At the time of writing this I was at Starbucks in Houston airport, with the infinite variety of humanity swirling around me. I’d just finished spending time with my new marketing contractor, Trish Lambert. We met via the internet. How, you might wonder? A strange dating service? To answer that, let me back up.
A few years prior I fielded a question from one of my web-related service providers. He asked: ‘What’s the main thing that prevents you achieving all your internet-related business goals?’ I was about to reply ‘Lack of time’ when I realised that I of all people (being a time management specialist), couldn’t use that excuse. So I dug a bit deeper. My final answer was ‘Lack of resources’.
That answer brought another question: ‘What parts of the work can someone else do, and where can I find such a person?’
The quality of a question determines the quality of the answer. The list was long and the solution wasn’t long in coming, once I was clear what the question really was.
Within six weeks Jason joined the team as a part-time contractor. At the time he was a senior university student. By the time he left us, nearly three years later, he’d not only made a very solid contribution to the company but also gained valuable experience. And not only was he far better and faster at his work than me, but his salary level was a lot lower than my own billing rate.
So, next time you can’t find time to think, look for pieces of your work to outsource. The first step is to write down the specific tasks. Then get creative about who can do it.
To start you thinking, here’s a partial list of our suppliers over the years:
- My first assistant was a young woman participating in a job scheme. A friend and I shared her hours and her wages and her pay was subsidised by the government. Six months later Lillian became full-time for my friend and I could afford to hire an experienced part-timer of my own.
- School mothers are a brilliant employment pool. Give them the chance to do flexible work hours or even work from home and you’ll have wonderful loyal team members. Jill, my Office Manager moved from Auckland to Christchurch a few years ago and still continues to run the office. A virtual office works just as well.
- Don’t just think locally. We use suppliers all over the country who work consistently enough for us to be regarded as an integral part of the team.
- And then there’s overseas – which brings me back to Houston.
We’re now marketing my ‘Gettingagrip Productivity Training System’ internationally. Again I realised I needed help. My most effective marketing so far has been via my writing – both articles and books. The small New Zealand market is easy enough to reach on my own – however, international publications are a very different ball game. Industry-specific international publications need to be sourced, articles already written need tweaking to fit different journals, approaches need to be made to editors… it’s a time-consuming project.
Over the past few years I’ve been hearing my professional speaker colleagues from various countries rave about www.elance.com. It’s a well-managed supplier/buyer contracting service. I dipped my toe in the water by asking for three articles to be modified for three different markets.
Result? Brilliant. I received about 35 bids. I didn’t go for the cheapest. Instead I selected someone with excellent experience, not only for the immediate task but also for other future projects. We communicated first through elance, then regular email, then Skype. As I write this article I’ve just spent two days with my new marketing officer in Houston, as I was en route to a conference in Orlando.
Help is everywhere. Just be clear about what you need and be prepared to source assistance in unusual places.
