Remember the days you dreamed of starting your own business so you could throw away the alarm clock forever, indulge in long mornings, start work at noon, take actual naps, sign-off at 3pm and cook healthy dinners?

Yea, I don’t either.

That was the dream, right? 

Your own business = your own hours = your own FREEDOM.

When did you become an employee of your own business? When did you stop focusing on the big picture mission and get caught up in the day-to-day details? When did this whole thing start feeling more like work and less like passion?

I’ll tell you when…(hard-truth time–you ready?)

When you decided to do everything yourself. I deliberately used the word decided because as powerless as we can sometimes feel in life and in entrepreneurship, we always have a choice. 

Hard choices, but nonetheless, choices.

I come here presenting you with a choice–a choice to finally onboard a high-vibe team member that can remove some pressure so you can focus on the big picture.

Even if it’s just one hour a week, we’re going to start somewhere and inch our way to those daily naps–ok?

But Andrea, how do I know when it’s time to hire someone?

Here are 10 obvious signs it’s time to hire someone:

1. You’re feeling overwhelmed

If you look up the word “overwhelm” in the dictionary (and by dictionary I mean google because what is a dictionary?!) you’ll see a few definitions:

• Upset, overthrow
• To overcome by superior force or numbers
• To overpower in thought or feeling

Whichever one you relate to, the point is you’re feeling overpowered, overcame, overthrown–completely engulfed. That’s clue #1.

2. Not having enough time 

When you start saying things like:

“I wish there were 28 hours in the day!”

That’s a sign. A sign you need to hire someone because frankly, 24 hours are plenty. More than enough. If you can’t:

• Get enough sleep
• Finish your daily tasks
• Sit and enjoy your meals
• Exercise
• Have some down time

In a day, then it’s time to reevaluate your personal and business priorities. The last thing we need is you burning out before your mission is accomplished.

3. Procrastinating some tasks

It’s lust. Procrastination is like the really cute boy in highschool who wore leather jackets and skipped class–so wrong yet so right. But the problem with this cute procrastinating boy is that eventually we realize, this is not sustainable love–it’s a quick risky fix.

And you can’t run a business on quick fixes, bandaging up little problems here and there with last minute procrastination efforts. That strategy will lead to burning the candle at both ends.

4. Not doing certain tasks at all

You’re now at the phase of your business where you’ve surpassed procrastinating–you’re just skipping tasks altogether.

It starts with one thing you just keep putting off and putting off and putting off until eventually it never gets done and it starts to snowball from there. 

5. You’ve reached a plateau

Maybe you can’t relate to any of the above. Maybe you don’t feel like you and your business are burning up in flames of procrastination and overwhelm. Maybe things were actually going pretty well for you.

But now you’re bored. You and your high-vibe business lost that spark. No need to worry. Bringing in some new high-vibe energy via new team members will help you get your online business groove back.

6. You’re not doing things that only you can do

What I mean is, you’re not spending the majority of time in your zone of genius–the thing you and ONLY you can do.

Instead, you’re too busy completing the day-to-day tasks you hate doing, but have to do, and forgot what your zone of genius even is.

7. You’re working “in” your business and not “on” your business

This is especially true for service based online businesses. You know the difference: 

• In = just keeping your head above water, too busy completing all the necessary tasks for clients growing their business with never enough time to think about how you’re growing your business.
• On = you have the energy each day to invest money and time into creating offers for your business, giving it the precious time it deserves in order to flourish and grow. And you have sufficient time for your clients. You can do both.

8. You can’t scale

If I were to ask you right now:

• “Are you creating systems for repeatable tasks?”
• “Are your customers referring you to new clients?”
• “Are your profits increasing?”

And you give me that endearing deer in the headlights stare–it’s time my friend. Time to onboard some much needed help so we can get clear answers to these questions and start scaling your business.

9. You don’t have the expertise

Why in the world are you spending your ENTIRE Tuesday writing Instagram captions for the week when you hate social media and would much rather be creating the framework for that new mentoring course you’ve been dreaming of?

WHY?

“Because Andrea, I HAVE to. It’s called Marketing. I hate it, but I have to do it.”

I’m not saying you don’t need marketing. What I am saying is YOU may not be the one to necessarily do it. 

A great way to start delegating tasks and figure out who it is you need to hire is to write down what you love doing and what you hate doing. Then, start looking for someone who is an expert in the thing you hate doing.

For more tips on building a remote team, read this.

10. You’re not focused on the things that are “closest to the money”

This one ties in with signs 3 and 4. You’re not strategizing your business moves–you’re just trying to keep your head above water. And with no strategy, how can you consciously increase profits? You really can’t, because you’re too busy putting out fires everyday.

You’re in survival mode, not growth mode.

The truth is, it’s really hard running your own online business, never mind growing it. Sometimes, it’s really REALLY hard.

We start with one mission, get caught up in the details, organize ourselves and repeat the cycle until we find our rhythm.

AND THAT’S OK.

Part of finding that rhythm in our online business is finding team members that march to the beat of our drum. That is THE vital piece to getting your business to a place where it’s practically running itself so you can get back to that zone of genius of yours.

Ready to hire?

If you resonated with any of the signs above, it might be time to consider bringing someone on board. 

Let’s start with the first step. As The Queen of Team Building, I created a free PDF AND video to walk you through the FIRST STEP in building a high vibe team! 

If you want to be set up for success, this PDF will help you to know exactly what to do when hiring your next high vibe team member.

Let’s get you taking those naps, shall we:

If you want some more of these team building tips from the Queen herself, follow along with my soulpreneur journey, or see some cute dog videos, let’s be internet friends!

Whether you’re a high-vibe virtual assistant starting out and wanting a roadmap to build your business, a soulpreneur wondering what an online business manager can do for you, or you want a discount on my favorite business tools, check them out