Yesterday I interviewd Lorraine Pirihi, A.K.A. The Productivity Queen. Lorraine calls it pretty straight which means she looks at your business and where you are spending your time and gets you thinking lean and efficient. Over the next few days I will share with you some really practical tips Loraine shared with us. You can listen to the interview if you are a gold member of Wonderful Web Women by logging in and looking in the completed interviews section.
You can find out more about Lorraine and the excellent (and generous) “Productivity and Profit System” she has put together here. Lorraine is offering the first 7 Wonderful Web Women who purchase her system a 30 minute “Business Breakthrough” Strategy session valued at $397.
How to Outsource to increase your profits
Lorraine spent quite some time on our call talking about how to outsource and why. This would probably be the most important thing you can do if you want to grow your business. This is something I am passionate about as well so I really want to help you to find out how to outsource quickly. Here are a few tips.
Audit your time
Lorraine suggested the first step you should do is document how you are spending your time – for at least 2 weeks. You don’t have to go over the top. Just draw up a simple chart with the day divided into hourly time slots. simply record in general what you were doing (eg emails, exercise, admin, writing sales letters).
Now look at what you are spending your time on that does not directly help you make money (such as admin), tasks you absolutley HATE or that you are not very good at doing. These are the tasks you outsource first.
Start off small
You don’t have to find someone permanently to work in your business. When I started outsourcing I convinced a friend to work with me for 4 hours per week doing my book-keeping, posting etc. Weirdly, she actually likes doing that stuff! I keep it simple in that she is a contractor. Now she works 2 days per week but it has taken over 2 years to grow the business to a stage where I could employ her for that many hours. She gets done in 4 hours what previously took me 8 hours (and a lot of swearing at the computer).
I did the same thing when I contracted my first virtual assistant, Lisa. She started at just 4 hours per week and I built up her hours as the business grew and I could afford to increase what I outsource. We now have 5 part-time contractors. When I first started, they got paid before I did because I knew I was investing in growth – but it was the best thing I ever did.
Ali Brown, who has built her multi-million dollar business in under 5 years, recently shared that when she started out she paid her virtual assistants by credit card, because she knew she was investing in growth.
Lorraine calculated that her 3 part time virtual assistants save her on average 30 hours work per week. The trick is, she doesn’t employ them for 30 hours. In fact much less. They are so much more productive doing the jobs they enjoy.
Use Virtual Assistants
We have talked about Virtual Assistants but what are they and where do you find them?
A Virtual Assistant (VA) is a private business owner who provides admin, book keeping, web support etc. They work from their home usually and don’t need to come to your work place. You can see recommendations here in the forum of where to find a great VA.
Value your own time
One of the biggest hurdles we face as entrepreneurs (and I do wonder if this is more so for women) is valueing our own time. Sure a VA may cost you anywhere from $20 to $50 per hour (and be more productive than you in that time) but if you calculate your worth, if you were only concentrating on money-making activities, it is far more. Believe in yourself and you will see that outsourcing is the right thing to do.
Spend your free time wisely
When you have freed up a few hours of your time by outsourcing be careful not to spend that free time on other activities that are administrative. Schedule in time to work on writing sales letters, creating products and providing services to your customers.
Lorraine shares checklists, procedures and a structured system to help you implement productivity systems in your growing business. You can chek out Lorraine’s generous 8 part payment plan by visiting this link. I’d love to hear your productivity tips. Why not share them here or over at Wonderful Web Forum?
