Successful Entrepreneurs Know Their Strengths
Successful Entrepreneurs Know Their Strengths
Strategic Outsourcing Can Help Focus Your Own Efforts
by Michael D. Hume, M.S.
The fast track (perhaps the only track) to wealth building in tough economic times is to develop entrepreneurial skills. You might be a freshly-minted business owner; maybe you've joined the growing ranks of successful entrepreneurs who've found a way to operate your own business, from home, in cyberspace.
If so, by now you've probably learned that you can't just sit around and wait for riches to pour down on you from Heaven. In fact, you might be disillusioned. Didn't they tell you your business would be "fully automated," that it would "do all the explaining and selling for you," and that you would make big bucks by just surfing around on the internet? I had a similar experience at the outset of my business, until I realized that (as CEO) I was responsible for every function and piece of the value chain of the business. I didn't have to do every task, but I needed to make sure every task was done, and done well. And that's when I learned about strategic outsourcing.
Here's my favorite example.
Turns out you CAN make very good money right there in your home office, but you do have to talk to people. As an introvert, I'd hoped I could do all my business using email and internet ads. But customers are funny about a few things. They don't buy what you're selling, they buy YOU, and the relationship you build with them... and that can't be done with banner ads and emails alone.
Trouble is, most people HATE cold calling. I know I do.
So I don't do it.
I outsourced it to the professionals. They're calling hundreds of my internet-generated leads for me right now, and every day, and qualifying them for my time. And they're making me sound like the busy professional and successful entrepreneur I truly am.
Here's how my day goes: I do a few hours of what you do, promoting my primary business, driving traffic, advertising, generating leads. Several times a day, the phone rings, and if I can, I take the call... it's my assistant, three-waying another red-hot prospect to talk with me about my business. The prospect has been pre-qualified for my time, meaning she's ready to consider my opportunity, is booked into a webinar to do all the explaining, and has my number. The prospect has made a commitment to my assistant to attend the webinar and to call me afterward. So I spend 2-3 minutes with her, just getting to know her, and starting that all-important relationship building.
I didn't have to call her number six times before reaching her.
I didn't have to talk briefly to ten other people who slammed the phone down in my ear.
I didn't have to leave endless messages... I didn't have to spend hours on the phone with the tire-kickers to find her... I didn't have to "chase" her like a desperate, hungry salesperson.
My assistant did all that.
I only talk to qualified, interested prospects who are chasing me and my opportunity.
Sure, I do pick up the phone for a few minutes a week (yes, you read correctly, just a few minutes a week) to follow-up with folks and help them get happily involved in my primary business... but I ONLY talk to the hot prospects who've already made and kept commitments as they've investigated the opportunity. I spend my time exclusively with serious prospects. And business has gone from tough and dismal to easy and awesome.
I still work hard, as any entrepreneur does, but I now spend my time like a CEO (not like a salesperson, and not like the "administrator" I think my introverted style was driving me to be early-on). I focus on the things I do best, and let some high-power pros do for me the things I don't want to do (or don't do well). And now I coach my new-entrepreneur clients to consider strategic outsourcing as a way for them to do the same.
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