Prepping for the Cleaner: Why You Cannot Outsource a Mess
You are brilliant with your clients. Put a person in front of you who needs help and you are in your element. But the admin? The invoicing, the chasing, the onboarding, the endless faffing that keeps the whole thing ticking over? That is the part that drags.
Here is what most people get wrong about outsourcing your admin. They think the first step is finding help. It isn't. The first step is getting your own house in order.
Why I prep for the cleaner
I have a cleaner. Before she arrives, I prep. And no, I don’t mean I clean before she arrives. ??
I pick up the dog toys. I load the dishwasher. I put things away or at least tidy them into piles if I am not ready to deal with them yet. I get the fresh bed linen out, which doubles as my reminder to change the towels.
Why bother? Because I want her spending her time actually cleaning, not tidying up after me. Every minute she spends moving my clutter around is a minute she is not doing the job I hate – cleaning!
She has her own process too. An order she works in that means nothing gets missed. I do not follow her around checking. I do not dictate what she cleans. She is trusted, and she is good at it.
She knows my house. She knows the real wood floors I inherited need specific products to keep them looking at their best. She knows where the cloths, the hoover, the mops and the bin bags live. She even knows how to navigate my family! If I have an extra request, sometimes, she is happy to oblige.
I am not sure she knows how much she is worth to me. While she does the jobs I hate, I get to work on my business. Obviously, I pay her, but my hourly rate more than covers her time, and I would rather give up some of my profit than lose another hour to a chore I find mind-numbing. The added bonus: because she loves cleaning, she does a far better job than I would. She’s self-employed too, so I am supporting another small business while I am at it.
It is not lazy to hand the cleaning over. It is strategic. It is for my business (and my sanity).
Admin is the housework of your business
Now let's bring this home to your business.
Admin is the business equivalent of housework. If you have the time and you love it, wonderful, fill your boots! But for most of us, admin becomes the chore that drags us down and holds our business back. And yet without it, the whole business would fall apart.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: Admin never makes you money. Unless, of course, you are a Virtual Assistant)
In fact, the more time you pour into it, the less you earn. The lovely rate you charge a client gets eaten alive by the hours it takes to win them, book them in, onboard them, invoice them, chase the payment and follow up afterwards.
So, let me ask you a direct question: Do you actually know the split between your fee-earning work and the unpaid admin work? Most people have no idea. And that not-knowing is exactly what’s keeping your income ceiling firmly in place.
The stories we tell ourselves
Let's get real about why you haven't handed anything over yet. See if any of this sounds familiar:
No one can do it like me.
No one understands it like I do.
I can't afford to pay for help yet.
Admin is easy, it’s not worth paying someone to do it.
It only takes 5 minutes, it’s lazy to hand it over
It's all in my head. It's too hard to explain.
If I hand it over, what if they make a mistake and I lose a client?
Running your own business is a slog. That's just how it is.
That last one is the sneakiest, because it sounds like wisdom. It isn't. It is the story that keeps you stuck.
And that fear of mistakes? Be honest. Have you never made one? You are far more likely to slip up when you are overwhelmed and running on empty than a fresh pair of eyes would be, especially if that pair of eyes are owned by an admin expert!
This is the bullshit we use to stand in our own way and stifle our own growth.
Process before software: what makes outsourcing your admin possible
Here is the caveat, and it matters. Handing things over will be harder than doing it yourself if your business has no structure. That part is true.
If everything lives in your head, of course nobody else will know what you know. That is not proof you can't delegate. It just proves you haven’t written anything down yet.
This is why process comes first. My cleaner is brilliant partly because my house is organised. I ‘onboarded’ her on her first visit. She is not reinventing the wheel every visit, guessing what I like and where things are. There rest of her brilliance is enthusiasm for the job, pride in her work, and the knowledge she will be paid what she wants – don’t you think a virtual assistant is the same?
Your business needs the same. Repeatable processes, basic templates and simple systems are the thing that make outsourcing your admin possible. Every time you write a step down, build a template or systemise one tiny part you are forging a path to the day you can hand it over.
It could be a virtual assistant; a social media manager; an accountant or even a telephone answering service to ensure someone always answers – whether you are working or at rest. And while we’re at it, let’s add to that a cleaner, a dog walker, a weekly shopping delivery, an ironing service or a meal prep service. All of it lifts the mental load and allows you to focus on the things that light you up.
This is the heart of the More Profitable Me® Framework, and it runs through two pillars in particular. Streamline and Structure where you build the capacity your business needs to cope with more clients. And Discover Delegation, where you hand off the tasks you dread to stay in your ‘Circle of Genius’. Essentially, get the process down first, and outsourcing stops feeling terrifying.
I created More Profitable Me Pro as a ‘done with you’ service for those who would like guidance on creating their structure. But you do not need to be there yet to start, I always encourage my connections to, ‘start where they are’.
What would you hand over first?
Homework: If you could get help with one thing today, what would it be?
Maybe you’re not quite ready to go all in on systemisation and today isn't the day. That's fine (and by fine, I mean all good with me – not ‘fine’ in the British sarcastic ‘not fine’ way ??). But I urge you to start doing the prep. It’s never too soon to start building some structure, and any structure you do build will help.
Start by thinking about the tasks you put off because they feel like a chore; how often have they tripped you up? Now pick the one job that drains you most and start writing down how you do it.
Do you have a standard way of doing it?
What do you need to get it done?
Is the stuff you need all together in one place?
Do you know where to find it – first time, every time?
How long does it take?
What are the consequences of not doing it?
That single act, getting it out of your head and onto paper (or digitally), is the first real step. Consolidating the documents, forms and folders you need as you go, so the process becomes second nature – even if it is manual! Every process you add, is a step closer to handing over the soul-sucking admin that is keeping your small business smaller than it’s potential.
What’s next on your outsourcing plan, Sarah?
Finally, my long-term plan (since you asked so nicely ??) is to delegate my second most-hated job. You’ll remember public enemy number 1 was the cleaning. Second on Sarah’s most wanted list is the cooking! Yes, the next thing I am outsourcing is Dinner. Planning, shopping for and cooking is a chore I most definitely wouldn’t miss. I already shop online, plan meals and date the ingredients on the outside of the fridge (This is an ADHD hack I need to reduce food waste as I literally forget the expiry dates), I just need someone to take the whole process of my hands! I already have much of my business taken care of so why not this?
Not sure where to start with outsourcing?
If you don't yet know where your business is leaking the most time and money, that is a brilliant place to begin.
My free Business Health Check takes about ten minutes and shows you exactly where the friction is. So, you know which area to tackle first.
Take the free Business Health Check: https://www.hub.opswiz.co.uk/business-health-check
FAQ
I am a one-person business. Do I need to outsource, or could a software system do the job instead?
Often the smartest first hire is not a person at all; it is a system. The right operations software can run your repetitive jobs in the background: booking, reminders, follow ups, invoicing, chasing payment. Set it up once and it works every day without being asked, which is why one afternoon of setup can save you the same task a hundred times over.
The catch is choosing the right tool. You want something simple enough to configure with confidence, but powerful enough to actually earn its place, not another half-finished subscription gathering dust. And, as always, process comes first. Map how the task really works before you go anywhere near the software, or you will just automate the mess.
That mapping-then-building is the exact work I do with clients. If you want to see it in practice, we walk through a full rebuild in From Stalled to Streamlined: How We Rebuilt One Nutritional Therapist's Practice.
I have a small business. When should I start outsourcing my admin?
Sooner than you think, but not before you have a bit of order in place. The test is simple: if a task is repeatable and it drains you, it is already a candidate. You do not wait until you are drowning, you start the moment a job keeps landing on your list and keeps sapping your energy.
The one rule: write down how you do it before you hand it over. Give someone your written process, not the mess in your head, and outsourcing goes from terrifying to straightforward. That first written-down process is the real starting line, and it is free to build today.
I am self-employed and getting help with my admin will cost money. Isn't outsourcing a luxury?
It feels like one, right up until you run the numbers. Work out your fee-earning hourly rate. Then work out how many hours a week you lose to admin. If your rate is higher than the cost of help, then doing it all yourself is the expensive option, you are just paying in your own time instead of pounds.
And that time is not free. Every hour buried in admin is an hour you are not seeing clients, making new connections or building your next offer. That is the real cost: not the invoice for help, but the growth you never get to.
I am self-employed. What tasks should I outsource first?
Start with the one you dread most and keep putting off, or the one that eats the most time. Dread and delay usually point at the same job: the work that is draining you and slowing the whole business down.
Pay special attention if it is sales or marketing. Those tasks keep you in business, so if they are the ones slipping through the cracks, that is a problem. It is your pipeline. When something essential is not happening consistently, that is your signal to get help.
I am the founder. What if I outsource and they don't do it the way I would?
They might not, and that might be fine. Where it really matters, a written process and a few templates protect your standards. That is what they are for. Where it does not matter, "different" is not the same as "wrong".
Remember that the person you hand it to is the expert in that job. It is what they do all day, every day, so most of the time they will do it better and faster than you could. When you are choosing your first partner, meet a few, ask how they work, and pick the one you trust.
My small business doesn't have fancy software. Do I need it before I can outsource?
No, and do not let that be the thing that stops you. Process comes before software every time. A clear, written, step-by-step process beats an expensive tool nobody has set up properly.
Sort the process first, then choose the tool that fits it. And you do not have to work that out alone. A good outsourcing partner will often help you pick the right one once they can see how you work.
