Building your success team is one thing – but what do you do when those team members leave? Well, it’s happened to me so now I know!

It’s funny that I write a 2 part series about hiring your success team and then 2 of my success team members leave me.  No they weren’t fired and they didn’t quit because I was a bad boss. They’re leaving to pursue their own passions and focus on their core competencies. As a life and business coach I am 100% happy and supportive of them. 

As an entrepreneur, I’ve learned there are parts of my business that I will happily NEVER TAKE BACK because I have tasted the freedom of someone else looking after them.

The rule here is: if you delegate a task or hire it out – plan to give it up for good!

Here are some tips to make sure your transition from one team member to another go smoother than mine.

1. Know the Details: Know what they are doing well and know in advance of the transfer so you can hire the right person. 

It’s important because: You need to know exactly what tasks and specialties you need to fill and if there are any detailed questions you should be asking potential candidates.

2. Have the Next person lined up:  Knowing who will take over the work means you can have it be a seamless transition and you can even have the exiting team member talk to the new one.

It’s important because: It will fall into your hands. I had to get up to speed on some online tools that took the better part of a day to set up and another half day to do the work. Waste of my valuable time.

3. Thank the member who’s leaving. It’s just common courtesy to be appreciative of the work someone has done for you. This is not the time to burn bridges or be bitter. Have an exit interview with them. Casually ask what you need to know about and ask for any feedback they can give you. Make sure you thank them for the work they have done. Tell them all the things you liked about what they did and acknowledge them. Be sincere. If it didn’t end well – don’t make stuff up. They’ll know.

It’s important because: If you liked working with this person, they might become available again. Also, you may have to call on them for additional information. Ask permission to call them if you need to.

4. Welcome in the new member with excitement: No one wants to be second best. Rather than talking about what the last person did, ask them how they see things being done and then let them know about how you like things to be. Then design the business relationship.

It’s important because: Who wants to be compared to someone else? No one! So don’t do it here either. Empower them and listen to them otherwise they won’t feel trusted and won’t do their best work for you.

I don’t really feel like my team members have ‘left me’. They’re taking action in their lives to get what they want and I’m excited to see what they are leaping for. 

xo
~Diane

Share: Have you had to say goodbye to team members you liked? What did you do? Tell me in the comments!

Two weeks ago we established that being a solo-preneur can suck when you get burned out doing too many things yourself. So how do you go about building your A Team, aka. your success team to help you run your business?

Well, number one it doesn’t necessarily mean hiring a full-time or even part-time employee. These days there are many more flexible options; it just takes some creative thinking about how to make things work.

Three Ways to get help without hiring:

1. Pay for services:
Yep! Just straight up pay for someone to do a job or project for you.  When do you do this?  When you need someone local: like a cleaner, an assistant to do errands, or someone to come do a tradeshow with you.

Biggest Benefit: It allows you catch up in other areas of your business/life and a single job can be used as a ‘try out’. If it goes well you can ask them to do more work for you, and if it doesn’t you won’t have the awkwardness of terminating a contract. This is especially great for continuing services like laundry, a personal assistant or social media management.

2. Barter or Swap:
This is also great if you need someone local. I actually have been approached a few times by people needing coaching who wanted to do a swap services. It has worked out great for me.

Biggest Benefit: If you need to carefully manage your cash flow this can really help.

Tip: You must ask yourself “Do I really want what they offer? “ If the answer is no then kindly decline. Otherwise you’re just making yourself busier.

3. Go Online:
There are many virtual assistants who can help you out with social media scheduling, typing, emailing, data entry, blog writing etc. Freelance websites like Elance and Odesk are great ways to find people. I personally have used Elance and LOVE IT!

Biggest Benefit: Easily locate a person for a job with the exact skills you need and have the option of setting your budget at the outset. Hiring internationally also means you can use time zones to your advantage!

Tips: Know exactly what you want and how much you are willing to pay. Do you value experience or price?

Less experience = cheaper price, but might take longer and you may either get a dud or a diamond. I prefer to give the person a chance and help build them into a diamond. It keeps my costs low and helps me build a relationship with them.

More experience & referrals = costly but the quality is there.

For example, if you need a promo image that is going to be on all of your marketing material and be printed out on large posters then you want a professional. If it is just for Facebook then you may make a different choice.

There you have it: three choices on how to build your success team. There are more, but this is a great place to start.

Finally, whichever way you do it, here is my TOP TIP:

Design the business relationship.

Clear and detailed expectations make lives easier. Outline everything that might be involved and know how you want it to be done, such as hours involved, how to communicate (ie. Email or phone), the approval process, etc.

Designing personal and professional relationships is a specialty of mine. I look forward to sharing more about this. But in the meantime if you have a question drop me a comment and I’d be happy to answer it for you.

xo
~ Diane

Of course my Mother’s Day card to my Mom expressed my love for her (even with a picture of a dog washing dishes on it). In it were some words that really came from my heart, but what she sent me back in an email was even more powerful.

First off, I feel so blessed that I got a fantastic Mom. Someone who believes in me more than I sometimes believed in myself. I have to admit that I sometimes wanted her to be a top executive or take me on big trips or have long hair. Things kids wish for!

                                                     But I was given exactly what I needed.

She drove me to one of my 7 sports almost every day of the week. Sometimes picking me up from one and showing up with some food for me to eat on the way as I changed in the car. Then drove me to my out of town competitive soccer games where I'd sleep all the way home.

                                                     Her selflessness is apparent to me now.

I refused to eat sandwiches, which probably drove her crazy, but she just kept offering me alternatives.

                                                      I've no idea how she could be so patient.

I’m now a Mom. I did experience the ever-looming guilt in the beginning of not doing enough or being enough. But I got over that because I'm realistic and I’ve designed my life to be at home with my daughter a few days a week. BUT I can’t escape the personal judgment to be as selfless as she is.

Maybe you also had a great Mom and now feel it’s hard to have dinner made every night from scratch, or to come up with educational activities for your kids, or to teach all of life’s lessons without raising your voice.

Or maybe you feel you got the short end of the stick and you feel your Mom wasn’t the World’s #1 Mom.

Either way if you’re a Mom I’m sure you’ve experienced society’s acceptance of telling you how to parent. You know what I mean! That unsolicited advice! Where you stand in line at the grocery store and then think - Oh crap here we go again… my favorites include:

• “Oh little one, are you upset because your mom isn’t listening to you?” (What I wish I had said. - Nope. She’s crying because I didn’t let her eat the chocolate bar she took from the shelf, or the cookies she pulled off the display or the hairy Cheeto she found on the floor.)
• “Oh she must be hungry because she’s crying. Have you fed her lately?” I can’t repeat what I wish I had said.
• “You really need to keep your daughter closer to you. I could have hit her with my shopping cart.” (What I wish I had said - Really? Drive better.)

So in the card I wrote something like this… “I’m looking forward to being with you soon and learning more from you about being a great mom.” 

You know, seeing her with my daughter does teach me so much. How to love more, play more and really put my child front and center.

But she replied in an email, 

“Hey, thanks for the lovely card and words and also the art work from Bailey, so cute, did you have to sit a long time for her to do it or does she like to draw?  You are an amazing Mom Diane and need no help from me.” Love Mom

Priceless. 

That’s all people want to hear in everything they do – an acknowledgement!

• “You are an amazing Mom.” 
• Or “You’re a loving Dad.” 
• Or “You’re a great boss.” 
• Or “You’re a wonderful sister.” 
• Or “You’re such a giving friend.”
  

There are so many. But here’s the simple formula:    You are a (adjective) (title). 

Don’t put anything after – it just muddles the power of it and gives them an excuse not to believe you!

So even if you usually buy gifts for people for special events think an acknowledgement as a gift of words. It’s easy to send in an email or a text and even make a phone call to say it. Friends and family love them, and so do strangers.

xo
~ Diane

And hey! Maybe you could give one or two to yourself this week as well. What do you really want to hear? Or what do you really want to tell someone else? Why not give them a shout out by acknowledging them today?

The life of an entrepreneur has its share of leaps and bounds. My life has become so much easier since I built my success team: the people I’ve hired to support my work. So many entrepreneurs get stuck in ‘solo-preneurship’ because they don’t think they have the money to hire a team. This often leads to burnout and quitting a dream. 
 
But building a team doesn’t have to mean you break the bank. Here are three ways I made it possible:

1. I didn’t hire them all at the same time.
2. They don’t work for me everyday.
3. We get creative with agreements so we can work together in a mutually beneficial way.

Think about this:

1. What do I get paid the most to do? This gives you your hourly rate.
2. What am I doing in my life that is not worth my hourly rate? Make a list!  Ex. Doing SEO for your content, designing a poster, editing video, doing your accounting, and/or going grocery shopping. Yep – I don’t get paid my worth for picking up food at the grocery store – actually I get paid NOTHING! And you do too!
3. What can I delegate so I can focus on my core competencies and the things that I get paid my value for?
4. Then bring someone in for just a short time to try them out.

If this seems crazy, pick the thing that you HATE doing. Or the thing that stops you from actually working. Which might even be cleaning your bathroom or doing laundry.

Once upon a time I felt stressed when I wasn’t posting on social media, so I got on top of it. Then I felt guilty for not working on other areas of my business! Might have been easier to just quit. I've felt it.
 
Entrepreneurs can feel like we can’t win.  BUT WE CAN!
 
Pick something. Two hours of cleaning a week, scheduling your posts, another day of daycare, or your next design project and hire someone to do it.
 
Free yourself up to do things that truly build your business.

xo
~ Diane

P.S. Make sure you sign up for my newsletter so you don't miss out on my next blog where I share three ways to get help without hiring.