Podcast Summary
Hiring: Lean or Scale Up?: Deciding when to hire new team members depends on your business goals, resources, and comfort level with delegating tasks. Staying lean keeps costs low but may lead to chaos and mistakes, while hiring early allows for smoother operations and strategic planning but requires a larger investment.
As a disruptive entrepreneur, it's crucial to decide when to hire new team members based on your business's specific needs. Two common schools of thought exist: hiring when you're at full capacity, which keeps costs lean but may lead to increased chaos and mistakes, or hiring early to scale up and focus on strategic work. Sharing personal experiences, the host suggests that while staying lean in the early stages is beneficial, it may also result in working longer hours, making more mistakes, and feeling overwhelmed. Conversely, hiring up front allows for a smoother operation and more time for strategic planning, but requires a larger initial investment. Ultimately, the choice depends on your business goals, resources, and comfort level with delegating tasks.
Outsource tasks to save costs and scale up quickly: Businesses can find freelancers for various tasks on websites like Upwork, save costs by testing multiple freelancers, and avoid hiring generalists by giving specific jobs to experts in their fields.
In today's digital age, businesses can save costs and scale up quickly by outsourcing various tasks instead of hiring full-time employees. Websites like Upwork, Onlinejobs.ph, 99 Designs, and Rentacoder offer a wide range of freelancers who can do jobs from coding and designing to editing and administration. By giving specific jobs to experts in their fields, businesses can avoid the overhead and risk of hiring generalists. Moreover, testing multiple freelancers before making a final decision can lead to better results and save costs in the long run. For instance, businesses can crowdsource logo designs or test different freelancers for editing tasks. Most importantly, don't wait until the last minute to outsource; start testing and finding the right people early on.
Hiring and managing remote staff or freelancers: Start early, test multiple individuals, and give good performers more work to save costs and improve efficiency. Pay once the job is done and terminate easily during probation with minimal financial loss. Implement Minimum Standards of Performance for productivity and cost savings.
Outsourcing tasks to freelancers or hiring remote staff can save costs and improve efficiency, but it's important to have a robust system for hiring, testing, and managing performance. Platforms like Upwork and Fiverr offer protection for consumers and reduce fees due to competition. When hiring, start early and test multiple individuals before committing to one. Once you find a good professional, give them more work to scale up. With outsourced staff, you only pay once the job is done, and UK employment law allows for easy termination during the probation period with minimal financial loss. Implementing Minimum Standards of Performance (MSOPs) can help ensure productivity and cost savings. For example, you can link their salary to a specific performance goal, such as reducing expenses by a certain percentage. This strategy can be applied to both revenue-generating and non-revenue-generating staff.
Maximize growth and efficiency through strategic thinking and delegation: Delegating tasks to experts and utilizing time management tools can help free up time for strategic planning, leading to significant growth for your enterprise. Prioritize strategic thinking and balance hard work with rest to avoid burnout and make effective decisions.
While it's important to work hard in your business, it's equally important to work smart and focus on strategic thinking. Hiring experts for various roles can help free up time and energy for strategic planning, which can lead to significant growth for your enterprise. Additionally, it's essential to strike a balance between hard work and rest to avoid burnout and make effective decisions. Bill Gates famously said that if you want something done, give it to a lazy person, as they will find the most efficient way to do it. So, while hard work is necessary, it's also crucial to prioritize strategic thinking and delegate tasks to experts to maximize growth and efficiency. Furthermore, utilizing time management tools and outsourcing tasks can help manage various responsibilities more effectively.
Focus on vision and strategy, hire help for admin tasks, outsource to save time and money: To grow a business efficiently, focus on your vision and strategy, hire administrative help early on, and outsource tasks to countries with lower labor costs to save time and money.
As a business owner or entrepreneur, focusing on a clear vision and strategy is crucial for growth. Hiring administrative help early on can relieve you of non-revenue generating tasks, allowing you to focus on income-generating activities and potentially increasing your hourly rate. Outsourcing tasks to countries like the Philippines or Europe where labor costs are lower can save you significant time and money. It's essential to measure your time and identify which tasks are income-generating and which are not. The modern entrepreneurial landscape is different from the traditional "work hard to be successful" mindset. Leveraging out tasks such as HR, bookkeeping, consultancy, financial direction, admin, sales, and marketing can help you focus on what truly matters and grow your business more efficiently.
Balancing In-house and Outsourced Labor: Effectively managing both in-house staff and outsourced workers involves creating clear systems, templates, and manuals for each role, striking a balance between company culture and cost savings, and leveraging the flexibility and cost savings of outsourcing.
Effectively managing both in-house staff and outsourced workers requires careful consideration. While hiring in-house employees can help create a strong company culture and increase their commitment to your vision, outsourcing tasks to freelancers or virtual assistants can save costs and provide flexibility. However, it's essential to establish clear systems, templates, and step-by-step manuals for each role to minimize reliance on individuals and ensure consistent performance. By doing so, you can create a more efficient and scalable business. Additionally, outsourcing tasks can lead to cost savings and improved productivity, as freelancers are only paid for completed tasks and can often find cheaper options for purchases. Overall, striking a balance between in-house and outsourced labor can help businesses optimize their resources and achieve their goals.
Make documenting systems part of employees' roles from the start: Encourage employees to document their job descriptions, tasks, and login info for business continuity and scalability. Outsource this task to ensure a comprehensive manual for each role.
Documenting systems and processes is crucial for business continuity and scalability. However, it can be a daunting task for employees to do it retrospectively. A better approach is to make it part of their role from the start, encouraging them to write down their job descriptions, key result areas, and all the tasks they perform in a clear and bulleted system. This includes login information, software usage, and more. If writing is not an option, recording screens or having an assistant interview and document the information can be effective. By outsourcing this task, businesses can ensure they have a comprehensive manual for each role, making it easier for new hires to get up to speed and keeping the business scalable and salable. The speaker suggests hiring someone for a few hours a week to extract this information from business owners, presenting it back in a manual format, and updating it regularly. This investment not only makes the business more dependent on the owner but also limits its growth potential.
Outsource non-core tasks for business growth: Document processes, hire professionals, and join communities to delegate non-core tasks, increase income, and focus on core business activities.
Entrepreneurs should focus on their core business activities and outsource or hire non-core tasks as soon as they can afford to do so. This will help increase income-generating value and allow for faster scaling. The process of outsourcing can begin by documenting processes and systems, and eventually, hiring the best professionals for each task. Competition among outsourced workers can lead to better quality work and lower costs. Joining a community like the Disruptive Entrepreneur community can provide additional resources and support for business growth. Ultimately, taking calculated risks and delegating non-core tasks are essential for entrepreneurs to make the most money in the least amount of time and focus on what they love.
