How to Build a Cash Cow Team - 2009 Will be Great!

Michael good for you that you have the business. A lot depends on how much your charge your clients and how much you are willing to pay your help. If you want to go into more details PM me.

bill

Ok, here goes Michael....

From my perspective, you have a few options:

Option number one is to hire a part time web designer,
programmer etc...and pay them well for their work.

In order to do this though, you'll need to set a goal
for your monthly revenue, then add 50% onto that
and pay your partime help that amount....

Here's an example:

If you want to make 8k profit a month, then you'll
need to bring in 12k/month in sales in order to split
4k among your part timers....

Option 2:

You go to some local colleges in your area and hire
some web designers and programmers from there.
You can even start it off as an internship and tell
them that if you like their work they can get a
permanent position in less than a year.....

You can even pay them a very small salary and
they'll be happy and motivated....

Sometimes you can find a real diamond in the
rough using this technique. The only downside
is that they lack experience and they may disappear
on you one day to move on to different things...

Conclusion:

The real problem is not that you can't find the right
people, it's that you can't afford the right people
right now.

When I first started doing what you're attempting to
do a few years back, I had some of the same issues.

You need to first duplicate yourself from a sales
stand point before you can hire the people that may
be out of your price range at this point....

My partner and I hired 3 to 4 commission only sales
people and we we hitting over 150k/month in sales
within 6 months!

You're at the point where you're a pro at all the marketing
stuff, now it's time to become a pro at management.

I had to learn the same lesson a few years ago, and I'm
still learning....

There are a lot of "little" details that I'm leaving out because
of time, but I hope this helps you out.

Here's to your success and God Bless.

One quick addition I'll make here is that time estimates given by your resources will need to be padded up to a multiple of 2.

All of us, even the best and most experienced and reliable, tend to lean heavily optimistic when it comes to estimating work effort. Also, you'll need to factor in revisions.

Michael,

I am proficient with script installs and would be willing to work with you. Send me a PM if you are interested.

Thanks,

John

Michael
Hiring freelancers can be a challenge as there are so many that will give you a date you want to hear just to get the job.

I've gone through a few people and I've developed a lot of skills along the way.

I'm lucky, my main tech has been with me for 4 years and between us we have hired a few people to do odd tasks when we get really busy. Other than that we handle everything in house.

The key is to break things down into manageable projects and try not to have "all your eggs in one basket"
If you can't do the tasks yourself because you don't know how, then you really need to make sure you have several sources to choose from.

Time and referrals is the only way to sort through the mountain of wannabees and people who think they can do the job.

If someone says they will have the project done in 2 weeks tell your client 4. You need to allow time for revisions - besides you score happy points with clients when you can deliver faster that your estimate. Don't let your freelancers make you look bad.

Reserve enough money to give your freelancer a bonus. Do a bonus for each project and if you can't afford it then you need to charge more from your customer. Vary the amount but always give one. Believe me it takes only one or 2 times and your contact will drop what they are doing and work on your project if there is a bonus involved. (don't tell them there are bonuses - just do it)

EVERYONE wants to feel needed and important and a bonus speaks volumes

You need to have a variety of web designers, writers and graphic artists to choose from. Get to know their work so you can make the best fit for your project. Everyone has a different style - not every style is going to work for every project.

Timelines are important.
Tell your people you need to see a draft or a proof at this date and leave time for revisions.
If you are outsourcing all your work it would pay to set up a project management system.
I use one - that way the client knows whats being done, can offer feedback and take comfort in being part of the process.
You can also use the project management system to "post" projects for your freelancers to see whats available.

Personally, I ran into problems a couple years back when I had "put all my eggs in one basket". When that person wasn't available - I was crippled. It's a horrible feeling. Since then I have learned all the components - some I'm really good at and only outsource when I am do busy - others I'm ok with but outsourcing saves me time and money because others can do it faster then I.

Knowing what you need is really important and then being able to convey what you need to the freelancer helps to minimize misunderstandings.
Create that important time line and hold them to it.
Give out bonuses to people you want to keep.

PM me if you need help - I'll be happy to answer questions.

Michael,

Building a team is one of the hardest things to do because we have to depend and trust other people where we would normally just do it ourselves - we hold all the accountability.

I spent the last 10 years buildings teams for an offline company before I came online, so I do have quite a bit of experience up this alley. A couple things you'll want to do right off the start.

#1. Tell anyone who is potentially going to work with you of EXACTLY what you expect up front. For instance if you need graphic work done 72 hours from the time you order tell them that they have 72 hours to get it to you and that if they get the work done you'll have more work in the future. Tell them the urgency of taking care of the customer ASAP. It's as equally important that they trust you so being straight forward in the very beginning is critical that they see who you are.

#2. Start them off small if possible. This step sometimes requires you to do a little bit of training on them (even if they are more than qualified) to get them to do the exact work you want. In order for either side to build trust you have to see what their capable of. You may have already seen their work at this point but you may have never contracted them to do work for you before which is a completely different story.

#3. Stay consistent if you are using them for a service try to stick to what you say the first time. If you constantly change your mind it can easily become confusing for them. So if you ask for a service with certain specs don't change it on them unless the customer you are serving decides to change it - if you allow that..lol

#4. Keep your expectations real. Again, another factor in building a trusting relationship comes from giving them a task to complete within a reasonable time frame. If you contact someone and need 20 articles written by the middle of the next day it probably won't happen and if it does you might not like what you get lol. Again, tell them the time frame expectations upfront, tell them your needs. Most people will tell you if they can/can't get it done in that amount of time.

The first few projects they help you with will help you see how well they do, if they can get it done on time and if over all it's going to work out. However, they may have certain minor flaws that you wouldn't want to just dismiss that persons work just because of the flaws. You also wouldn't want to overlook the flaws - but work with them and explain what you need fixed and that in the future you want them to avoid that mistake.

After you've worked together for a month or 2 you should have most of the things ironed out and they should be to a point that works for you. You should have a nice system in place at this point where everything seems to flow. If not then you might want to move on.

Lastly, make sure you tell them that if they need anything from you, to ask. Anytime you need to manage it's important that you open the floor for them to ask and get anything from you they need to complete the tasks.

I could honestly write an entire course on this but if you follow what I have above you should have no problem finding the right team.

I don't really agree with this statement. I think having employees will give you a false sense of control. Employees come with their own set of problems and headaches

I've had plenty of experience with both in the offline and online worlds.

Freelancers (hiring on contract) are mostly self motivated people who have developed their skills and know the work.
Employees generally need to be taught, supervised, groomed, pampered and refereed.

With freelancers I don't have to deal with office politics, educating them, sick calls, babysitting issues, attitudes, etc. Not to mention paying them is as uncomplicated as it gets.

If you need someone to manage phones, run an office, do your mailings and other non skilled, non technical services then hire someone. But for specialized services such as graphic design, web construction, copywriting, etc hire a freelancer (contract).

If you hire a true professional in the specialty you are looking for then deadlines shouldn't be a big problem. Avoid people who say they have the skill and can "do it for you". Look for people who "do it for a living" or who truly offer the service. You want to assemble a team of professionals not a team of acquaintances who know a little bit of this or that.

The important thing you will have to educate yourself on is knowing how much time it takes to create and assemble all the tasks and components you just sold to your client.
Some of that comes when you are familiar with installing scripts or creating web pages. Another words you know from experience how much time it takes to do those things. If you don't know, you need to find out so you don't tell your customer 1 week when its really going to take 3 weeks.

This is the challenge that every business owner faces - online and offline.

Besides checking out referrals by WF members you can post over at elance.com
Once again you need to know how long it will take to complete the task and post an appropriate time line and then hold them to it. Because you are building a team you will go through a number of people before finding ones you want to work with for the long term.
The other solution is to search online for business who offer the services you are looking for. This might be better in the short term so you can get your clients looked after while you build a team.

Hi Michael,

Hiring people from different field of work is a real big project by itself.
You can only be sure about a person/company only after you work on a few projects together.

In a recent thread I just gave a few tips to hire the right designer for you. May be it might help you - http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...er-2009-a.html

If you need any designing - graphics & website related outsourcing send me a PM for further discussion.

All the best!

Stephen

I'm starting in the offline marketing biz now as well, and I'm going to keep it as simple as it gets.

I create simple business websites from templates, fully optimized for SEO and readability. ( Thanks to xsitepro)
I tell my customers that I create simple, and effective websites.
But my focus is on marketing services, and SEO etc.
They have no clue about what I really do, and they can barely read email.

I will charge them a set fee to "manage their lists" and maintaining their websites.
I have been a salesman for 2 years, and I have a huge network, so getting clients is no problem.

But my tip to you would be to do what you do best yourself. And if you need, learn the basics yourself, and do it. ( maintaining a website is simple)

And if you have to, get a part-time worker, and teach him to do many things. A college student is also great.

And my last tip, which I figured might be useful is this:
When a customer becomes a pain in the a$$, explain to him what you are able to do if he doesn't get better. ( This is for problematic customers only! - The ones that want to mess things up for you)

I do not plan on working a lot to get my customers to pay. If they don't want to thay don't have to, but it will get consequences.
Tell them you will make a free website with a bad rumour about their business that will rank higher then their own website in google. If that doesn't frigthen them, create an optimized,free wordpress blog, social bookmark it etc., and call them when it ranks well.
- Then sell it to them for loads of money =)
This is easy to do, makes you money, and they won't do that again.

- Preben