Why creatives, coaches, and small business owners should outsource their content

This blog is for the photographers, the sculptors, the stationery makers, the money, mindset, and life coaches, the ethical business owners, and the online solopreneurs. If that’s you, keep reading. Because when you’re a creative business owner, there are real benefits to working with a creative content strategist.

Why creating your own content is so hard

If you’re a small business owner or solopreneur, you’re pulled in a dozen directions at once, and marketing is often the first thing to slide. You’ve got ideas, plenty of them, but not enough hours to act on all of them.

Creative work needs space to breathe. The time to explore new ideas isn’t a luxury; it’s essential to staying sharp and avoiding burnout. But between client work, day-to-day tasks, and the pull of social media’s constant demands, there’s rarely room left for the deep, strategic thinking your business actually needs to grow.

You’re not alone in this. Almost every creative and service provider hits this same wall eventually: too much to do, not enough time to do the parts that matter most.

What a creative content strategist can do for you

A creative strategist asks questions to understand your services and who you want to work with before putting together a content plan. A good content partner designs blogs, social media posts, email newsletters, and graphics that sound like you and resonate with the people you want to reach.

They find creative ways to say the same things more than once (imperative in marketing). They help implement the ideas that have been sitting in your notes app for months. And they build a sustainable content rhythm that doesn’t leave you scrambling every week.

That can be things like:

• Writing email newsletters
• Drafting social media copy
• Researching and writing in-depth blogs
• Sourcing and editing images that support your brand
• Designing graphics for social media and Pinterest
• Creating podcast marketing clips and other related content
• Repurposing existing content into new formats

The real benefit of working with a creative content strategist isn’t just fewer tasks on your plate; it’s getting back the time and headspace for the parts of your business only you can do.

As a small business owner or solopreneur, you’re pulled in many directions, and lots of times you’re doing it all yourself. Whether you offer services or sell products, though, chances are you can’t get it all done yourself. And many times, your marketing falls by the wayside.

“[Willow] was very professional and reliable at every stage of [my] project, despite tight deadlines. She managed the fine line between content flow and maintaining my own tone of voice perfectly.”

-Anna Knapik, transformational coach

When is the right time to hire a creative content strategist?

Not always right away, and that’s okay. If you’re just starting out, full done-for-you content might not be the right fit yet, but strategic support to figure out what to actually say, and to whom, often is. We’ve all wasted time and energy trying to figure out what the hell to talk about.

If you’re spending hours on tasks outside your zone of genius, or watching good ideas pile up without ever making it out into the world, that’s usually a sign it’s time to get support, even if you begin small.

“The unintended consequence of Willow handling my social media is that I’m getting two people for the price of one. She knows social media inside and out, but she’s also deeply creative.”

Christy Strauch, money coach for artists

Not sure what to delegate first? That’s a normal place to start. A short conversation with a creative content strategist (me) can usually make it clear.