More Than WE Know

Perhaps you’ve read Tim Ferris’ book The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.  I read it last year and thought it had some good ideas in it. It was motivating and fun and gave some suggestions for delegating, trusting others and letting go of details.  It encourages you to integrate your life and your work and live more fully.

I thought it was good advice, especially for Women Entrepreneurs, who tend to sweat the small stuff. 

But, I never took it literally - I mean I never thought that having a 4-Hour Work Week was anything more than a catchy advertising gimmick!

However lately I’ve been hearing more and more people talk about trying to cut their business back to a 4-hour work week.  I’ve even read some blogs in which the authors are monitoring their progress on getting to that point.  They write about their fun-filled lives spent not working, earning passive income, while lying on a beach while other people handle the daily details of their business.

While I’m all for work-life balance - I think this idea is taking a dangerous turn.  

As women we’ve fought the battle of having to be SuperWoman for too long. For years, we’ve thought we had to build a successful career, raise brilliant kids and run a perfect home. 

Only lately have we started admitting that we’re human. We’ve tried - but we simply can’t do it all. 

And that’s okay.

Women today are starting their own businesses at twice the rate of men.  Many are motivated by a desire to integrate the separate parts of their lives - enabling them to live and work with passion according to their own schedules.   

But just as they’re starting to learn the challenges of running their own business - along comes the idea of the Four-Hour Work Week and the impossible expectations are raised once again.

Now, all of a sudden, if you can’t make a six-figure income in four hours per week, running your own business, doing something you love - you’re a failure! And guess what? There’s no one to blame but yourself - because everyone else appears to be doing it!!

Well, I’m here to tell you that I don’t think anyone is doing it - not even Tim Ferris.

And even if they are, I don’t think that’s a worthwhile goal.

If you are going to build a business - then build it.

Make it something that you want to work in and work on.

Make it something that gets you out of bed in the morning because you are so excited to start the day.

Make it something that lights you up inside and gets your heart racing and your mind jumping.

Make it something that you can’t help talking about because it is so precious to you.

And when you do, the hours that you work will fly by in seconds.  You may work 40 or even 50 hours per week - but it will feel like only four.  Your life will be truly integrated because you won’t know when you are working and when you are playing - it will all feel the same inside.

So, no, I don’t want the added presure of trying to build my business in only a four-hour workweek. I’ll settle for work so engrossing and fun that I sit down to work, and look up four hours later - wondering where the time went!! 

What do you think? Is your goal to work as few hours as possible? Or to have work so meaningful, rewarding and fun that it doesn’t feel like work?

Photo Credit: Anders Ljungberg

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Working On Your Company Rather Than In It 

(Guest post by Julie Lenzer Kirk)

When I started my business, I was one of “them.” As a software programmer, I developed roughly 50% of our initial product release elbow-to-elbow with my programming staff. It was clear we were all in it together and shared a great deal of the successes and bumps in the road.

As my business started to grow, I realized I had to pull out of my role as programmer and transition to the CEO. Unfortunately I had no idea what this meant. Over the subsequent seven years as we built our business to multi-millions in revenues, I learned many valuable lessons about how to make that transition. The following, taken from my book The ParentPreneur Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Businesscan help prepare you to make the successful transformation into the company’s leader.

1. It is more important to be fair than liked. When I was working at the same level as my employees, I was part of the gang. When I began to extract myself from the day-to-day development of our products I began to realize how alone I was. I was often faced with tough decisions that one way or another would upset someone. For example, while we believed in providing flexibility in our work arrangements, not every position in the company afforded the same flexible work possibilities. While a programmer may be able to develop software from home, an office manager hired to answer the phones would have a hard time fulfilling his duties working from home. While it was a clear business decision, my office manager wasn’t thrilled with it.
2. Find and use outside advisors. The saying that it is lonely at the top is true. It is especially hard if you started out as a doer in your company. Finding and using outside advisors whom you can use as sounding boards helps mitigate the growing isolation you can feel as your company begins to grow. Likewise, if you feel lost in your new role and unsure what you should be doing like I did, an advisor can help direct your focus to the aspects of your business that require your leadership to move the company forward.
3. Hire for cultural fit before skills. Many skills, with the exception of highly technical disciplines, can be taught and refined. Attitude and work ethic, however, rarely change over time. I learned the hard way in building my management team that just because someone has a fantastic resume and all the right skills, their methods and approaches may not be cohesive with your company’s culture.
4. It’s not personal, it’s just business. I agonized over every decision I had to make that impacted an employee. Even when a decision was clear, I felt I was letting people down if I had to disapprove their request or, worse, let them go. Likewise, when someone quit or had a problem with a decision I had made, I took it personally. I learned quickly that growing a business in that manner would be not only painful but counter-productive. After all, employees will ultimately do what is best for them no matter how loyal they appear. While it is good to consider the impact of your decisions on your employees, you should ultimately do what is best for the business.
5. Embrace “no.” If you’re not hearing “no” from customers, your not going after enough work. We used to boast about our 100% proposal win rate but the truth was, we weren’t going after enough new opportunities. The odds are that if you are pursuing enough work, you’ll get rejected. Oftentimes, you can learn as much or more from a lost contract that you do from a project you land. Likewise, if you’re not turning any customers down, you don’t have a strategy. Saying “yes” to any work that comes your way can leave your business unfocused and diminish your odds for strategically positioning your company for future growth.

By taking the above lessons to heart, you will position not only your company but yourself to support the growth of your company while keeping your sanity in tact.

Deleegation is the key to success.

I know many Women Entrepreneurs don’t want to hear that and don’t believe it - but it’s true. As long as we try to do everything ourselves - we limit our effectiveness.  We are constrained by our own time, talent and energy.  And we put a limit on how big our business can grow.

When we delegate - we increase our power and our productivity. We leverage other people’s time, other people’s talent and other people’s energy.  We take the limits off of our success.                                    

Reasons I hear for not delegating are:

• money - it’s cheaper to do it myself
• skill - no one else can do it as well as I can
• time - I can do it myself faster than explaining how to someone else

All three of these reasons are limiting beliefs that will get in your way of achieving success.

Money - You may believe you are saving money when you do everything yourself. But in reality all you are doing is wasting time and energy.   That time and energy could be spent on doing more profitable and more important tasks for your business.

Skill - It may or may not be true that no one else can do the task as well as you can. But even if it is true, the question to ask yourself, is “does it matter?” As heretical as it sounds - not every task needs to be done to perfection.  Some tasks just need to be good enough.  Anything more is a waste of time and energy. 

Time - Time is important. It is your most finite resource, even more than energy and money. You can increase your energy level, and you can make more money - but you only have a limited amount of time.  The only way to increase time, is to use other people’s.  And the only wise way to do that - is to invest the time upfront, once, to get their help.

In the coming weeks, I’ll discuss more about how to decide what to delegate, and who to delegate it to. 

In the meantime, let me ask you - what is stopping you from delegating for success?

Photos by jsc*

Last week, I discussed the importance of analyzing your to do list so that you are working on the most important tasks rather than the most urgent tasks. 

Many times, we find ourselves terribly busy, but not really getting much done.

This is when we are being bossed around by our to-do list - working on the Urgent stuff rather than the Important stuff. 

Sharon Marsh wrote a comment on that post that said:  

I agree that you have to take into consideration the deadline factor for many items on your list but the real focus should be on the items that will ultimately keep money coming in to your business.

If it’s not revenue-generating, then in most cases, those activities should be the ones that are deleted, delegated or moved to the bottom of the list - until the urgency deadline approaches.

I agree with many parts of Sharon’s comment, but there is one aspect of it that disturbs me enough that I wanted to respond in a post rather than in the comments.

It’s the idea that only the “revenue generating” aspects of your business are the most important.

While obviously revenue generation is important (essential!) the problem comes when we are only focusing on the revenue that can be generated today and not looking at the long-term sustainability of our revenue.

To really grow your business, you need to be spending a good percentage of your time laying the foundation for future business. This includes activities such as Networking, Marketing, Developing New Products and Developing your Employees (even if that is just you…….especially if that is just you!!)

So, if you were to divide your time into sections, it might look something like this:

• Current revenue - 30%
  • sales
  • clients
  • seminars
• Future revenue  - 50%
  • Networking
  • Marketing
  • Developing New Products
• Employee Development - 10%
  • Training and Education 
  • Exercise and Health
• Maintenance - 10%
  • Accounting
  • Administrative

Do those percentages surprise you?

Yours might vary slightly. But if you are not putting at least as much energy into expanding your business as you are into the business you have today - your success will be short-lived. 

How right or wrong do those percentages feel to you? Are you happy with the balance in your business  or do you think it should be different?

Recently, I published an article written by Tracy Phaup called the Top 10 signs you Need an Assistant. Today, I thought I’d balance out the message by identifying the Top Seven Signs that You Aren’t Ready to Hire a Virtual Assistant.

1)     You’re the only one who understands the vision.
When your business is new, it’s hard not to be protective of it. You are sure you are the only one who really understands what it’s all about and the beautiful future that lies ahead. And that might be true. Sometimes our ideas are still only half-formed and unclear. You know what you want but you don’t know how to articulate it.

It’s important to define your business as clearly as possible – for yourself and for others. Having a business plan, a marketing plan, a projection of growth – all of these are ways for others to see what you see, whether they are an assistant, a client, an investor or a loan officer.

If you are really struggling with articulating your vision, consider hiring a specialist to help you clarify it.   The clearer you can make it for others, the more they can help you make it a reality.

Until you can accurately describe your business, you are probably going to set yourself up for frustration and miscommunication if you hire an assistant.    

2)  You’re the only one who can do it the way you want
It’s hard to let go of control. It can feel scary; especially when you are sure you know exactly what you want and how you want it.  But sometimes it’s good to let go of control; it allows for more creativity. It enables you to use other people’s ideas.

Go ahead and describe the task in as much detail as you can: identify what you want, and when you want it, but don’t specify how you want it done. 

Your assistant is an expert in knowing how to do the things you ask. He or she has done these things for multiple clients and knows what works and what doesn’t. If you take the chance to let him or her do it their way, you might find that they have a more efficient or creative way to meet your needs. 

You always have control of what and when your tasks get done, but unless you can let go of some of the control of how they get done, you’re probably setting yourself up for aggravation if you hire someone else to do the work.  

3)   You are not sure exactly what you want
Maybe you know that you want a new web page, or an email campaign, or an accounting system, but you don’t really know the details of what you want. It’s outside of your area of expertise and experience.

You have a sense of what you want, but you can’t clearly articulate what you have in mind.  If that is the case, it is doubtful that the assistant is going to be able to come up with something to suit you.  You should have some idea of what you are looking for before you hire someone to build it. 

You can solve this gap by collaborating with an experienced assistant who can ask insightful questions, or show you portfolios that help you identify your needs. But don’t make the mistake of jumping in and giving assignments without being able to clearly describe the outcome you are looking for.

Unless you clearly identify the outcome you are looking for, you risk paying for re-work and extra hours, as your assistant struggles to get it right.  

4)   You’re not ready to share  
It’s okay to admit – early on your business can feel a lot like your baby – you want to do everything yourself.  But just like with a baby, if you insist on doing everything yourself for very long – you will get overwhelmed and burned out.  Pretty soon, what started out as fun and exciting, will turn into drudgery and stress.

Don’t get caught up in the honeymoon phase for too long – this is business after all – and you are your business’ most valued asset – you need to treat yourself with respect and care.

Be sure you really want help before you hire an assistant – otherwise you run the risk of continuing to be overly involved in the work itself, and not getting the benefit of increased time and productivity.  

5)  You have difficulty trusting others
Hiring an assistant may mean opening up parts of your business that make you uncomfortable.  For some assignments, your virtual assistant may need access to passwords, accounts and client information. There are certainly tasks they can do that are not confidential, but if the thought of letting someone in to that level of detail makes you worried – you may not get the full benefits of using an assistant.

Until you’re really comfortable sharing confidential information, don’t hire an assistant to help with sensitive tasks.    

6)  You’re not sure it is a real business  
Many entrepreneurs grow their businesses out of a hobby or special interest. It takes them a while for them to concede that they have a business and to treat it in a professional manner.  When you can confidently refer to yourself as a businessperson, and make plans for revenue and growth, then you are ready to treat your business, as a business. 

Until you are ready to admit that building your business professionally and taking it seriously is important to you, don’t bother investing in an assistant.   

7)  You are not yet earning any profits
While an assistant is an important person to hire soon in your business – because it enables you to focus on more of what is profitable – it is difficult to justify hiring one while you are still unprofitable. 

Early on, it’s possible you can handle the workload yourself. If there is little revenue, there is probably also little book-keeping to do, and few administrative tasks to handle. 

But as soon as possible, when the phone starts ringing, the receipts start piling up, and the products start needing to be shipped, hire a virtual assistant to help with the overflow, and free yourself up to do more of the value-added stuff. 

Until you have some positive revenue stream from your business, you might not want to add the expense of an assistant.  

In conclusion:  
When done for the right reasons and at the right time, working with a virtual assistant can give you a competitive advantage.  He or she can free you from routine tasks and enable you to focus on expanding your business without taking on the commitment of a full-time payroll.  But, done at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons – it can end in frustration, wasted expense and even disaster.

So, before you hire one – read the signs – are you ready for an assistant?

Have you hired an assistant? Why or why not? How has it worked for you?