Play to Your Strengths and Outsource the Rest--How to Have it All and Eat Your Cake too – Part 4

Finding the parts of online business that you are best at is probably not one of the hardest things to do, but finding the things that you are not that good at can be a bit more difficult.  We all like to think we can do almost everything and if we can’t do it straight off, then we can learn, but just learning the how and the why is not always good enough.

We all have to take a step back some times and really look hard at what we are trying to achieve and why it has not happened.  Let me give you an example here so you can understand what I mean.

The film industry has many jobs within it and some people go on to do more than one of those jobs at any one time.  The writer, who writes the initial book or screen play, has set the idea.  The director, this person has an idea of what they want the whole film to look like, then they have an idea of what they want each scene to look like, then they have the responsibility of getting the actor to play each scene how they want it played.  The producer, the actors, the sound men and women all down to the caterers, everyone has a job to do and they are good at that job, but if the producer tries to direct and the actor tries to produce and the caterer tries to act, there is going to be one big mess.

The main point here really is now you know what you are good at --- stick to it! Everything else can be outsourced or you can bring people on board to do what you cannot.  Make sure you know your weaknesses though, as thinking you are good at something and actually being good at it are two very different things.

Learning how to outsource and finding the right people to do your work to does not have to be a pain and definitely does not have to be by trial and error, mainly I would say it comes down to building good relationships with people.  Building a relationship with your list is a must in any business whether online or not and when you do that you will get to know what those people are good at and what they are not so good at, this can help you with your business.  As these people already know you and you them, then half the job is done, they will want the work that you can provide them, so your outsourcing problems can be solved by looking into your own business. 

On the other hand, if you have to or want to go else where, you have to know how to outsource.  This will mean shopping around a bit and finding someone who will not charge the earth, so you can still make a profit and someone that you can trust to get the work done on time.  Personally I would not let them know that you are outsourcing to them at first and see how things go, then build up your working relationship with them and you will have somebody who will become a great asset to you and your business.

Finally something that quite a few people do wrong, is to treat their business as a hobby.  Doing this will not make you any money online.  I’m not saying you can’t have a hobby and make that into a business; just don’t get the two mixed up.  If there is something you enjoy, then by all means make money from it, make money giving eBooks away on your hobby, so that people come back to buy because they know you know what you are talking about, but remember a business is just that, a business is not a hobby.