Archive for the ‘Optimization/Leverage’ Category

At some point in time in your business you will reach a place where:

Most likely when this happens it means it’s time to start thinking about expanding. A big part of expansion is outsourcing.

Although, you are still in the early stages of your business, it’s never too soon to begin thinking about expansion. Actually the best time to think about it is before it happens. This way when the time is right, you can move with action more quickly and seamlessly.

Outsourcing is an intentional focused activity that will provide better leverage and achievement of expected results more quickly and easily over time.

Here are 5 quick strategies to get you started:

1. Get clear on what you need to outsource – many wait until overwhelm sets in. When you get to that saturation place, it’s hard to figure out what needs to be outsourced first. Suddently everything presents itself as a priority. To start, focus your attention on revenue generating activities that aren’t getting done, and that which takes up too much time or energy.

2. Identify the skills needed to get tasks done – once you know what need to get done, then you need to think about how. This is, figuring out what skills are needed to get you from point A to point B. For example, if you find yourself hitting a wall with technical tasks (e.g. web development, shopping cart set up, setting up a blog, use of an autoresponder, etc), you will need to find someone with this skill set to fill the void.

3. Know first what outcomes you are looking for – often times people get upset when they hire someone and they just aren’t producing the results that they want. To avoid this from happening, get clear in your mind first what “criteria” you need for a job well done. Essentially, think about what finished projects should look and feel like.

4. Articulate clearly how you want things done – the idea here is delegation, not abdication. This means YOU need to provide direction as opposed to leaving your hiree to figure out the what and how on their own. In so doing, you will have a way to measure whether outcomes are being met as expected.

5. Hire subcontractors vs. employees- subcontractors or freelancers are the way to go because it’s easier, more convenient, and overall cheaper than an employee. They work on a hourly or project basis, and are responsible for their own taxes and insurance. The only thing you would have to provide is a 1099-MISC form that specifies what you pay them, so that they can use it to file their taxes.

Hope these suggestions helped: See you in a couple weeks…it’s my kid’s spring break!!

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

Are you looking for more ways to create your dream team? Click here. 

Ready to get started with freelance technical help? Click here.

Take a look around your home. What do you see? Clutter? Disorder? Untidiness?

How about your home office? Can you see the bottom of your desk? When was the last time you filed away important papers and folders?

I don’t know about you ladies, but house keeping is one of my least favorite things to do around the house. However, in order to make consistent progress and reach expected results, you’ve got to learn how to manage your home environment effectively.

This is not always easy when juggling multiple responsibilities, and trying to launch & grow while you work.

However, an unkept, disorganized home and office are signs of personal and business ineffectiveness. Effectiveness is about being efficient and optimizing the time you have to simply get things done and achieve desired results.

If your surroundings do nothing more than distract you from focus on tasks at hand, and drain your energy levels, you will move no where fast.

How you operate in your home should align and reflect your ideals for personal and business success.

Here are strategies you can implement immediately to maintain your home simply & get you well on your way to reducing overwhelm, stress & ultimately, profits for your business:

1. Clean daily

2. Avoid Clutter – this is one of the main reasons why it’s hard to find what you need, when you need it.

3. Know When to Hire a Professional – simplify life by knowing when something is too time consuming, or complicated for you to handle.

If your husband is like mine, he probably thinks he can fix anything Encourage him to get professionals for the big and messy jobs (e.g. plumbing and wiring). This way there’s less for you to help clean up.

4. Make cleaning a family project - your family members are part of your team; therefore, you shouldn’t be the only cleaning.

5. Know where things belong- inadequate space for storing things, or lack of mutual understanding of where things go, is an invitation for disorder.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
1. I’ve brainstormed some ways to maintain home – now it’s your turn! What else comes to mind.

2. Start now! Think about what areas of the house stay unkept or uncluttered most often and start there.

The important thing is commitment and consistency . Try these new tactics for the next month and see what difference it makes in how your house looks, and how you feel.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE: For more tips for how to unclutter & maintain order, click here

I once heard someone say, if you want something done, just ask a busy person to do it. Although this may be tried and true in some cases, the bottom line is this mindset and approach toward your business will guarantee burnout and stagnation in growth and sustainability over time.

Although you own a solo-business, you cannot be a one woman operation.

Now is the time to start building (or thinking about) your support team now.

I know you are probably thinking, “I’m small enough to manage everything on my own now… besides I can’t afford to hire help right now.” I challenge you to reframe your thinking.

What if you thought less about this person as a “business expense,” and instead saw them as a “profit center” of sorts? In other words the time your are spending on less enjoyable, time consuming tasks (household or business specific) that don’t get you any closer to getting your business launched and/or generating revenue, is affecting YOUR bottom line.

Let me give you an example: Let’s say your hourly rate is $100/hr. If you are spending 5 hrs per week on this task, that cost (or your worth) is $500 per week. However, if you could find hired help (say a personal or virtual assistant, freelancer, laundry service, housecleaner, etc.) at $25/hr to do the same work, in the same amount of time, just as well or better, look at how the cost of that less revenue generating task changed ($125/wk vs. $500/wk). Catch my drift?

Remember your goal is to leverage your time, energy and efforts at all times, in order to maintain consistent progress in your business, and earn more money.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: It’s time to revisit (or formulate) your vision of your support team. In the next week or two monitor and take note of all the tasks that you despise, don’t enjoy, but are essential for your business (to keep your business thriving). Think about what has been on your to-do list for quite some time but you can’t seem to get to it. Write these tasks down and ask yourself, “is this something I have to do, or can someone else do it, quicker or better? Then think about what business building/revenue generating activity you will replace with that time. Choose one activity you will delegate, or outsource within the next week and formulate three action steps to make it happen.