let’s talk: OUTSOURCING YOUR LIFE
Happy October!! How is it already October?! Anyway, right now I am currently reading “The 4-Hour Workweek” for the second time. And this time, instead of just reading through the book, I am trying to actually implement some of the teachings! One thing that really sticks out to me is the art out outsourcing. Not only in your business life but also your personal life. I like this topic because it is something we can ALL relate to! AND, something I am sure many of us, including myself, struggle with. So let’s talk about it.
So as we do, let’s talk Real Estate, let’s talk OUTSOURCING YOUR LIFE…
“The 4-Hour Workweek” is a book written by serial entrepreneur, Tim Ferris. Tim Ferris spends a ton of time talking about the art of automation and outsourcing in order to build a sustainable and successful business and lifestyle.
His thought process is to eliminate or outsource all of the tasks in your life that do not have to be done BY YOU. This can be anything from hiring a cleaning company to clean your house every week, to buying pre-made meals so you do not have to cook, to hiring a virtual assistant to check off those time consuming tasks on your to do lists, to creating automated processes for your business so that your business can run WITHOUT YOU. The goal is to essentially find ways to replace yourself.
WHY? WHAT IS THE POINT OF THAT?
To be able to provide you with the FREEDOM to do whatever it is you want.
SO HOW DO WE GO ABOUT DOING IT?
He teaches to…
#1 Eliminate Before You Delegate
Get rid of mundane tasks. Unless something is important and serves a clear purpose, get rid of it. This should be easier to do now that you are paying someone your own cash to get tasks done. Why would you want to waste your cash paying someone to do something that was never necessary in the first place? The goal is to refine processes and rules before you delegate them to someone else.
#2 Determine What to Delegate
Items delegated to someone else should be well defined and time consuming, otherwise you would just quickly do them yourself! Look at your to do list and what has been on there the longest – can a virtual assistant take on this task?
#3 Determine Who To Delegate To
If you are looking for a virtual assistant, the goods news is that there are a TON of them out there now! And for a much more affordable price than you may think. Tim Ferris recommends the following outsourcing companies;
– Brickwork India – Business tasks only
– YMII – Your Man In India – Business + Personal tasks
– IAVOA – International Association of Virtual Office Assistants
– ELANCE
There are also a ton virtual assistants on Fiverr.com, Upwork.com and I have actually been approached by a few on Instagram and LinkedIn!
#4 Learn HOW to Delegate
Delegations must be simple and clearly written tasks.
Delegate one task at a time.
Set strict, and quick deadlines.
The Master does nothing,
yet he leaves nothing undone.
The ordinary man is always doing things,
yet many more are left to be done.
Tao Te Ching
HERE ARE SOME ITEMS I AM ACTUALLY LOOKING TO START OUTSOURCING…
– My website….www.erinkelly.org – I want to totally revamp it!
– QuickBooks… I just cannot keep up with it and frankly, I do not think it is something I am good at!
– Grocery shopping… this is something I already do technically outsource. If you live in the Greater NYC Area you know that a trip to Whole Foods or Trader Joes can easily take you an hour purely due to the incredibly long lines we have to deal with… so, we do Amazon Fresh!
HERE IS WHERE I STRUGGLE….
#1 Spending $$$
How can I justify delegating something and PAYING to delegate that task when I can easily do it myself? The whole notion behind this is to only delegate a task if it will give you the freedom to go out there and work on something bigger & better. Let’s say you can pay someone $7/ hour to clean up your Quickbooks and it only takes them 2 hours to do – that is $14. What could you do if you had those two hours back? Could you go out there and earn more than $14? Could you spend those two hours with your family? What would be worth the $14 to you?
#2 Understanding My Business
I once read a quote by Jeff Bezos that essentially said in order to run a successful business, you must understand every aspect of it. If I delegate everything, how can I learn to understand it?! My goal, for now, is to do most of the stuff that is required to run our real estate business. Once I feel as though I can automate a lot of it, OR truly understand how to run it, that is the point in which I will look to outsource it, but not yet!
Anyway, that is just my food for thought on this notion! I HIGHLY recommend the book for anyone who is trying to revamp their life… which, let’s be honest, who isn’t always trying to better their life?! I 100% hope to be able to work on tying in some of Tim Ferriss’s teaching into both my personal and professional life but I would love to know… What are YOUR thoughts on this topic?! Are there any items YOU currently outsource?! Would you be okay outsourcing the majority of your business? How about your personal life?!
Feel free to comment on the blog post HERE and let us know what YOU think!
Happy Wednesday!
Erin
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Data Sources for Today’s Content:
Me – this is based on my own personal experience!
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
