How to Select the Right Team for Your Brand and Business

One is the loneliest number especially when you’re building a digital empire. You can do it all but not alone. Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned pro, getting the right people to support your hustle is crucial for upgrading your brand and business to the next level.

In an ideal world you’d have a team of amazing gurus helping to scale your business and amplify your message. However, when you’re in solopreneur-mode, a leaner approach will do your pocket and sanity a world of good.

When you find that your brand and/or business has outgrown your 14 hour working days and the weekend trips to the local cafe, then it’s time to outsource.

What will you want to outsource first?

1. Any and all kinds of design. Even designers will need their own team of designers. This is one of the most time consuming tasks an entrepreneur will spend their energy on and with good reason. Your visual brand is the first thing people see. Having the best service or product means nothing if people are not captivated enough to learn more about it.
2. Administrative tasks. Whether it’s creating a PDF guide or sending out email newsletters, hiring a virtual assistant (VA) will be the best investment you can make to free yourself from tedious work.
3. Content scheduling. Sharing your goods online is not always as simple as 1, 2, 3. When you’re posting a blog do you have a great graphic, the right keywords for SEO, enough white space in the copy so that it’s reader friendly, and catchy social media captions to promote across the web? Offsetting these tasks to someone who can batch them will not only save you time but also money, in the long term.

What about social media? Well, on one hand you’ll want to outsource tasks but when it comes to marketing and business development, you’ll want to invest in a co-creation experience which often comes in the form of coaching and/or consulting.

A co-creation experience is where you work together with an expert for hands-on guidance and mentorship, whereas outsourcing is where you tell someone exactly what you want them to do.

You will want to co-create a strategy and execution plan for the following:

1. Online marketing and PR, including but not limited to social media, email, SEO, and digital advertising.
2. Brand development.
3. Content creation.
4. New business opportunities.

The benefits of co-creating with an expert is that you get to marry their industry knowledge with your brand voice and big picture vision. You don’t know what you don’t know. Someone with a strong understanding of best practices and trade secrets will give you the competitive edge you need to take things to the next level.

How do you find the best people for your team?

Regardless if you are outsourcing or hiring an expert, you’ll want to make sure they:

1. Lead by example. If you are working with a designer or copywriter, look at their portfolio. If you are working with a publicist or coach, research the results with their past & current clients.  Do your due diligence and ask around.
2. Know how to establish clear and professional boundaries. You can tell a lot by how someone communicates with you via email. Is the message riddled with grammatical errors? Do they use too much slang?
3. Have the goods to show their strengths. At this point there is NO reason why they wouldn’t have a strong online presence. Social media is free and building a professional website is affordable. A client once told me that “how you do one thing is how you do everything” so if their social media profiles and website don’t look polished then chances are they’ll use that same attention to detail, or lack thereof, with you as their client.