I wrote last week about how our marketing model is based around professionals who have very little time, and making sure time they spend marketing is as time-effective as possible.
I then started thinking wider about the time saving concept, and actually, reflecting on it, it is something that pervades not just the marketing but everything we’re about. Something I found when starting out was that I couldn’t believe the amount of time I was spending doing things that were not anything to do with HR. I’ve spoken to hundreds of self-employed people over the years, including many in HR, and it’s a common complaint. People are good at their “thing”, and want to own their own business, however quickly find that they are spending much of their time on peripheral stuff, not on doing the thing they are actually good at.
There are three solutions to this. Firstly to get a marketing system in place that is time efficient and gets them clients as quickly as possible, thereby increasing the amount of HR (or whatever profession they are in) work they actually have in the first place. It’s all very well wanting to spend more time doing the thing your business is about, but you need to get the work in order to do that!
Secondly to drastically reduce the research and what I’d call the experimental time they are spending. I spent inordinate amounts of time during the first few years looking up how to do various aspects of my business successfully, reading about it, talking to people, trying things out, getting them wrong, and learning about running a business. How great would it have been if I’d been able to bypass that stage completely and spend all that time out getting clients and doing work that actually would get me paid!
Thirdly, to outsource everything possible. Most self-employed business people go down this road eventually, and get a website designer, a virtual assistant, a bookkeeper and/or accountant, an answer service, a graphic designer, a marketing adviser, and a lawyer. I’ve done all of that, and that’s why the business is now successful. But most self-employed people can’t do it for quite a while for financial reasons, and try for a while to do all of those jobs themselves. But often they are no good at it, because that’s not their “thing”, or at the very least, it takes them three times as long to do it as the experts would take, and the result isn’t as good, and the financial impact on their business reflects that. I wanted to offer a solution to this circular dilemma – not being able to afford to outsource, spending less time on the things that bring in the money in the first place, and producing work in these areas which also impacts financial results.
Working as a franchise partner with one of the companies that offer this isn’t right for everyone, certainly, and working with us won’t be right for everyone that considers this as an option either. Working with a business you don’t identify with and don’t “feel” is right for you in terms of approach, values and methods will never work, and I would strongly encourage those who don’t feel our ethos suits them to look at other options, or to go it completely alone if that’s better.
But (although I realise I would say this!), I do genuinely think working with a company like face2faceHR offers the best solution to these time-related issues and is a fantastic balance between employment and going it completely alone.
If you are toying with the idea of setting up as an HR consultant over the next couple of months, do get in touch, download our prospectus, or pop along for a chat at the CIPD annual conference in Manchester, Stand B49.