As you grow your business you naturally develop from having to be a jack of all trades into a specialist. As you are able to bring more staff on board it makes sense to spend your time most productively by focusing on what you are best at, whilst delegating responsibilities to your new staff. But unfortunately, it’s not always possible to transition straight from one to the other and this is where partners like Project Management On Demand can come in – providing short to medium term support in expert roles that your business currently lacks.
At PMOD we’ve sometimes used partners ourselves, to assist us with skills we’ve yet to onboard, so we thought we’d consider whether this is a strength or a weakness.
Time poor? Delegate
If you’re often in the position of not having enough hours in the day it’s logical to look for help. Early on when budgets are tight, this assistance can be fairly junior, to do the laborious tasks you ideally shouldn’t be doing as a company owner. Later you’re likely to want to bring in experts to do the things you recognise aren’t your strongest suit. Either way, in the interim between needing and committing to a full-time resource, why not seek a partner to provide a more on-demand option.
Outsourced experts
When you make the decision to bring in help its obvious to look for recognised experts to maximise the quality for your spend, but it’s also critical to take an honest look at your business and at the skillset you need to bring in.
Is your business offering niche? Is the skill you need to outsource niche? Then how can another business, offering services to a wide spectrum of clients, ‘get’ you. There are clearly many skillsets that are arguably cross transferable – with some support you can expect a digital advertising PM to succeed in e-learning. However, there are sometimes skillsets and services that must occupy the same space as your business in order to be a success.
Don’t you know until you try
But don’t be afraid to give a new partner a try.
Be open: explain that you may feel nervous about doing something new and trusting your treasured business to another individual or organisation.
Be realistic: not every new partnership will work, just like not every new permanent member of staff will end up staying with you long term.
Be positive: we can all learn from new interactions, even if they fail to live up to your hopes; you’re likely to learn from failures even more than successes.
Use your judgement, trust your instincts, try it out, and don’t see it as a failure if you change your mind –one size rarely fits all.
Project Management On Demand supplies skilled Project Management professionals to digital businesses when they are needed most. Working remotely or in-house, our PMs look after your key deliverables, mitigate issues, and keep your critical path on-track, and your clients happy. For more information on our services, visit www.projectmanagementod.co.uk/our-services