’s method, you found that your prices were too low in the first place. Some customers may leave, but you’ll have less business at a higher price, which should give you some breathing room.

By the way, this is the law of supply and demand. Things in greater demand (non-stop plane flights, homes in good school districts) cost more. For some reason, we think this law doesn’t apply to us in small business. But it does. If you are great at what you do, your perfect clients want what you do, and you are communicating to them regularly about how you can help them, you’ll earn more business than you can handle. The demand will exceed the supply. One way you can respond to this is by raising your prices.

Got comments? Post them here.

Our marketing case study this month is Donna Maria Coles Johnson, founder of the Indie Beauty Network; a for-profit membership group that supports people who make handcrafted cosmetics, soaps and other natural products. Don’t miss Donna Maria’s brilliant marketing system (more like  a weekly cycle)  that she describes below.

IBN is the Internet equivalent of a television station, as you’ll see below when you read about her marketing activities. Donna Maria began by broadcasting information through special interest groups and Listservs in the early days of the Internet. Although her legal, business and marketing skills are still the cornerstone of her business, the way she makes them available to her members has shifted dramatically as the Internet has changed.

Her broadcasting has grown to include information posted on Facebook, Twitter, her blog and her weekly newsletter. You can read the complete article on my blog; whether you do that or not, don’t miss her system that I describe below for using Facebook, Twitter, her blog and newsletter, and her radio show to work the Indie Biz marketing magic.

What marketing did you start with?

Indie Beauty started at the beginning of 2000 with a free weekly newsletter that I sent to people I had connected with through e-groups on Yahoo and AOL, answering their questions about the business side of making cosmetics and aromatherapy products. I then self-published a book about how to make aromatherapy creams and lotions, which established me as a credible voice in the community.

At first I gave away everything I did. I was fortunate that people began joining me, and companies wanted to act as sponsors because they wanted to reach home-based cosmetics crafters. Membership was free until April of the year I started, then all the information went behind a membership website and I started charging people a membership fee to get access to everything.

It was obvious to me that I needed to behave like a media outlet (i.e. I broadcast all kinds of helpful information to members through as many outlets as I can, and members pick and choose what they want to get and when they want to get it). Creating this media outlet created credibility, which in turn attracted new members, as well as sponsors.

What marketing do you do now?

My free, weekly newsletter is in its 10^th year of publication. I have also have had a weekly internet radio show, interviewing business people, authors, and other people who can help our membership succeed, since 2005. I post the interviews on i-Tunes (they’re free), blog almost every day, post tweets on Twitter daily, and use my Facebook fan page. This is a lot of work, but also backed by a great deal of help from the members. They make it work. I provide the platform.

Here’s an example of how this marketing system works. Every Friday is Facebook Friday on the fan page. Every week we talk about how members can use their Facebook fan pages more effectively for their own clients.

I post a question or tip on the Indie Biz fan page, and that starts the discussion. Other people post questions and comments about what works and what doesn’t, so we share a lot of information with each other.

Over the weekend I do a blog post based on the questions and answers from Facebook Friday.

Monday, the newsletter goes out. Each week I feature a member of the Indie Biz Network in the newsletter, which encourages the person I feature to share the newsletter with their own network. I help the member by featuring her, and she in turn helps the Indie Biz Network by sharing the newsletter with her people.

On Wednesday we go back to Facebook for Workout Wednesday. Since the business of crafting products is sedentary, we share what we do to stay fit, eat right and stay healthy.

I put out tweets on Twitter all week about the person I am interviewing on the radio and the information we share on Facebook Friday and Workout Wednesday. I meet new people on Twitter, and also use Twitter to mobilize my followers to advocate for our interests. I recently mobilized a group of Indies (who were also some of my followers on Twitter) to make their voices heard in the Colorado legislature, when it was considering passing a bill that would have been detrimental to us. Interestingly, I’m using social media more and more in the advocacy work I do for the Network.

How do you stay consistent with your marketing?

I do the same thing every day for marketing. I have systems in place, so that 70% of my marketing is a set routine.

Any advice for us?

Big companies re-use the same content in different media outlets. All small businesses must figure out how to do this as well; people are trying to find us in all different outlets and if we aren’t there, they’ll go somewhere else.

You also have to be willing to experiment, even if technology intimidates you, and you have to be willing to stick with things because sometimes results don’t appear immediately.

There is a lot about the Internet to be wary of, but if you aren’t on it in a way that makes you available to your customers, you can’t survive. If people find you on the Internet but there’s no activity on your website or Facebook page or Twitter account, they’ll think you’re doing nothing, even when you are.

I have a member who is persnickety and who emails me every time she sees something she thinks is wrong with the Indie Business site. At first, I found this annoying. As part of our ongoing conversations I tried, and finally succeeded, in getting her to put up a Facebook fan page for her business. Her criticism used to drive me nuts; but I spent 30 minutes going through her fan page and saw who she was as a person. It made all the difference.

This is the power of social media on the Internet. My final advice is this: you have to take the time to understand social media and how it can help your business. Your clients are looking for you. You need to help them find you.

How is your marketing working for you? Got any good ideas to share? Post them below.

Now that you’ve thought about your marketing (read the last post for more info), and maybe even talked to some of your clients and asked them how they want you to talk to them, what’s the next step?

Finding a Way to Talk to Your Clients that also Makes Sense for You

The best marketing sports two simple features: it communicates to your customers and prospects in a way they understand and is convenient for them, and it actually gets done.

For it to get done, my theory is, you need to enjoy doing it. For this to happen, you need to know some things about yourself: Do you get energy from being with people, or get energy from being alone?

If You Get Energy From Being with People

If this is you, your marketing needs to include interacting with people directly: networking, joing groups, visiting your people face to face or talking to them on the phone; perhaps speaking to groups.

If You Get Energy From Being Alone

Your marketing must include some alone time. Blogging, Twitter, or updating your Facebook business Page, all in the quiet and solitude of your home or office, will give you the opportunity to recharge your batteries while you are communicating with your clients.

A Secret

If you get energy from being with people, you are an extravert. If you re-energize by being alone, you are an introvert. To find out which one you are (plus a lot of other useful information), take this test. Once you know your personality type, here are some marketing suggestions based on what type you are.

I Invite Comments

1. What is your personality type?

2. What marketing has worked best for you?

3. Are you going to try some different marketing, now that you know more about your personality?

Revolutionary Idea

What if you picked a marketing activity you enjoyed doing?

What might that activity be?

Luckily for us, the Internet has expotentiallyexpanded our marketing choices. You can blog, tweet, have a Facebook fan page for your business, arrange in-person groups via MeetUp, write articles showcasing your knowledge, link with other business contacts on LinkedIn … but where’s an overworked business owner supposed to jam all this activity into our already over-scheduled days?

A Different Way to Think About This Problem

Instead of fretting about which kind of marketing to do, take one step back and come at the question from the opposite direction.

Since marketing in its purest form is nothing more complicated than communication between your business and your clients and prospects, ask yourself: how do your clients want you to talk to them?

Better yet, ask your clients.

Comments I’d love to read:

1. You talked to your clients and here’s what they said.

2. You talked to your clients and here’s what you’re doing as a result.

The group spent most of the week practicing what is called Level 3 listening, which is defined as “…a global range of listening: hearing that picks up emotion, body language, the environment itself.” (See the book Co-Active Coaching by Whitworth, et. al. for a longer explanation.) Sometimes Level 3 listening is described as “feeling the energy,” or “environmental listening.”

I came back from the retreat realizing that the most successful businesses, whether they are cognizant of it or not,  skillfully listen to the Level 3. In other words, they’re good at listening to what their customers want, and good at providing it. Beyond this, they’re good at listening to what customers want that they don’t even have the words to articulate yet, and providing that, too.

If this all seems too abstract, let me give you an example of  a business that is great at listening to the Level 3: Apple.

Apple is actually so good at it that they somehow realized people would want to have a device that allowed them to carry their music around in their pockets, and download additional music, song by song, whenever they wanted, before anyone had actually invented such a thing. Thus something we’d not seen before; i-Tunes and the i-Pod, were born.

And not to bash them any more than everyone else already has, but General Motors is a great example of a company that hasn’t been tuned into the Level 3 at all.

I don’t think it takes a psychic guru to listen to the Level 3. I think there are some concrete ways for us regular folk to do it; and the way to start is to go out and talk to your customers.

I’m doing that right now. I’m asking people about the problems they’re having in their businesses; what they need help with that I’m not currently providing; and I’m getting lots of information. I’ve also noticed that the Level 3 is speaking to me; I’m frustrated by the fact that I’m not providing some services that I want to do, but was unsure if people wanted them. Turns out they do.

What do your clients want? What is the Level 3 trying to tell you?

www.therawfoodcoach.com

This is a person who actually eats nothing but raw food, and wants to help you do the same.  Perhaps this isn’t as much of a stretch as some of the other businesses listed below; her clients are not going to be put off by the raw-food-only mission. But if you come to her site not as one of the converted, you might be surprised to see how adamant (and convincing) she is about eating nothing but raw food. Yes, people actually do this, and I can say from (limited) experience that raw food can be pretty tasty.

www.communicatrix.com

This is a consultant who teaches corporate marketing department people how to use social media. There is a certain amount of cussing going on in her blog, plus at the bottom of her “About” page, she says this: “Okay, my ACTUAL mission is “To Be a Joyful Conduit of Truth, Beauty and Love,” but that tends to draw a lot of blank stares in traditional networking-type situations. Plus it doesn’t cover much in the way of worldly overhead outside of your average ashram. (Although I swear I’m putting it on my next business card anyway.)” She charges $120/hour. Read a few of her blog entries; you’ll see a person who is authentically herself in all her opinionated glory.

And the last one for this blog post, is Escape from Cubicle Nation. The woman who owns this business said this to a group of corporate executives (and reported the story in her bio): “Wow – you look just like the gang members that I work with. They look at me like that when they want to intimidate me. What’s up?”

After a tense silence (when I was wondering if I had finally lost my mind), they burst out laughing and immediately changed their demeanor.”

When was the last time you wanted to tell a room full of corporate executives that you were training, that they looked like a group of gang members? Did you go ahead and do it?

I’m on a quest for more authenticity; in plumbers, chiropractors, dentists, contractors, and all other types of businesses. Anybody got more examples?

There is a good article in Wikipedia about this; it cites some interesting case studies about the way large companies do it.  Another good place to look at the effectiveness of cause marketing is the Red campaign.  If you buy a Red product from any of a number of companies (The Gap, Dell, lots of others), a portion of the price goes to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa.

I put this chapter in the book (and this post) because it seems like it’s a viable way for us small businesses to market.   Here are some preliminary examples to get you thinking about how this might fit for you.

A doctor or dentist could provide free medical care to the local homeless shelter.

A restaurant donates leftover food to a food bank.

A construction business or plumbing or electrical supply store helps Habitat for Humanity build homes on the weekends.

A massage therapist or hair stylist or manicurist works with battered women.

A clothing store donates suits for jobless people to wear when they go to job interviews; a career coach works with immigrants entering the workforce, a coffee shop provides refreshments to the volunteers answering the phones for a fund drive.

Keep in mind that both parties are supposed to benefit from the arrangement.  If you want to do volunteer work someplace, go ahead and do that.  But if you want to associate your business with a cause in a way that you both benefit (meaning that your business either makes money or gains goodwill with your clients that translates into more customers, and your cause also profits by getting more money, more volunteers or some other benefit), this marketing can work for you.

I like this idea for one primary reason; it’s a way to spread more goodness in the world.  I did a little pro bono coaching for people at a job fair a few years ago, and am serving on the board of a community development financial institution, but that’s all.  Makes me think I need to ponder this more.  Anybody out there doing this?  Thinking of doing it?  Anybody ready to jump in?