Who has an 'Offline Business' with low Working Hours?

What's your typical day look like? With that many hours and outsources, you should have a good 6 figure business unless you're doing something terribly wrong.

Stop worrying about the money and hire people. Once you hire people you will make less but work less. The key is to leverage more people working for you so in time you make more not working than you did working.

The secret is residual income. You don't need that many clients
if each one is sending you $89 a month automatically.

Hugh

Think about this:



Most successful businesses have one individual who takes care of day-to-day operations (works IN the business), and another who goes out and grows the business (works ON the business).

The ones in trouble typically have nobody working ON the business.They're frozen working IN the business. They grow only as much as a full pool of current clients and customers can permit--there are only 24 hours in the day, etc.

If you want to grow, you have to give up working IN your business.

This is the problem a lot of startups have. Say there are two people who are good at baking, say, cupcakes. They want to go into business for themselves because they make great-tasting cupcakes...and they expect the millions will pour in.

And they discover all they've accomplished is buying themselves a full time job making cupcakes.

If they want to grow, they have to give up being in the business and making cupcakes every day. They have to start concentrating on strategy, joint ventures, branding, new recipes, the secret 11 herbs and spices, and whatever else will grow their business.

Yeah I am not big on outsourcing to that extreme. Pay more and hire local.

Mdiddy1,

Depends on the business needs. Last week I added a mobile website (outsourced $47 1 time) monthly backlinks (outsourced $5 mo) and an original article every other month (outsourced $5 ea). $89 x 12 = 1068 - 137 = $931 profit.
That was the upsell. I also sold him a 5 page website.

Hugh

Give your web designer a piece of the monthly fee for customer service, and focus all of your energy on sales.

He can probably handle the customer service better than you can anyway, and you are doing him a favor by focusing on sales and keeping money coming in for him.

I once even had a designer say to me when I approached him with a customer's question:

"Let me handle that stuff...you go out and make some more sales. I got this". He may even offer them solutions that create up-sells for you.

Make your clients his too.

Give your outsourcers a vested interest in your success and in maintaining customers...

And focus 90% on sales.

If you can "sell" you have the missing piece to alot of technicians puzzle.

Basically, if you can get someone else setting appointments, you whole job is just running them a few hours per day...and when there are enough appointments to go around that (running them) becomes as easy as "going to visit sick people in a hospital" much like what we call a "candy striper" in America.

No pressure to close, because there are a ton of prospects. Just going around visiting people really and seeing what you can do for them to make them feel better.

Hard sales are for people who dont have enough appointments.

In short:

The key is outsourcing, however obvious that is, I just wrote and "epistle" here, so you can see "why" thats the key, and "why" a webmaster would want to handle your admin for you.

They arent going to steal your customers (smart ones), because if they blow their relationship with you they will be sitting there with no business again.

If you can sell on a consistent basis, you are the best thing that ever happened to your outsourcers and they want to support you in every way.

Hope this helps.

-JD

Ps. "A man only has time for one mistress, and that has to be his farm...".

If you are working alone, sales is your bread and butter, you dont have time to design websites if you are growing at all, and you "webmaster" can be the one you refer your customers to for technicial questions.

Get out and make another sale. The more you make, the freer you become.

Dont promise the moon, or you will always be chasing your own tail. Focus on low maintenance type sales like hugh mentions above, where they dont expect you to name your firstborn after them for the fee.

Build them a 5 page website where thats all they expect is an online presence, then if you want to upsell them SEO, send them to Iamnameless and split the commission, but as for you; just go out and make another sale, and focus on what you do best.


This problem is not uncommon,; virtually every newby that gets a few sales here comes back a month later saying "Im spending so much time on my customers fulfillment that Im not creating new ones...".

Thats a house of cards. Get a foundation and build some relationships with outsourcers and share the success...there will be more of it if you do.

Again, hope this helps.

That's it... I need a webdesigner and SEO expert to outsource work to!!! Hit me up if your looking for more work!!!

Tim Ferris has an offline business with low working hours. At least he says he does, when he's out selling his books 12 hours a day and making videos of himself sipping tea with his legs crossed with other New Age phonies.

Like people have said delegate. But I would hire local for someone to manage things then you work closer with them. Outsourcing to far flung corners of the world for cheap is good for somethings, but especially if they are going to be communicating with customers you would want them close so you can coordinate well with them.