Just because I haven’t posted anything here in a while, doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. Actually, I should say that the team is making incredible progress, while I haven’t been TOO focused on any one aspect of any of my projects.
Currently, I am paying 3 people on oDesk to work on one project; this is what they’re doing: One person is writing code – building the core of my next business. One person is gathering targeted accounts for the same business (as of today, she’s gathered a list of over 20,000 targeted accounts). The third person is testing the code that the first person is writing. I also have a fourth oDesk resource working on my second project- he’s doing all of the presentation material for the relaunch of my first business. Finally, I have a ghost writer working on my book through Guru.com.
For your reference here is what I’m paying each one:
Code writer: $12 / hour
Targeted account list builder: $1.50 / hour
Tester: $2.50 / hour
Presentation developer: $25.00 / hour
Ghost Writer: Flat rate of $400.00
As of today, I’ve invested approximately $5,000 in 2010 in all of the people above. I see it as a small investment to build, what could easily be, the core businesses for my financial freedom for the foreseeable future.
On top of the four people whom I’m paying to do work, I have 4 team members for the first business working on building out the business, including marketing material, branding, and DB development and design.
So, what have I been doing? THE ANSWER: MANAGING, STUDYING & LEARNING and THINKING
I’ve come to appreciate the four activities above….I never used to appreciate these activities and I never gave myself enough credit for these four. I always thought that if I weren’t creating something tangible myself that I wasn’t doing something valuable. The reality is the exact opposite. As an entrepreneur, it’s my responsibility to do these four activities FIRST and before anything else gets done. And then, I must continue to do these four until I’ve created a successful business.
Here’s some of what I’ve done in each of these areas. With these examples I hope to convince you that these four activities should be your top priority as well:
MANAGING: I oversee each person above and make sure I handle what ever escalations they push up to me and make sure they’re working on the most critical stuff. I define exactly what they should be working on and I find the best, least expensive resources to do the work. If all goes well, I’ll have a fully functional business all built and tested for less than a $10,000 investment. This will allow me to go out and raise capital to JUST execute campaigns. The business is designed to be highly scalable, so ALL investment capital can go directly towards marketing efforts and converting prospects into customers. The $10,000 investment will include ALL targeted lists for the marketing efforts, so no marketing investment capital will go towards list purchases or rentals.
STUDYING & LEARNING: Since my last post, my wife and I had our second child (a beautiful baby boy!) and I’ve taken on a new contract at a new client. Although my wife and I are sleep deprived and my commute is now almost an hour in both directions, I am getting a lot of time to study and learn. In the last two months, I’ve gone through 3 books on tape:
- The Four Hour Work Week
- The Magic of Thinking Big
- The E-Myth Revisited
Each of these books has reinforced the lessons I’ve already learned and have given me the tips and tools to make sure I do a better job with my next business launches. With the sleep deprivation, I’m listening to each of these a few times on my commute….more and more sinks in each time I listen.
THINKING: Almost daily, I pause one of these books on tape and thought about how it applies to the businesses I’m working on. I’ve had some really great breakthroughs…..A couple of examples inspired by each book include:
Listening to E-Myth Revisited:
- I’ve expanded our product offering for the first business: my team and I have had differing opinions about what we should offer….in reality, we need to offer EACH item and roll them out as separate products as new competitors come into our market place. We’re building them all up front and will launch them in anticipation to competition entering the marketplace.
- I’ve devised a vision for how this first business will look when it’s fully mature, created an org structure for all of the roles that will be required to run it.
- I’ve analyzed our go-to-market strategy and determined that we were missing major gaps based on bad assumptions
The Magic of Thinking Big:
- I’ve identified two new assets which I’ll be building small businesses around over the next year.
The Four Hour Work Week:
- I’ve determined how to get the two new assets above built by outsourcing almost 100% of the work.
- Finally, I’ve become almost completely comfortable with outsourcing all of this work and simply managing it to ensure it gets done. Getting comfortable in the leadership / managing role, I believe, is one of my most fundamental changes over the last year.
Has anything tangible been created with any of these activities? NO
Has a future for my family and my life been better defined? Absolutely. And here is the simple truth about this type of work: if it doesn’t get done…If you don’t think, dream and learn how to get there, if you don’t focus on where you’re going, you’ll NEVER get there. Will I get EXACTLY where I think I’ll be based on my plans and dreams today? No. Will I be a hell of a lot closer than someone who doesn’t do these activities? Absolutely.
If you don’t take the time to think and plan what direction you’re heading, you’ll never get anywhere other than where you are today.