As the bestselling author of Time for mom-Me: 5 Essential Strategies for A Mother’s Self-Care, radio host and strategist to both moms and business owners, the one secret ingredient that has contributed to my success is building a team to support me in my business. As a mother of three children between 5 – 11 years of age, I learned very early in my business that learning and applying techniques to outsource certain parts of my business is the key to my success.

Most entrepreneurs struggle in both business and in their lives because they try to do everything. It isn’t uncommon for some entrepreneurs to serve in varied administrative tasks, design or support their business web function and the list continues on. The reason that entrepreneurs attempt to do it all is because they never take a minute to access the value of their time. Is this you? If you take a minute and think about how you spend the majority of your work day, would you say that your day is spent in your business or on your business?

Let me explain. Working in your business means electing to do activities that must be done day to day to make your business function. Examples are returning phone calls, writing emails, updating your website, and responding to inquiries. Or, is you day spent working on your business? Working on your business means that you spend the majority of time on activities that result in growth opportunities. These opportunities might include connecting with new clients, networking with joint ventures, and creating systems that are duplicatable in your business. Can you see the difference? Well, if you have been guilty of the typical working in your business activity let’s take a minute and discuss the importance of how you can free yourself from doing it all by building a team.

In my business, for example, I have a team consisting of writers, administrative assistants, graphic artist, editors and web support that handle all of the daily tasks to make my business go. This has allowed me the opportunity to focus my time and talent on my creative brilliance and thereby a higher and better use of my time. Over the years, my team has supported and run my business while I have vacationed, rested and met my family commitments. The benefits of building a team are simple - it means freedom. Most of us started a business to create some level of both financial and personal freedom. Right? Building a dream team has helped me save both time and money.

Here are some strategies to help you start building your team:

1. Take a needs assessment of your business.

Write down what the needs of your business are. This sounds like a basic question but it requires you to think long and hard about what is necessary to grow your business.

2. Inventory how you are spending your day.

Write down all of the tasks that you are doing in and for your business.

3. Ask yourself, is there a higher and better use of my time?

After accessing how you are spending your day, write down the hourly value of time spent completing this job.

4. Ask yourself, "What would Bill Gates do?"

This is a simple and powerful question to get you to consider the value of creating a team. Entrepreneurs struggle with letting things go for varied reasons including costs, or the idea that no one can do the activity the same as me.

5. Google search outsourcing - the result might surprise you.

There are some amazing sites that provide thousands of trained professionals who would love to join your team today at fair prices.

6. Start small.

Remember that you don’t have to create your team overnight but your goal should be to train people to work with you for years. I use a specific training strategy to create a powerful virtual workforce.

The key to success in life is learning to do less well.

Live fully,

Mia Redrick

The Mom Strategist

"Join the million mom movement to practice better self-care at www.timeformom-me.com."

www.findingdefinitions.com