Learning to Let Go: Hiring My First Help at Paper Bento

Things have been busy around here lately, in a good way.

Paper Bento keeps growing, slowly but surely, and somewhere in that growth, my calendar started to fill up completely.

At some point I realized I was no longer strategizing. I was just running. Packing, sourcing, replying, keeping the box moving forward. It started to feel like an operational treadmill I'd built for myself.

Hiring someone felt scary for a long time. We're growing, but not big enough yet that I can pay myself a salary, so bringing someone else on felt like a real risk.

But one night I sat down and actually wrote out everything I do in a week. It turned into a four page document.

Seeing it all typed out, it made sense why I felt so stretched thin. A lot of what filled my days wasn't something only I could do. It was just things I'd been doing because there was no one else to do them yet. I needed to carve out space to actually think about where Paper Bento goes next, not just keep it running.

Around that same time, I was texting a friend late one night, just catching up. I'd been sick that week on top of everything else, and I ended up telling her honestly that I felt like I was drowning. She's one of the few friends who followed this whole thing from the very beginning, back when Paper Bento was just an idea I kept bringing up.

Her response was almost instant. "Can I help out in your business?"

This week, I onboarded her as my first VA. Before I could hand anything off, I had to sit down and actually write out how I do things, SOP docs for tasks that have only ever lived in my head.

That part alone was a lot of work. But I've come to like it. Building real systems and processes, instead of carrying all of it in my memory, is not something I would've made time for on my own.

It's still scary letting go of things I've had full oversight on since day one. But I'm learning that's just part of growth.

Getting out of the operator treadmill phase is a necessary investment, even when it doesn't feel like one in the moment. If anything, this whole thing has been a reminder to trust my gut about what the business actually needs, even when what it needs is uncomfortable at first.

This week is also packing week. By the time you read this, your box has either just left our warehouse or it's already on its way to your door. I like this part of packing week. Boxes lined up, each one filled and taped shut, ready to go somewhere new.

I hope it lands on your doorstep at a good moment.

Thanks for reading. Is there something you've been holding onto that you know it's time to hand off? 

 

Warmly,

Paper Bento