I had posted a question on The Naptime CEO Facebook page about which characteristic of the Proverbs 31 woman is your favorite. Surprisingly, some of the responses were that she hires people to help. This is a topic that is full of conflict for many moms.
If I asked you if you could use help around your house, how many of you would say yes?
Now, how many of you would feel guilty for having someone else come in to help around your house?
I fully admit I need help around the house, but for the longest time I felt like I was failing as a wife/mother/business owner if I didn't do it all myself. The problem was I wasn't getting any of it done well.
If you're at all like me, I'm a control freak who thinks it's easier if I just do it myself instead of asking someone else to do it. However, I've learned whenever I think "Oh, I can do that." I need to tell myself "STOP" and really think if it's something only I can do or could someone else do that.
Initially, when I started my consulting firm, I had to do it all. I had very little money to pay anyone else, and I had plenty of time. Honestly, at the time I had a 6 month old and I was fine just working during naptimes. Yet, once my daughter was born, I realized trying to run a consulting firm during naptimes with a newborn and an 18 month old was just too difficult. I needed a babysitter. This was the first time I hired someone to help me. Our babysitter watched our children two mornings a week so I could have actual office hours to get work done, schedule phone calls, & meetings. If you're just starting out, this is probably where you will start too.
The next step for me was to get help around the house. When I'm working with clients all day or in my office, I'm not doing laundry, dishes, vacuuming, or scrubbing toilets. Then when the kids get home from school, I'm in Mama mode with dinner, homework, piano, dance lessons, & cub scouts. By the time everyone is tucked in and the dinner dishes are done, I am beat. It took me a while to agree, but I finally hired a cleaning service to come in every two weeks.
At the same time I was getting my house under control, I was also bringing in help in my consulting firm. I hired a college student to do administrative work for me. Finally, I didn't have to spend hours entering data into our customer database, recording expenses in QuickBooks, or filing paperwork.
What I've discovered through this process is as I hand off tasks to others, I free myself up to be able to do more business development work or just spending time with my kids. I'm still a control freak, but am learning to relax and delegate.
What task(s) have you gotten help with - or would like to get help with?
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