How do early stage founders manage non core work without a team?

I’ve been chatting with other early stage builders and one theme keeps popping up is that there’s so much important but not core work that needs doing (things like ops, research, content, or lead gen) and it all adds up fast when you’re solo.

And hiring help early on isn’t always possible (budget, trust, speed), trying to do it all yourself can be draining and distracting from core product work.

Curious how others are navigating this phase:

• Are you using freelancers? Automation tools? Just doing less?

• How do you keep focus without letting secondary things pile up?

• Any creative approaches to getting non-core work done?

Would love to hear how you’re handling this, would be helpful to learn from each other’s scrappy solutions.