It’s nearly Christmas and you want to get serious value from the hottest season of the year. You know when you need a break, your body tells you, your mind tells you, it’s very likely your friends and family has been telling you at least once a day. It’s only natural for someone who’s been working as hard as you have to get your business up and growing to need some R & R every once in a while. You’re always talking about how important work-life balance is, how you’re going to take off and spend the weekend in Thailand or Fiji… any day now.
But you don’t.
That’s right, we see you Mr/Ms “I’ll take a break next decade” – guess what, the 2010s are as good as over – you’re out of excuses not to take a well-earnt rest. The reason your body, mind and family know you need a break? It’s probably evident in your work (and/or your sanity). When you aren’t functioning at the top of your game, your business (and relationships) can suffer. There’s only so long you can chug along trying to do the jobs of 10 people before something breaks and the cracks start to show and the customers start complaining.
A 3PL will help you step back and still thrive at the same time
We get it, you like being the one in charge. It’s how you got this far, right? It’s commendable to know all the parts of your business and be the go-to guy or gal for everyone’s problems. It reflects your serious commitment to what you’ve built. Unfortunately, it’s not always efficient. As Marshall Goldsmith writes in his book of the same name, what got you here, won’t get you there (the next level you’re wanting to get to). Maybe this Christmas, it might be time to reconsider how you’re getting to that next place.
Think of it this way: Elon Musk is an engineer, a businessperson and kind of a professional smarty-pants. It would be great if he could hurry up and get us in flying cars sometime soon. But you do not want Elon Musk in charge of your shipping needs. Sure, he could figure it out, but it’s not his thing. The Elon Musk delivery service is likely to end up overcomplicated and out of step with the rest of the operation, not to mention all the time and money Mr Musk would waste putting together packages when he could be off jettisoning more things into space.
It might seem narcissistic, but in your business, you are the Elon Musk. You can’t be wasting your own time trying to perfect a process that could easily be outsourced to someone who already has it down to a science.
As Kiva founder Jessica Jackley puts it: “As all entrepreneurs know, you live and die by your ability to prioritize. You must focus on the most important, mission-critical tasks each day and night, and then share, delegate, delay, or skip the rest.” Somebody absolutely needs to handle your 3PL needs – you are not that somebody.
All of this is doesn’t even touch on all the issues that can arise from you not taking the time to recharge your batteries when you need to. And that’s the beauty of working with a 3PL partner. They can do the work whilst you’re finally on that beach in Fiji drinking a cocktail or two.
It’s hard to step back when you feel like the glue that’s holding everything together, but the truth is there’s a difference between being busy and making work for yourself – growing your business and exploring new opportunities – that’s busy. Struggling day-by-day to spread yourself across jobs that could easily be handled by someone else – that’s making work, and it’s likely not helping anyone, least of all your customers and their brand experience.
If you’d like to chat with someone about how outsourcing your 3PL needs can improve the health of your business, we’d be delighted to talk to you. You can always give us a call on +61 2 9828 0111 (Sydney), +61 3 9240 300 (Melbourne) or +64 9 263 8855 (Auckland) or drop us a note via the form below.