Automating Your Business

In Tim Ferris’s book, THE FOUR HOUR WORK WEEK, he encourages readers to join “The New Rich”. One of the elements of how this is done is to initiate a plan to automate as many of the mundane, day to day tasks that can be done by someone else.

CONSIDER THESE POINTS:

1. What is your time worth?
2. Can you avoid the concept that you would prefer to “do it yourself for free” rather than out-source the mundane?

To Automate your business Tim suggests getting a remote personal assistant as soon as possible. Learn how to give orders and be a commander instead of the commanded. Remote management and communication is a critical New-Rich skill. Plus, very remote management (jumping time zones and visiting third-world currency) has two pros:

1. people work while you sleep
2. the per-hour expense is less

Becoming a member of the New-Rich is not just about working smarter, it’s about building a system to replace yourself. The goal is to free your time to focus on bigger and better things.

Refine rules and processes before adding people.
Two guidelines for task delegation to personal and/or virtual assistants:

Golden Rule #1: Each delegated task must be both time-consuming and well-define.
Golden Rule #2: On a lighter note, have some fun with it.

The important metrics are cost per completed task (not cost per hour) and successful task completion rate. Also assure to have fallback support by hiring a VA firm or VAs with backup teams, so your delegated task will be completed without interruption.

Two rules to minimize damage from information theft and allow for fast repair:

1. Never use debit cards for online transactions or with remote assistants (instead use credit cards with painless and near instantaneous refunds).

2. If your VA will be accessing websites on your behalf, create a new unique login and password to be used on those sites.

Practical tips to avoid common delegation mistakes:

1. Do not accept the first person a firm provides, and do make special requests at the outset.
2. Give precise directions and ask for task rephrasing and confirmation before starting the work.
3. Don’t give a license to waste time by demanding periodic status updates, so further execution of impossible tasks can be halted before going out of control.
4. Set only short deadlines, within 72 hours or even 48 or 24 hours and break larger tasks into subtasks.
5. Give one but no more than two prioritized tasks at a time.

Questions and Actions: Virtual Assistant

1. Get an assistant - even if you don’t need one.
2. Start small, but think big.
3. Look at what tasks have been sitting the longest on your to-do list.
4. Ask yourself if a VA could do the task when you are interrupted or change tasks.
5. Delegate tasks that cause you the most frustration and boredom.
6. Identify your top five time-consuming non work tasks and five personal tasks you could assign for sheer fun.

Questions or comments? Please visit http://eastcountybiz.com

Can you avoid the concept that you would prefer to “do it yourself for free” rather than out-source the mundane?

If you want to investigate getting a virtual assistant, let us know.

If you want to buy this book, it’s available in most book stores. Soon we will be selling it on our site.