I budget 10% of my income for freelance help and it's worth every penny. Here's who I hire and how much they cost.

• Jen Glantz is an entrepreneur and the founder of Bridesmaid for Hire.
• She says hiring freelancers has been a game-changer in running her small business.

When I first started my business in 2014, I made a major mistake. I wanted to cut costs as much as possible and decided that I'd do 90% of my business tasks myself. Rather than hire a website designer or a virtual assistant, I taught myself how to do basic coding and spent more hours than necessary responding to every email that entered my inbox.

This was a mistake I made for the first three years of being a solopreneur that eventually led to moments of extreme burnout and stunted growth. It felt impossible to innovate when I was focusing all my attention on trying to be an expert in so many different fields (unrelated to my actual business services) just to keep my business alive and well.

I decided to set a yearly budget of around 10% of my income to pay for freelancers throughout the year when I need support. Here are the five types of freelancers I turn to frequently that have a big impact on my business and its growth.

1. A website designer

To save money over the years, I learned how to design my own websites and have built seven websites using template-based sites like Wix and WordPress.

I used to spend more than 25% of my time during the month optimizing the website and making sure it made a good first impression on visitors.

Last year, I decided to hire a freelance web designer to build me a more professional looking website. I spent around $3,000 for this service, and while it was costly, I'm very proud of how the website turned out, and taking it off my to-dos added a lot of time back into my workday for other tasks.

2. A Google Ads specialist

Last year, I decided to do paid advertising to help grow a new project of mine. Rather than learning how to do Google Ads, I hired a specialist on Fiverr to set up and manage my ads. This cost me around $125 for the project, not including the budget for the ads.

If I'd taught myself how to do Google Ads, it would have taken me several months and a lot of hours learning the strategy behind this growth method. Since that initial project, I've hired a Google Ads freelancer three more times for other campaigns.

3. A proofreader

I write a lot of copy for my businesses, projects, newsletters, and books. Hiring a proofreader has been a huge time-saver. This person edits my copy, makes suggestions on the content, and helps me catch any errors I missed.

I found a proofreader in a writing-focused Facebook group I'm in and she charges around $3 per page.

4. A social-media manager

As a solopreneur running many different projects, I manage five different social-media accounts. Designing content, writing posts, and scheduling them throughout the week is extremely time consuming.

At least once a quarter, I'll hire a social-media freelancer to help create a content calendar, curate content, and schedule it to go up over the upcoming months. For this, I've hired freelancers on Upwork and usually pay a flat fee (around $600 a quarter) for their work.

5. A virtual assistant

After a few months of tracking how I spent my time during the workday, I realized that more than 25% of my time was spent on tasks that weren't a high priority. These included responding to emails, scheduling calls and social-media posts, and formatting blog posts.

I decided that I'd work with a virtual assistant during my most hectic months (October through December) and a few other times throughout the year.

I used social media (my own Instagram or Facebook group) to find a virtual assistant. In the past, I've paid around $15 to $20 an hour for this kind of help, and it freed up five to 10 hours of my week to focus on high-priority business items that were often pushed aside.

As a solopreneur, it might not be practical or affordable to hire long-term contractors or employees. Having a roster of freelancers to rely on as needed is a more cost-effective option to get specialized help and take extra work off your plate.