As an IT Business Owner, when should I ask for help? Skip to main content
SolarWinds MSP
  • Login
  • Support
SolarWinds MSP
  • Products
    • Remote Monitoring & Management Protect your customers with a platform from the global leader in monitoring and management.
    • Backup & Recovery Manage backup for servers, workstations, applications, and business documents from one cloud-based dashboard.
    • Mail Protection & Archiving Shield email from spam and malware, including zero-hour threats.
    • PSA & Ticketing Manage ticketing, reporting, and billing to increase helpdesk efficiency.
    • Automated Threat Monitoring Detect, respond to, and report on threats across your managed networks.
    • Remote Support Help support customers and their devices with remote support tools designed to be fast and powerful.
  • Solutions

    I'm looking to...

    I'm looking for...

    • Manage my MSP Business More Efficiently
    • Manage my IT Department More Efficiently
    • Layered Security
    • Data-Driven Insights
    • Cross-Platform Support
  • Resources

    Webinars & Events

    Resource Center

    • Ask the N-Central Experts
    • Daily Live Demos
    • Backup Foundations Training
    • RMM Foundations Training
    • Upcoming Events
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Resource Library
      • Case Studies
      • Product Information
      • eBooks
      • White Papers
      • Infographics
    • SolarWinds MSP Free Tools
    • GDPR Resource Center
    • Security Resource Center
    • MSP Institute
    • MSP Advice Project
  • About
    • Contact
    • Worldwide sales and support
    • Careers
    • Awards and Recognition
    • Get A Quote
    • Newsroom
      • Press Releases
      • In The News
      • Media Contacts
    • Leadership Team
    • Legal
      • Cookie Policy
      • Privacy Notice
      • Software Services Agreement
      • Terms of Use
      • Backup Fair Use Policy
    • Security
      • SolarWinds Security Statement
      • Vendor Data Protection Requirements
    • Support
  • Blog
  • Contact Sales
    • Get A Quote
    • General Inquiry
  • TRY NOW
    • SolarWinds RMM
    • SolarWinds Backup
    • MSP Manager
    • SolarWinds Mail Assure
    • SolarWinds Risk Intelligence
    • SolarWinds Take Control
Filter Blogs
  • Filter by:
  • MSP Business
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • Security-series
    • Best Practices
    • Business
    • Business Growth
    • Business Risk
    • Cloud Computing
    • Customer Service
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data
    • GDPR
    • Internet of Things
    • IT Support
    • ITSM
    • LOGICcards
    • Machine Learning
    • Mail
    • Managed Services
    • Marketing
    • Mobile
    • Networking
    • Operations
    • Podcast
    • Product
    • PSA
    • Remote Management
    • Research & Trends
    • Risk Intelligence
    • Security
    • Security Vlog
    • Service Desk
    • Services & Support
    • Tips & Advice
    • Training
Home Blog MSP Business As an IT Business Owner, when should I ask for help?
MSP Business

As an IT Business Owner, when should I ask for help?

By Richard Tubb
22 December, 2011

Garden growingAt home, I love to relax in my garden – but much as I might like the idea of being a keen gardener, maintaining and improving my garden, for years being a business owner meant I forever seemed “too busy” to actually do any gardening.

Thus my garden grew overgrown and wild, and every day I’d come home and instead of relaxing in my garden – I’d look at the increasingly overgrown garden and instead get stressed out as to how it was getting more and more out of control.

I know the garden needs to be worked on and worked on regularly, and I should be the one doing that work.

It's Okay to Ask for Help

Then, a revelation occurred. A friend suggested a local gardener to me who worked for a very reasonable rate. The gardener came round once per week and within a few weeks, had tamed the garden into something that didn’t resemble the Brazilian Rain Forest. By that summer I had a lovely garden I could relax in again. Something else happened. Instead of beating myself up over the fact that I “should” have been doing the gardening myself, I came to realize that I only had so many hours in the day and right now, my focus was not on being a gardener.

With that lesson in mind, it’s interesting how many times I see Small Business IT owners who try to do everything in their business themselves. They man the Helpdesk, they do their own marketing, they handle the billing, they look after the administration, they compile the financial reports, and much, much more besides. Much more than they can fit into a standard working day, and typically, much more than they can fit into an extended working day and weekend too.

Even more interestingly, when I speak to SMB IT owners and ask them why they do all these jobs, the answer is very rarely “because I enjoy it”. It’s typically because when they started out the job needed doing and they were the only one available to do it.

It never occurs to them to ask for help.

Narrow Your Focus

Moving on, when I ask these same SMB IT business owners what their plans are for the business, the answer they invariably give is “growth”. They want to win more clients, take on new staff and increase their profits.

When I ask them what is getting in the way of achieving these growth goals, the answer is nearly always the same – “lack of time”.

You can see where this heading can’t you?

The goal is to grow the business, and the only person who can achieve that is the business owner.

The business owner can’t spend the time growing the business because he is spending too much time doing a load of jobs he feels he should be doing.

As a SMB IT business owner, if I said to you that you needed to make a choice between concentrating on the tasks that really enable you to grow your business, or continuing to do the tasks that you felt you “should” be doing but in reality could easily be delegated or outsourced – which would you choose?

If you answered anything other than the growth tasks, chances are you’re not actually committed to growth at all, because deep down you know that continuing to do the same jobs you’ve always done is something you’re comfortable with.

Outsource Your Way to Success

As the holiday season approaches us, take the time out to sit back and reflect upon the various roles you undertake within your business. How much administration do you do? Do you spend all your time answering the telephone? Are you continuously researching technical issues?

Then think about how you might outsource just one of those tasks to somebody else in the New Year.Outsourcing key

Then when you return to the office in the January, make the very first job you do organizing for somebody else to take over that role. Hire a part-time book-keeper, or an administrative assistant. Start working with a Virtual Personal Assistant, or begin working with a Call Answering Service.

If you think you can’t afford to outsource these jobs, consider how much you charge yourself out per hour., $50, $100, $150? Whatever it is, the people you outsource this work to will charge a lot less, and they’ll probably do the job a lot quicker too. You can spend the time you’ve saved on these jobs to instead do chargeable work, and make a tidy profit to boot.

Fire Yourself!

If you think that somebody else can’t do that job as well as you, then I’ve a horrible truth for you to digest. Not only can they do the job as well as you, they’ll actually do it *better* than you.

It doesn’t matter what stage of your business growth you’re at – sooner or later you need to understand that you can’t do everything yourself. The sooner you accept that fact and start concentrating on the really important tasks, the faster you’re likely to be successful.

Richard Tubb is an IT Business Consultant who works with ambitious IT companies who want to grow their businesses in a scalable and sustainable way.

You can e-mail him at [email protected] or connect with him via Twitter and LinkedIn.

You might also like...

MSP Business

A guide to cold calling for MSPs

MSP Business

Capturing lost revenue with a service desk

MSP Business

Open Letter:  MSP to MSP—The Future is Here! Are you Ready?

MSP Business

Mac Terms to Know When Providing Mac Support

MSP Business

How to Manage Your Sales Team

MSP Business

How to forecast your customers’ needs

Recent Posts

  • Google Drive Security Best Practices
  • Did You Know Your PSA Can Help You at Tax Time?
  • How to Fix High CPU Usage for Windows
  • Protecting O365 and G Suite Email—A Layered Approach 
  • PSA Overkill: Is Your PSA Managing You?

Categories:

  • Business Growth (403)
  • Tips & Advice (332)
  • Managed Services (296)
  • Security (249)
  • Best Practices (247)
  • Business (212)
  • Cybersecurity (193)
  • Backup & Disaster Recovery (105)
  • IT Support (97)
  • ITSM (67)
  • Data (61)
  • Cloud Computing (56)
  • Product (56)
  • Mail (46)
  • Marketing (46)
  • Risk Intelligence (31)
  • Customer Service (29)
  • Networking (27)
  • Remote Management (26)
  • GDPR (16)
  • Services & Support (16)
  • Service Desk (15)
  • Research & Trends (13)
  • Operations (11)
  • PSA (11)
  • Business Risk (11)
  • Internet of Things (10)
  • Mobile (9)
  • Training (8)
  • Security-series (7)
  • LOGICcards (4)
  • Machine Learning (3)
Show moreless
SolarWinds MSP

© SolarWinds MSP Canada ULC and SolarWinds MSP UK Ltd.
All Rights Reserved.

Products

  • SolarWinds RMM
  • SolarWinds N-central
  • SolarWinds Backup
  • SolarWinds MSP Manager
  • SolarWinds Mail Assure
  • SolarWinds Risk Intelligence
  • SolarWinds Take Control
  • SolarWinds Threat Monitor

Solutions

  • How We Help MSPs
  • How We Help IT Departments
  • Layered Security
  • Cross-Platform Support
  • Data-Driven Insights

About

  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Newsroom
  • Leadership Team
  • Privacy
  • Legal
  • Security
  • Subscription Preferences

Support

  • SolarWinds RMM
  • Solarwinds N-central
  • SolarWinds Backup
  • SolarWinds Mail Assure
  • MSP Manager
  • Solarwinds Risk Intelligence
  • SolarWinds Take Control
  • SolarWinds Take Control Downloads
  • Backup & Recovery Downloads
  • Sitemap
  • Service Status