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Online Entrepreneurs Who Miss These Division Of Labour And Outsourcing Messages Are Missing Out On A Fortune

Written by Olivia Lennox | Posted in Mindset, Online Marketing, Reselling, Traffic

For hundreds of years real large and successful businesses have understood the advantages of having members of staff work in areas they have come to specialise in. We’ll first analyse some of the Economic theories behind this and then explore some simple examples for an online marketing business and show how successful outsourcing and division of labour can make you over $30 per hour instead of under $9 as a new marketing firm.

The Economics Of Outsourcing And Division Of Labour

For all intents and purposes outsourcing and division of labour achieve the same end result. An area of business for which you are not adequately experienced or skilled is passed to someone who is sufficiently skilled and in theory can do the work so much better than you can that despite their profit it still works out more cost effective for you to have paid them.

“The division of labour … so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportion-able increase of the productive powers of labour.”
Adam Smith, An Enquiry Into The Nature And Causes Of The Wealth Of Nations (New Kindle Edition – Produced by Colin Muir)

Smith, the first great economist explains in the 18th Century that in every case where specialisation and division of labour can be introduced the effects are many multiples of the effect of adding one more person working the same way as the other. The first example he discusses is the work of a pin-maker. At the time this was a relatively challenging task for an individual with dozens of steps ranging from stretching the metal to making the head on the pin. A skilled individual could scarcely have made ten to twenty pins in a day.

Imagine adding a second pin-maker who works in the same way. Between them they would only make forty pins at best. However if one of them focused entirely on stretching the metal and the other on the remaining steps they could perhaps make one hundred pins. Working together and specialising better has hugely improved their productivity.

Applying These Concepts To A Small Online/Work From Home Business

The typical start up Internet marketer will read vast swathes of material about every topic relating to selling products on the Web. Often with little regard for their personal skills and preferences they will attempt to become a master of all trades. This makes them hugely uncompetitive and often confused about how so many much larger and apparently unwieldy businesses are able to beat them on quotes despite having cut their quote down to minimum wage.

This happens purely because of the inefficiencies in switching between several jobs, none of which particularly suit your skills. Let’s imagine a simple task. Our budding online entrepreneur Chis is approached by a Karate School to product a Website, market it online generating business and manage a mailing list. Chris is a good, natural salesman and quickly closes the deal and takes on the work.

The first approach might be to think that as a new business Chris should keep costs down and do everything himself. Chris works out that to design a website from scratch for his WordPress blog will cost him 25 hours of his time. He isn’t very experienced at building templates and the client keeps wasting his time with long discussions about ‘the sharpness of the red’ so it actually takes almost 35 hours.

The Karate instructor has supplied a couple of articles for landing pages encouraging people to join in as Martial Arts is a great way to keep fit. However another 10 articles are needed for the site and another 20 or so to submit as guest posts on dozens of blogs for SEO purposes. Chris doesn’t really know much about writing articles and each one is taking hours. After about sixty hours he’s written his articles and submitted them all to the blogs for posting.

As part of his SEO strategy he also has read he ought to get a bunch of links pointing to the guest posts he’s got online. He busies himself making forum profiles, blog comments and other spurious links. They probably won’t help him an awful lot but in the end take another 30 hours of his time to get a thousand online.

After installing some custom software that he found for free on his server he now has to spent at least 4 hours a month opting people in and out, monitoring readership and providing stats to his client about his mailing list.

The Karate School was paying $1,500 for this project. At the end of the year with 173 hours spent on this project Chris has made $8.67 per hour. With $1,500 in income though he feels pretty good about his new business. Let’s see how much more he could be making.

Remember what we said – Chris is a great salesman. Starting your business doesn’t require you to have all the other skills you don’t have. Just focus on your part of the chain.

Template made by his freelance Web Designer who’s a student in England: $300.
30 reasonable quality articles from an efficient freelancer: $400.
1000 Mixed links from an Indian ‘SEO’ company to the blog posts on guest sites: $90
1/10th Aweber Subscription (He’s bound to get at least 10 clients this year…): $35

Hours spent co-ordinating all his workers and talking to the client: 20 for $33.75 per hour. It’s pretty clear that adding experts to his business has increased his hourly rate and will let him focus on the most important part – finding his next $33.75/hour client rather than working on his next $8.67 hour of hard work doing what he doesn’t really understand.

Transformational Vocabulary to Change Your Business

Written by Wayne Lambert | Posted in Mindset

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about Transformational Vocabulary to Change Your Life and now I’m going to write one on Transformational Vocabulary to Change Your Business

You see, the language we use determines our results as it affects the way we approach our actions.

Is it really possible to change your entire life with just a few simple changes to your everyday vocabulary?

During my studies of business, I have constantly challenged myself to adapt the use of vocabulary to a language pattern that changes my approach to business activities. This of course helps me to achieve my bigger desires.

#1 – Customer ==> Client

What might seem like a word that means the same thing actually is a word that means something totally different.

The difference is that customer is transactional and client is relational.

For example, Walmart, Asda or Tesco have customers as their relationship with the people who purchase from them are at a transactional level. The customer simply parts with their cash in exchange for the commodities that these companies sell. Of course, you might argue that nowadays, these companies have ventured into selling insurance and other suchlike products which could make the exchange of value more relational in nature.

In contrast to this, services like accountants, lawyers and doctors are ones that are more relational in nature. Accountants, lawyers and doctors have a fiduciary responsibility for their clients as they’re entrusted to act in the best interests of their client.

Incidentally here are a few dictionary definitions lifted directly from the Oxford dictionary that may assist your understanding:

Client: Person using the services of a professional person or organisation

Customer: Person who buys goods or services from a shop or business

Fiduciary: Involving trust, especially with regard to the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary

#2 – Cost Plus Markup ==> Lifetime Value

This is essentially the difference between how someone in the accounting department would think of a business transaction against how someone in the marketing department would.

The person with a financial viewpoint will think of a transaction in terms of: Revenue – Fixed Costs – Variable Costs = Gross Profit

The person with a marketer mindset will think of a transaction in terms of cost per acquisition (CPA) and lifetime value (LTV) of the client which will then enable them to understand their return on investment (ROI) for the campaign.

The marketer mindset is often willing to take the short-term “hit” on their profit margins if they know that there is likely to be good potential for an increased lifetime value. This is why companies like Hewlett Packard and Epson are willing to sell their printers at such a ridiculously low price. They know that customers will need to buy cartridges for their printers for the lifetime of their printers and cartridges really do have significant profit margins on them.

The financial viewpoint takes a short term outlook and the marketer viewpoint takes a longer term outlook. The moment a company moves from a private company to a public company is often the point where a business takes a financial viewpoint instead of a marketing viewpoint. This is because the public company is accountable to shareholders and need to produce results each quarter so City Analysts are confident about the company’s stock and therefore appears to be a good investment for investment funds to plough their capital into.

#3 – Product ==> Promise

It’s worth remembering that when you’re selling any product/service, you’re not really selling the product/service itself. Your customer/client isn’t buying the product/service – they’re buying the outcome or the ‘promise’ that the product/service provides.

When someone buys a car, they’re not really buying it because it is a car but because they need to get around from A to B (obvious functional/logical reasons) and perhaps they want to arrive in style and comfort with the sound of a powerful engine (emotional reasons).

#4 – Sell ==> Offer

Not many people have the mindset where they want to be sold to, however everyone likes to receive an offer of sorts, even if they then subsequently turn down the offer. Many people switch off when they realise that they’re engaged in a potential sales scenario. Ever received a sales call at home and did whatever you could to get rid of them as quickly as possible?

Rather than positioning your promotional materials as sales pages, change your prospect’s outlook on them by positioning them as offers.

People don’t like to be sold to but they love to buy!

#5 – Features ==> Benefits

OK, this one really is sales training 101, but it’s so important.

People buy benefits not features.

People don’t buy a laptop because it has a 2.2 Ghz quad-core Intel i7 Processor, 750GB HDD, 4GB RAM and a 15.4″ LED backlit screen.

I hear some of you right now saying, “I do.”

People buy these features because of the benefits that they deliver.

For example:

A faster processor means faster computational speed therefore a better user experience.
The 750 GB HDD gives plenty of storage space for your media.
The 4GB of RAM helps the user to run many applications simultaneously without suffering from poor performance.
The high resolution 15.4″ LED backlit screen gives the user a good graphical user interface to work with which ultimately results in a good user experience.

Sometimes the user may understand the benefits so implicitly that it seems as though they’re buying the features but they really are buying the benefits that the product/service offers once the features have been translated into their benefits.

As I once heard from Dan Kennedy:

People don’t buy the drill, they buy the hole.

To Your Online Success,

The Profit Share

The mutt's nuts or the dog's drivel? I double dare you to leave a comment! :-)

10 Top Tips on How to be Productive

Written by Wayne Lambert | Posted in Mindset

Learning the skill of productivity is learning the skill of being resourceful.

Am I right? You’re stuck in a dead end job. You have a ton of tasks that you need to complete to move forwards. You have other obligations in your life and you have very little time to do these ton of tasks?

In this fast moving world, this is a challenge that we all face. We have simply got to master ourselves to master the use of our most precious and limited resource, time.

#1 – Know EXACTLY Where It Is You Want To Go

How freakin’ mad would you think someone was if they said they were struggling to achieve something except they didn’t know what it actually was they wanted to achieve?

This is the problem with most people. I’m sure you’ve heard the various studies that reveal that only 3% of people set themselves clear and written goals on a continual basis. Is it any wonder why you’re finding yourself in the 97% if you’re not setting goals for yourself.

I’d recommend getting this started using a mindmap.

#2 – Plan The Following Day The Night Before

The benefits of doing this are two-fold:

You can hit the ground running the following day, so you don’t arrive at your computer screen thinking, “right, what shall I do?”
Your subconscious mind will work overtime on your tasks during the night without any additional effort and the answers will appear in your consciousness as if by magic the following day when you’re implementing the activities on your ‘Must Do’ list.

#3 – Work Through Your Must Do List – Highest Return Task First

It’s so easy to get caught up doing lower activity tasks like a blog redesign, researching the next plugin, creating systems for your business, list management, accounting and numerous other things that you actually procrastinate on the activities that bring revenue into your business.

These are known as RGA’s or Revenue Generating Activities. These include:

Creating a blog post with buyer keywords
Writing an email promotion to your list
Refining your offering
Creating a sales letter/video
Answering queries from your prospects/customers
Creating a follow up email sequence
Developing your back end offering

#4 – Add Times To Your Activities & Compete Against Them

This is where you look at the must do list that you have created for yourself and write how long you think that it will take you to complete the task. It doesn’t really even matter if you overestimate this as when you work through the task and complete it ahead of time, you’ll still do it without rushing and due to the level of focus applied, you’ll still achieve more than you would if you didn’t have any target.

#5 – Close Down Skype Completely

Skype is only needed for pre-arranged conversations. Never leave it open for people to instant message you when they want. Skype can drain hours of time without you even knowing it.

#6 – Ditto Facebook, Google+, Twitter and YouTube

The same goes for Facebook, Google+, Twitter and YouTube. You only need spend as much time as necessary on these. If you are connecting with your audience, do these tasks in times where you don’t feel naturally so productive as these tasks do not require much brain power.

#7 – Oh… and ditto Emails

Emails are exactly the same. Your email software should not be open except perhaps last thing at night. If your software makes a sound to alert you of a new email, turn it off as it is an unnecessary distraction that makes unreasonable demands of your attention and focus.

#8 – Leave Your Mobile Phone Out of the Office

If you have something like an iPhone or a Blackberry which are awesome devices for when you’re on the go and you just just place it next to your computer because you cannot bear for it to be away from your side, then you’ll likely get distracted when the phone vibrates to signify a text message, email or other notification.

Simply leave your mobile phone in another room so you can come back to it later when you’re not so focused on creating content and building your empire.

#9 – Have an Impeccably Clear Desk

Every unnecessary item on your desk consumes mind-space which blocks creative energy that is required for production.

My desk consists of a wireless keyboard and mouse, a large monitor (HINT) and my notebook and pen. That’s it! Anything else is simply an unnecessary distraction slowing you down.

You really do have no idea how much a cluttered desk and workspace slows you down. It really is a case of clear desk, clear mind!

#10 – Always Have a Pint of Water On Your Desk

Finally, your brain and body requires a good amount of water to function efficiently. If you want a good level of concentration whilst creating, then ensure that you have an adequate supply of water readily available. At least some sort of drink that hydrates you rather than dehydrates will keep you productive and on track.

Productivity Takeaways

Ensure that you put into practice all the tips shared here.

Are there any brilliant productivity habits that you have and work brilliantly. Please do help the community here by sharing them below and tell us about them.

Oh, I would be really appreciative if you help the world become more productive by sharing the article on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.

To Your Online Success,

The Profit Share

The mutt's nuts or the dog's drivel? I double dare you to leave a comment! :-)

Transformational Vocabulary to Change Your Life

Written by Wayne Lambert | Posted in Mindset

Is the title a little extravagant?

Is it really possible to change your entire life with just a few simple changes to your everyday vocabulary?

During my studies of personal development, I have constantly challenged myself to adapt the use of vocabulary to a language pattern that empowers me to achieve my life goals and desires.

In this article, I’m going to share some of the language transitions that I work on to achieve this.

The language patterns we use determines our mindset which in turn determines the way we feel, the actions we take and the results that show for us in the physical world.

All too often, we’re very sloppy with our use of language. In this article, I want to show you some “loser language” and “winner language” and why these differences are more than just mere semantics.

Before this comes across as a “holier than thou” preaching session, I do want to say that I sometimes use “loser language” myself.

I am however also quick to call myself on it, so I don’t reinforce the negative language patterns as firmly entrenched beliefs that take a stronghold and really limit my potential.

So, let’s take a closer look at some of the transformational vocabulary.

#1 – I will try ==> I will do

The word ‘try’ acknowledges there’s potential for failure.

Using this word instils a sense and feeling of doubt of uncertainty in your mind.

This invariably means that there’s a strong chance you’ll procrastinate altogether since you’re not certain of the outcome, or at best, take limited ineffective action which will keep your progress as slow and steady.

#2 – I know ==> I do habitually

How many times have you responded to something that someone’s told you with the words “I know.”

To lose weight, you need to eat foods that are conducive to a healthy lifestyle! I know!
You need to start investing money to secure your financial future! I know!
You need to invest in a coach/mentor to shortcut your success! I know!

The wisdom of a Zen master once said,

To know and not to do is not yet to know.

This means that if you’re not consistently applying the principle habitually, then you do not know it. You have merely heard it before, read it before or watched it before.

Knowledge IS NOT power. Applied knowledge IS power.

You need to practise changing the use of the words “I know” to indicate only the consistent practising of the principles.

#3 – I believe I will/can ==> I know I will/can

Belief is a word that is banded around in the personal development world because people say that you must first believe that something will happen before it does. Whilst there is some truth in that, there is another level which can be attained with training.

You see, beliefs are formed when situations in life have provided your brain with sufficient evidence as reference points to make them believable. The question is what if life hasn’t presented you with those references or that you’ve failed to spot those references to validate and reinforce the beliefs?

The word “know” conveys certainty. There is absolutely no doubt in your mind when you know something is going to happen. When you wake up tomorrow morning, do you believe or know that daylight will follow the darkness?

Exactly. This is something that I am working on with myself now. Changing my mindset from believing that something will happen to accepting it as an absolute fact with absolute certainty.

Having this kind of thinking means that you’re naturally going to move forward because you’re simply success in progress going about your daily activities.

#4 – I can’t ==> I can

The difference one letter can make…

Henry Ford so wisely once said,

Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right

What Henry meant was that you would find a way to validate your belief by either taking the “can do” or “can’t do” actions in alignment with the belief.

I can’t afford it.

Ever caught yourself saying that? The question is with that belief will you ever be able to?

Simply practise rephrasing the sentence habitually to one which puts you in a position to act.

If I paid for this, by what means would I raise the finance?

#5 – I don’t ==> I do

This is the ugly cousin of “I can’t”. Of course, there are reasonable uses for these words, however they are often used as an excuse or stated as a self-imposed limitation.

I don’t have the time for this.

More often than not when this is said, it’s simply because the person has chosen other activities instead of the one they’re making an excuse for by saying they don’t have the time for it.

The more accurate truth is that they don’t consider it to be a priority amongst the things they are currently dealing with. Invariably, with most people, the things they’re currently dealing with are much lower value activities than ones that will help them achieve their ideal life.

To Your Online Success,

The Profit Share

The mutt's nuts or the dog's drivel? I double dare you to leave a comment! :-)

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