We didn't have a Power Point presentation at this month's luncheon but we did talk about an important subject. 

Capitalizing on your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses.

So many business owners expend a tonne of energy on activities that are important but that they either hate to do or are just not that good at. When you look at the ROI (return on investment) for these activities it is really low.

Why?

Because the effort it takes to do something you love and you are good at is so much less than for something you just don't want to do.

A business friend of mine is a clear example of this. She hates data entry of any kind.  To get her to enter the information from a business card into any kind of system would take time and energy. She will find a million things that need to be done before doing the data entry.  So it almost never gets done and if it does it is almost too late. There is always guilt and frustration associated with these types of tasks. 

On the other hand meeting people and helping them resolve their business issues is a joy for her so it is something she does often and she feels great after.

She is a prime candidate for outsourcing any data entry tasks. And guess what!  There are people out there who LOVE data entry.  So who do you think will get it done better and faster?

People always worry about the costs of outsourcing especially for minor tasks that shouldn't take long and don't require a lot of skill.

But think about it this way...if you love what you are really good at, probably what your business is about, you will use that time, lets say 2 hours, moving you and your company forward. If on the other hand you try to spend 2 hours doing something that drags you down...well you have an opportunity cost. The cost of not moving forward.

On the other hand if it costs you 10-20 $ for someone else to do the work, you feel good because you know it will get done well and quickly AND you didn't have to do it PLUS you will have the time you would have taken to do what you are great at.

So think about it and then do it.  Get someone else to do what you don't like to do or what you don't do well.

You might have done something that will make you hundreds of dollars in the same amount of time.


Here are some things to consider when outsourcing.

What do you do that you don't like to do ?
What do you do that you focus's on your weaknesses ?

Many of our clients find that what holds them back are their mundane marketing and customer relationship tasks.

Consider outsourcing !

What do people typically outsource:

  1. Bookkeeping
  2. Taxes
  3. Graphic Design
  4. Event planning
 
Consider Outsourcing the following:
  1. Writing newsletters
  2. Writing blog content
  3. Researching - market, product, pricing, blog and newsletter content
  4. Twitter - adding followers
  5. Facebook pages/postings
  6. SEO - keywords on blogs etc.
  7. Posting articles
  8. Follow up phone calls
  9. Shopping cart management
  10. Editing powerpoints/pdf creation
  11. Client thank yous
  12. Bill payment
  13. Project Management
Consider return on your investment

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