Pay Someone else to Do It
I earned my MBA from the University of Colorado in 1991 at 21 years old, and started my speaking business a year later. Out of financial necessity, I was the Jill-of-all-trades and did
everything myself. “My MBA taught me
all of this, didn’t it?” I rationalized.
Even after I could afford to get some
help, I kept doing it all. After almost
burning out at the ripe old age of 27, I
realized that even the Productivity Pro
couldn’t maintain that pace long term.
As I discovered, interdependence
is an important productivity concept.
We’re wise to rely on other people to
do tasks we don’t have the time, desire,
talent, or circumstances to do ourselves. Outsource to others and wisely
part with some of your hard-earned
money. Surround yourself with a team
of contracted experts who can get the
job done in less time and reduce your
time commitments.
Distinguish between what only you
can do and what others are capable of
doing for you. Hire out a $25-an-hour
task someone else is capable of performing, so you can work on a $250-an-hour
task that no one else can do. You must
spend your time in higher-value ways
that will grow your business: talking
with your customers, researching,
writing, and practicing your programs.
Consider hiring out:
Lifekeeping. I used to think, “I don’t
need anyone to clean my house for
me. I’m perfectly capable of doing it
myself.” But then I starting tracking
how much time I spent cleaning! When
you compare it to the cost of hiring it
out, you’ll quickly hire out your yard
work and laundry, too.
Computer work. When there’s a
computer issue, I don’t hesitate to pick
up the phone and call my IT guru,
who has been working with computers
for most of his adult life. I’m sure you
could probably learn to troubleshoot
errors, write HTML, create WordPress
sites and more, but it’s not worth your
time and frustration to figure it out.
Finances. If you have a semi-complicated life with the business,
investments, children, and rental properties, it’s a no-brainer to hire an
accountant. It’s simply not worth the
time to do your own taxes. Ditto for
a financial adviser and a bookkeeper.
Ours picks up the receipts, invoices and
statements twice a month, reconciles
all of the accounts, pays the employees,
and files all tax payments.
Marketing. When my latest book,
SUPERCOMPETENT, launched in
August 2010, Marianne Nowicki
of No Wicki Production created the
book video trailer; Judy O’Beirn of
Hasmark Services coordinated
my online book campaign;
Champion Media handled the televi-
sion media; and Lance Gibb designed
www.SuperCompetentBook.com. Shell
out the money required to create a
first-class product that reflects the fees
to which you strive.
Laura Stack is the 2011-2012 president of NSA. She’s the founder of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a management consulting firm dedicated to
helping individuals, teams and leaders create
Maximum Results in Minimum Time®.
