Do most of you "do your own stuff?"

I have been working on my internet business for about four months now and I still pretty much do everything myself. However, I recently decided that it was time to start delegating some of it because I am just not getting the results I a would like to see. As far as the appropriate time to start and what parts are best I am not sure and I am interested to see other responses on this topic.

I personally have started to have my articles wrote by other people. I am still doing the spinning myself, but the initial article I am subbing out. I have noticed that it has freed up some of my time, but not a lot.

12 years ago I did everything myself and it was hard work but I was short on cash.

Now I have a couple of employees and outsource virtually everything.

I do most of the market research still, pick the niches we'll pursue and I guess choose the general direction.

I still have my pet projects. I can't seem to let go of testing new ideas though, need to try them myself first.

In short: the marketing.

Anything that brings in the money needs to be done by me.

I.e. the product offers, "big picture" strategizing, product launches, and so on.

And anything that shows off my personality is done by me.

I.e. videos, teleseminars, email auto-responders, copy (although I do outsource sales letters sometimes, but I tweak the copy to suit my own style).

The BIGGEST thing you can outsource is going to be the <$10/hr work... the tech stuff... the writing... the accounting... the graphics... the "busy work."

This is all stuff that is necessary in your business, but it just doesn't bring in the money.

That's my take at least.

Ronnie

I try to do most, because i enjoy everything. And by time, rules in internet changes, so i try to be ready for anything

When I first got started I did everything myself. I taught myself HTML, basic web design, studied copy writing like crazy, etc. I did all my own book keeping, customer support, product creation, even my own graphics using software that used templates, wrote all my own autoresponders, wrote my own press releases, etc. you get the picture.

As time wore on and profits increased, I slowly began out sourcing certain things. I hired a wonderful accountant to handle my accounting needs (yes, I used to do all my own book keeping, yuk). Over the years I out sourced things like content, product creation, publicity, other forms of promotion, because you cannot grow your business beyond a certain limit by being a one-person operation.

When my business hit a certain profit target I went and visited with a business financial planner. Even though I used to be one, I wanted to find an expert that was more current and up to date with the laws and financial and insurance products that I would need to protect my income, my business, and execute an exit strategy - especially if I became disabled or deceased. I've seen way to many business owners get in trouble because they always said to themselves "I don't need it" or "I'll do it later."

Sometimes "later" was too late. I did not want to be one of those statistics.

There are certain things I've kept in-house. I have a small team of well-trained contractors that manage all our paid advertising campaigns and while I have someone who does quality audits, I'm very much involved in quality control by performing random audits to make sure everyone is on the same page and to address any training issues. At some point someone is going to take over that as well, but right now I prefer to do it.

When I dive into a niche I know nothing about I make it a point to learn about it. I know, I know that goes against the advice of what some people say to do, but it's my personal preference to learn about whom I'm competing against. I buy the top 2 or 3 products / services in that niche and read / listen /study the product from beginning to end with my crack team of product detectives. We have meetings on what the competition's strength's are and weaknesses and where we can find a competitive advantage (you can always find one because no one company or individual can excel at everything and every aspect in that niche).

We then seek out an expert or experts to interview or assist us with the product creation phase. Of course, this is only done after extensive market research which sometimes takes weeks. I'm a bit of a control freak so it's taken me years (and a bit of maturation) to learn to let go of certain things and trust others to run them for me. But even if I'm on vacation, I'm able to access our systems and make sure the team is doing things the way I want them to.

I have learned that if you have solid systems in place with clear policies and procedures and set clear expectations before you hire anyone, then your business can run without you. I simply choose to be a big part of it because I love creating new products. I thoroughly enjoy sharing the creative brain-storming with my team and could not even think of running my business without them.

We lost someone recently due to pregnancy and she decided not to come back to us to stay with her child and we applauded her for it. She still comes into the office from time to time to visit because we still consider her part of the family. She was one of our most proficient team players and I have told her whenever she wants to come back she always has a place here (we can always create a new income stream for her to manage).

That's my long-winded way of saying that when I first started about ten years ago I did everything myself and today I'm mostly managing, doing some auditing, and a lot of product creation, networking, and looking for new opportunities for growth. I don't think I'll ever truly retire though, I'm having way too much fun.

My 5 pesos,

RoD

I'm a one man operation. I create my own products, do my own web pages, graphics, audio, research, sales copy, link building... all of it. Apart from filing taxes, I have my CPA do that.

I hire out for most of my graphics work. This doesn't relinquish too much control as I still have final say on whether I will use an image or not. Other stuff gets outsourced from time to time, like certain SEO tasks, but I like to be hands on about a number of things too.

I don't delegate anything that requires strategy, thought, or innovation. Everything else can be handed off to someone for pennies on the dollar. Since I'm an SEO, I come up with the strategy to get the rankings. The link building, article writing, content blasting, and all of that busy work gets delegated to my trusted folks in India.

You can't do it all alone and more importantly you shouldn't do it all alone. Actually let me say this, it can be done alone but you'll be limiting your income by doing so.

I do pretty much everything on my own, too. I have good software to take care of a lot of the repetitive stuff, though.

In the beginning I did everything, and was a little paranoid about other people doing work for me, mostly because I worried they'd not be up to snuff and meet my admittedly high standards. I started to relax after a while, and now I'm somewhat more comfortable with outsourcing my writing and graphics work. I've realized that while the work may not be perfect, my time is worth a lot, and I really shouldn't be spending significant amounts of time on low-value tasks like basic article writing and graphics work like logos and banners.

When you're starting out you will generally grow slowly because you will most likely so things yourself, but once you've made a bit of money you can start to outsource and grow faster. (Unless you're already pretty well off, then you can outsource from the start)

Right now I do everything myself, even small bits of graphic work like my blog header, but when I need an ebook cover of something I usually pay someone else to do a professional job.

Paul

yes, I cover almost everything, until recently am I beginning to outsource.

The problem is, when you delegate your tasks, you may not get the quality in outcome as you'd want.

I personally need to take care of the things which are really important and brings profit.Only so I know that is really solved.

I do not trust anyone when it comes to my well being.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

It's a hard balance to make I suppose. I know I lack many, many skills, and I just don't have the time to learn everything anymore. (Not that I could anyway - my brain is almost filled up )

But I guess I get scared when hear stories of business partners and trusted employees walking off with the goods, the bank account etc.

But I suppose that's the exception, not the norm.

I personally am doing 80-90% for my current project. I outsource the stuff I am horrible at (design , copywriting , article writing). I try to do as much as I can until I startmaking top dollar. It's a lot of work but I get satisfaction when I complete a task.