What do Amy Poehler, basic economics, and RBG have to do with freelance writing?
I can't begin to tell you how many times I come across social media posts from fellow busy freelance writers dripping with guilt about hiring help.
Here's a short mom-guilt example I recently saw on ZuckerBook:
Maybe it's human nature to feel guilty about hiring help. I don't know; I'm not a psychologist. But, I am a business owner that hires support for EVERYTHING. Hiring help is the ONLY thing that makes it possible for me to make a living and have a life.
If you're feeling guilty about making your life easier, stop it right now. Not only should you NOT feel guilty, but hiring help is one of the best business decisions you'll ever make.
If you're skeptical about why this is a good idea, here's a proclamation from everyone's favorite comedy queen, Amy Poehler, and a quick dive into one of the basic economic principles, opportunity cost.
1. Amy Poehler says, "every mother needs a wife." (This one is for the moms, but the sentiment applies to every busy person)
Look, the FaceBook user in the comment above is right. Working moms take on a shit-ton of responsibility. If you try and do everything, you'll always feel like you're drowning. The only way to "do it all" is with help.
Amy Poehler says:
“Do you know how I do it? I can do it because I have a wife. Every mother needs a wife… Some mothers’ wives are their mothers. Some mothers’ wives are their husbands. Some mothers’ wives are their friends and neighbors. Every working person needs a wife who takes care of her and helps her become a better mother… the biggest lie and biggest crime is that we all do this alone and look down on people who can’t."
My advice is to STOP TRYING TO DO IT ALL YOURSELF and get yo'self a wife or four. My wives are my husband, Brandon, Adrienne, Brighton, and Rosa (polygamy style). My wives help me with managing my household, daily childcare, childcare during business travel, and housekeeping. My wives free up my time so that I can work and have enough energy to be a good mom when I'm not working.
2. What is opportunity cost?
Not only is hiring help a good idea, but it's practicing one of the soundest and most basic economic principles, opportunity cost. In short, opportunity cost is the cost of what you give up to do something else. In the context of freelance writing, the opportunity cost is how much money you give up to do X,Y, or Z when you could be writing.
For example, you could spend 2 hours mowing your lawn, but at what cost? In the time you spent mowing your lawn, you could have written a blog post for $1000, and paid the neighbor kid $30 to mow your lawn. The opportunity cost of mowing your lawn, instead of working, is $970.
If hiring a nanny, tutor for your kids, or housekeeper while you work frees up your time to make more money, you shouldn't feel guilty. You should feel great about how awesome you are at managing time and tasks while making a decent living.
3. Opportunity cost and freelance writing
I think it's important to point out that opportunity cost doesn't just apply to hiring help with household chores and childcare. You can factor opportunity cost into your freelance business by asking yourself what is the cost of doing X, Y, or Z myself or hiring someone to help, purchasing a training, or buying tools to help me grow my business faster?
For example, you could:
Spend hours researching how to set up an LLC, or spend a few hundred bucks hiring a trained accountant to do it for you.
Try and write a freelance contract yourself, or spend $199 on a legal contract template for freelancers, and have it in your pile of business resources in seconds.
Set up all your business processes and develop your onboarding materials on your own, or purchase a proven bundle from a freelancer that has spent over 10 years figuring this out for you (check out my store).
Times are rough and busy right now. Don't feel guilty for a second about getting help. It's a great way to stay sane and free up your time to do what you love.
Not to mention, when your time is compartmentalized and you're not multi-tasking every second of the day, you can give more of yourself to your kids when you're with them and more focused attention on your work when you're at your desk. Seriously. Ruth Bader Ginsburg even says so.
"When I started law school my daughter Jane was 14 months, and I attribute my success in law school largely to Jane. I went to class about 8:30 a.m., and I came home at 4:00 p.m., that was children’s hour. It was a total break in my day, and children’s hour continued until Jane went to sleep. Then I was happy to go back to the books, so I felt each part of my life gave me respite from the other.” -RBG