Running a membership single-handed is a tough job.
In the early days, most membership owners wear multiple hats and do everything themselves…
But as your membership grows, it’s time to think about getting help.
More help means it’ll be easier to manage your membership…
You’ll have more time (and sanity) and can focus your attention on what you do best.
It seems like a no-brainer, right?
And yet, taking that leap to outsource is a tough call to make.
Lots of business owners struggle to part with their responsibilities…
And it’s tempting to try and do it all yourself…
Especially if that’s how you started.
My good friend Chris Ducker refers to this as “superhero syndrome.”
This is when you convince yourself that everything in your business rests on your shoulders, and you're the only one who can possibly handle it all…
But that just means working insane hours, increased stress and becoming at risk of burnout…
And while some business owners convince themselves that that’s just the price you pay for being the hero in your business.
That's all nonsense…
You shouldn't be trying to do everything yourself and here's why…
Why outsourcing is the best possible solution
As your business grows, trying to handle everything yourself and refusing help always ends the same way…
It always ends in burnout.
All those plates you’re desperately trying to keep spinning will soon come crashing to the floor.
You can't keep those plates spinning forever…
If you're burned out, it's your members who will pay the price.
If you have less time, energy, and motivation to dedicate to ALL tasks needed to run your business, something’s going to slip…
And that's when your members will see a drop in quality somewhere…
So, it makes sense to prevent that and bite the bullet to outsource some tasks in your business that you don't need to manage…
By doing so, you can free up your time, energy, and mental bandwidth to focus more on things that will move the needle in your membership.
So where should you start?
Here are 6 tasks you should outsource to make your membership more manageable:
1. Customer service
If you're the figurehead that people are joining a membership to gain access to, you probably shouldn't also be dealing with front of house day-to-day customer service queries…
It makes sense to have someone else in place to handle that…
After all, if you’re juggling everything in your business, it’s probably not the best use of your skills and expertise to be sending password reset links…
In fact, being the point of contact for customer service queries can actually affect the dynamic between you and your members.
Members start to associate you with customer service rather than your leadership and knowledge….
And that's not what you want…
So outsourcing and hiring a good virtual assistant or admin assistant to handle your customer queries will make sure the daily queries are answered…
And will free you up to interact with members by offering support and giving value.
2. Admin support
Speaking of admin, outsourcing your general admin duties is another good way to make your business more manageable.
Admin assistants can help to respond to inquiries, emails, they can help organize your diary, and schedule appointments, and so on…
You after outsourcing admin…
Maybe even curating and scheduling your social media posts…
All these little tasks might not seem like much, but they can take up a huge chunk of your day.
3. Tech support
If you're not technically inclined, you should definitely have some sort of support in place when it comes to the tech stuff…
Installing plugins, updating themes, making tweaks to your site, fixing bugs, and so on.
Too many people try to muddle through this all on their own…
But unless you know what you're doing, you can waste a lot of time and get very frustrated…
Something that could take you an entire day to fix might easily be solved by a web developer in a matter of minutes.
The reason a lot of people don't outsource their tech support is because it comes at a price…
It's a specialist field, after all.
But you have to ask yourself, how much is your own time worth?
If something takes you five hours to figure it out but only takes a developer an hour, does their $50 an hour fee really matter?
You're not paying for the time it takes them, you're paying for the time it saves you.
4. Editing
If you create lots of video or audio content, you should definitely look into getting help with editing.
A lot of membership owners try to do it all themselves, but it does require a completely different skillset…
A good video or audio editor will do the job faster and better than you.
So, if you're using audio or video for your membership content or your marketing content, invest in an editor to save you time.
The end result will likely be of a much higher quality than you'll be able to produce yourself.
5. Graphic design
The chances are that graphic design is not something that falls into your existing core skill set…
And while there are lots of tools out there that make it easier to design things, it’s no replacement for someone who knows their stuff.
A good graphic designer can transform the look of your business, your website, your social media branding, your logo, and more.
Your brand is everything…
And the quality of visuals in your brand plays a huge part in how that brand is perceived.
So don’t skimp on this because you know how to use Canva.
6. Community management
The last one you should consider hiring is more of a luxury one…
In most memberships, the leader gets involved in the community and has a significant presence there…
They’ll get involved in welcoming new members, answering questions, joining conversations, and so on.
Your members…
But that doesn’t mean you have to do it all.
A good community manager can really raise the level and the quality of engagement inside your forum, Facebook group, Slack channel, or wherever your membership community is.
They can also deal with the uglier sides of running a community, like dealing with conflicts and managing problem members…
In other words, they'll help maintain harmony inside your community.
And if you're using forum software, they can also deal with the admin side of it too…
Like moving topics to the appropriate section, merging duplicate posts, or editing thread titles.
You can't live in your forum 24/7…
And while you do want to be accessible, you don’t want to be overbearing…
Outsourcing and having someone else in there to represent your business will go a long way.
Now, when finding someone to hire, you might get lucky…
You might find a superhero admin assistant who can handle customer service, graphic design, video editing, and everything in between…
But they are very rare…
And handing all that to one person isn’t very sustainable.
Even if you do find someone who can do it all, it’s definitely worth looking at specialists to help you with things like logo design, audio editing, and tech support.
It’s much better to get a couple of specialists who are really good at each thing than just one person who dabbles a bit in all of it.
Whatever you choose to do, don’t fall foul of the superhero syndrome…
You can’t do it all, and it’s bad news for your membership if you try.
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