Let me share a big secret with you that all wealth-y solo-entrepreneurs know: If you want to have an ideal business, work less and make a whole lot more, I can assure you that you CANNOT do it by yourself. You must outsource!
You know how I know this? Because for years, I tried! For years, I tried to do everything in my business by myself, like the good “lone ranger” that I thought I was. You know what? It didn’t work. In fact, a few years ago, I remember getting on the phone with my coach and crying for the first 8 minutes of our coaching call. He listened patiently as I sobbed and then said just one thing to me:
“Fabienne, Frank Sinatra didn’t move his own pianos.”
Silence on the phone. I stopped crying and it was like The Truth had been spoken. It may seem like a “duh” moment to you, but when I heard this for the first time, it felt like the skies had parted and the answer to all my problems were streaming down from the sky. I realized that I had been trying to “move my own piano”, instead of focusing on my brilliance and my “genius” work – the stuff that I’m good at and that only *I* can do in my business.
The minute he said those words to me, a surge of energy went up my entire spine. I realized right then and there that I was trying to do the impossible by doing it all myself and that I would never be able to grow my business further if I didn’t change the way I did things.
So I changed my whole way of doing business and I started DELEGATING different aspects of my business to others. And I’m deliriously happy to report that my business, my bank account (and my sanity) have never looked better!
Fact is, you cannot do it all on your own either. No matter how much you like to think that you can do it better, faster and more efficiently than anyone else, the fact remains that you will eventually burn out. In his book “No B.S. Business Success”, Dan Kennedy talks about the worst number in ANY business is the number 1. Meaning, you never want to be the only one working in your business.
You MUST leverage your time and resources if you are serious about running a successful business, getting clients and finally making a good 1ncome being self-employed. There’s just no way around it. And getting it ALL done means you have to eventually start outsourcing and delegating.
Thing is, you can wait like I did until you nearly crumble into a state of near exhaustion where things are falling through the cracks left and right OR you can come from a Full Practice Mentality and start getting assistance NOW, before you ever get to that place.
Proper outsourcing means delegating specific things to someone who’s happy to do them for you:
* Stuff you’re not good at
* Stuff you don’t know how to do
* Stuff you don’t have time to do
* Anything outside of your brilliance/genius (meaning, everything other than the stuff only you can do in your business)
Delegating allows you to strengthen your strengths, instead of trying to “better” your weaknesses. It means only working on your core competencies and focusing on your brilliance and genius work. In turn, you’ll get more done, you’ll make more mo-ney, and you’ll enjoy more time off for the important things in life (like your family, your friends, you know, the important stuff.)
It’s the ULTIMATE leverage!
Now, I have a team of 5 virtual assistants and one in-person assistant helping me on a part-time basis. On top of that, I get help from bookkeepers, attorneys, accountants, fulfillment houses, etc., so I can focus on doing what I do best: speak, write, coach and create products. Oh, and marketing too. Don’t forget that. And because of it, I’m personally able to PRODUCE so much more than I’ve ever been able to.
But I know what you might be thinking. “That’s fine for you, Fabienne, but I’m not in a place where I can bring on a whole staff of people.” Well, believe me, I know about that because I used to be there too! This wasn’t an overnight thing. It’s taken me a few years to get to this point. But the good news is, you can start slowly and ramp up from there, like I did.
Here’s what I want you to do:
* Calculate what you’re worth per hour when you’re doing your Brilliance/Genius work; that which only you can do
* Make a list of all the things you do each day
* Attach a dollar value to what you could pay someone to outsource this to
Example: Let’s assume you’re worth $200 per billable hour. Ideally you should be generating $200 or more for EACH hour you work. However, I’ll guess you’re doing DOZENS of things each day that someone charges less for (and is happy to do for $15, $25, $45, $75, etc.) These are the things you want to outsource, so you can make $200 every hour you DO work. It’s all about working smarter and more efficiently.
To justify this, REPLACE the time you’ve saved with doing your Brilliance/ Genius work and working on your Client Attraction assignments. Why? Because marketing = more clients = more do11ars. Enough said. (That doesn’t mean you can go goof off. That’s NOT the point, at least not at the beginning.)
Makes sense?
If budget is an issue, just start small. Focus first on tasks that will immediately make you money (stuff you’re not doing now, stuff you don’t know how to do) and set a maximum hour cap per month. Then, as revenue comes in, you can grow from there.
Within months of my taking the leap and doing this, outsourcing helped bring in so much more money, I was able to increase the hours I could delegate and outsource some more and I eventually doubled my revenues in ONE year.
You can too. It’s really easy.
Your Client Attraction Assignment:
So, take out a sheet of paper and do the following:
* Calculate what you’re worth per hour when you’re doing your Brilliance/Genius work; that which only you can do
* Make a list of all the things you do each day that don’t fall within the category of your Brilliance/Genius work
* Attach a dollar value to what you could pay someone to outsource this to
* Begin to outsource and delegate, little by little
I guarantee that you too will catapult your 1ncome as you focus more and more on business development and Client Attraction, as well as your genius work. You won’t believe you ever did it any other way.
Need some resources on how to clear the decks and make Client Attraction a priority by outsourcing? Then get a copy of the Client Attraction Home Study System™. It includes everything you need to know to fill your practice quickly and close the sale consistently without ever feeling icky; no matter if you’re just starting out or have been in business for years. All the tools, scripts, templates and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. And it’s laid out in a very simple way: do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, move on to step two, etc. It’s so simple and yet so very powerful, it’s changed the lives of thousands of solopreneurs. You can read the success stories and get your own copy at www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com. (Why struggle when you can just attract clients easily?)
© 2008 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Want to use this article on your website or your own ezine? No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:
Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System®, the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your income, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.
