Hiring help is a nerve-wracking endeavor, right up there as one of the riskiest things you do as a business owner.

But you can’t possibly do everything yourself, and there are many experts who suggest that you’ll grow faster by delegating the tasks that you are too valuable to do.

Yes, you can manage day to day operations, sales, marketing, and finance. You may even have some time left over to do some visionary thinking.

I can hear you snorting, because that’s not very realistic, is it?

But how do you know when it’s time to hire help? Do you hire when it makes financial sense, or because the task is well beyond your skillset?

And how do you write appropriate job descriptions or specifications? How can you be certain you’re choosing the right person for the task?

It gets pretty complicated, pretty fast!

This is why so many business owners choose to do nothing. That’s fine if you are happy with the status quo. But if you have plans as ambitious as I know yours are, you’ll need to hire some help along the way.

What CAN you Delegate?

You’ve most likely already hired out marketing elements like website and logo design, and maybe even ad creation or SEO.

For the kind of help you pay for on a monthly basis, most people start with some sort of administrative assistance. It’s the lowest value, and the easiest to hire.

The next thing outsourced is usually financial help – after all, your business’ success depends on keeping the finances in order.

What most people don’t hire out is sales help, even though this is THE most critical component to business success.

Sometimes that’s because you, as the business owner, have sales experience and are comfortable having sales conversations that convert into business. Sometimes it’s because your business is your passion project and you are, truly, the best person to sell it.

But more often than not, small businesses are missing opportunities because selling is not given the full attention it demands. Yes, hiring sales help feels riskier than every other outsourcing option – let’s face it, paying for a full time salesperson requires a whole different level of revenue generation!

Outsourced Sales Fills the Gap

What if you could hire part time sales help? Without all the accompanying employee costs like training costs, office furniture and benefits?

What if you could hire an outsourced salesperson who helped you build your business while paying for him or herself?

There will be some minimal onboarding and product knowledge development costs, but nothing like bringing on an employee. An outsourced salesperson, for most businesses, is plug and play.

The job description is pretty straightforward – make sales. Yes, you’ll invest in some sort of base fee, but sales almost always has a performance based component to it, unlike other contractors you might hire.

The agency providing the salesperson handles all hiring, training and development and benefits costs. If they’re any good, they’ll also provide some sort of assurances that their person will perform.

The difference between this hire and other outsourcing you might do is that it’s possible that you won’t achieve the results you need. Yes, it’s a risk, but there’s a similar risk for marketing expenses and you don’t hum and haw over that nearly so much.

If regular, consistent growth is what you’re after and selling isn’t exactly your strong suit, maybe outsourcing your sales effort might help you get there faster.