The objective of leverage is to provide the most advantage with the least effort.
In particular, for internet businesses that means most profit with least personal involvement.
Earlier articles discussed gaining leverage by 1) re-using content, and 2) re-purposing content.
In this article, we'll focus on gaining leverage by outsourcing recurring, or non-value-add work, and any work that simply doesn't fit our personal skills, experience and/or nature.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman have reported some interesting findings from 25 years of Gallup organization research - initially in their book, First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, and subsequently elaborating on those findings in later books.
Two of their findings, that are important for online marketers and home-based business owners, are these: 1) Focus your strengths, not your weaknesses, and 2) Hire staff for talent.
Affiliate businesses have large learning curves and require many different skills.
Unfortunately, few people are talented in all of them - and even those who are at least competent in all may realize that they are not making the best use of their time and other skills should they try to perform all those tasks themselves.
Tim Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" and owner of a multi-national firm that he runs from wireless locations around the globe, is a big advocate of the use of virtual assistants to handle repetitive, non-value-add tasks or those for which he does not have either the time or the inclination to perform himself.
It may come as a surprise to realize that outsourcing is not relegated only to large corporations, but given the low cost of international virtual assistants, even small, online companies can afford to outsource many tasks to virtual assistants.
(In fact, many virtual assistants will gladly handle personal matters as well as business matters for you - things such as paying the household bills, scheduling a birthday party, or getting tickets to a popular Broadway show.
) Many internet marketers elect to outsource writing articles.
They see the value of article marketing, but either they don't write well, or they simply don't enjoy writing, so they outsource their authoring tasks to ghost-writers.
Another task you might consider outsourcing to a virtual assistant (or call center) is the telephone and email follow-up required for lead generation and sales closings.
It is well known that personal contact increases conversions, but it is also one of the more time consuming tasks, and many internet marketers simply don't have the time to conduct the desired follow-up personally, so they outsource it.
William of Occam, best known for "Occam's Razor," has stated: "It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.
" If you focus on your areas of strength, you can multiply your results, whereas, focusing on improving areas of weakness will only incrementally improve results.
Which would you rather do - multiply your results, or simply see incremental improvements?
In particular, for internet businesses that means most profit with least personal involvement.
Earlier articles discussed gaining leverage by 1) re-using content, and 2) re-purposing content.
In this article, we'll focus on gaining leverage by outsourcing recurring, or non-value-add work, and any work that simply doesn't fit our personal skills, experience and/or nature.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman have reported some interesting findings from 25 years of Gallup organization research - initially in their book, First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, and subsequently elaborating on those findings in later books.
Two of their findings, that are important for online marketers and home-based business owners, are these: 1) Focus your strengths, not your weaknesses, and 2) Hire staff for talent.
Affiliate businesses have large learning curves and require many different skills.
Unfortunately, few people are talented in all of them - and even those who are at least competent in all may realize that they are not making the best use of their time and other skills should they try to perform all those tasks themselves.
Tim Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" and owner of a multi-national firm that he runs from wireless locations around the globe, is a big advocate of the use of virtual assistants to handle repetitive, non-value-add tasks or those for which he does not have either the time or the inclination to perform himself.
It may come as a surprise to realize that outsourcing is not relegated only to large corporations, but given the low cost of international virtual assistants, even small, online companies can afford to outsource many tasks to virtual assistants.
(In fact, many virtual assistants will gladly handle personal matters as well as business matters for you - things such as paying the household bills, scheduling a birthday party, or getting tickets to a popular Broadway show.
) Many internet marketers elect to outsource writing articles.
They see the value of article marketing, but either they don't write well, or they simply don't enjoy writing, so they outsource their authoring tasks to ghost-writers.
Another task you might consider outsourcing to a virtual assistant (or call center) is the telephone and email follow-up required for lead generation and sales closings.
It is well known that personal contact increases conversions, but it is also one of the more time consuming tasks, and many internet marketers simply don't have the time to conduct the desired follow-up personally, so they outsource it.
William of Occam, best known for "Occam's Razor," has stated: "It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.
" If you focus on your areas of strength, you can multiply your results, whereas, focusing on improving areas of weakness will only incrementally improve results.
Which would you rather do - multiply your results, or simply see incremental improvements?
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