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Yesterday I was one of more than
nine thousand people watching Rich Schefren, CEO of Strategic Profits, conduct a
live “webinar” for thousands on the Internet and hundreds in a South Florida
hotel meeting room. Rich is famous, particularly among Internet marketers. He,
like most of his own clients, is an entrepreneur, but with a distinct
difference: he understands the need for research, strategic planning and getting
yourself on track, before you can ever run your own business well. “Before you
can grow any business, you have to focus on yourself.
Revenue allows you to hire staff. They are able to do many of the tasks you
shouldn’t be spending your valuable time doing. When you start to build a team,
then your role changes abruptly” he says. Schefren says that it’s all about
revenue in the beginning. “You have to do almost everything in order to bring in
the revenue that will allow you to hire others and form the team you will need.”
Most small business owners and entrepreneurs don’t get this. They fool
themselves into thinking they are wise to do it all themselves. However, if they
follow just one of Rich’s key suggestions they will disabuse themselves of this
misguided notion. He believe that if you fall into the trap of thinking you are
taking and maintaining “control” of your business (by doing most everything
yourself), you are actually letting your own business control you.
He stresses the need to carefully calculate just what your time is really worth.
That’s really all you have, time and expertise. The time element is most
precious. If you start logging how you spend your time, you will see the areas
and frequency with which you truly waste this scarce resource. As he says: “when
you have no more time....you’re dead.” Next time you’re on the phone with some
goofball, you will know that if you spend ten minutes with him, you are costing
yourself lots of money; just hang up. If you can find someone (either an
employee on site, or even a virtual employee or assistant) who can do a task for
much less than the cost of what your time is worth, then that’s a good
investment. You must leverage your strengths and get other experts – and pay
them very well, so they stay with you – to perform the other tasks for you. This
frees you up to do what you do best, so you can concentrate on your own core
competencies, strategies and long term viability of your business.
He stresses the need for using Process Mapping as a way you can visualize
amounts of data which is easier to understand and communicate than voluminous
amounts of written copy. When you can see processes on paper it is much easier
to spot incorrect or wasteful things, taking action to stop or improve. Next, he
mentioned the need for Project Management. “Most entrepreneurs are untrained
project managers”, he said. “The Egyptians has a project plan to build those
pyramids and they managed that process. Otherwise it would never have
happened.”(To learn more about some of the tactics Rich mentioned in his live
webinar, go to Google and/or Wikipedia and check out: ‘process mapping’,
‘project management’, ‘opportunity cost’, ‘leveraging your time’, ‘work
processes’, ‘core competencies’, and ‘Pareto’s Law’...the ‘80-20 rule’). Rich
focused on the need for ‘systems’. “Your entire business is a system. Usually
problems in any business are ‘system problems.’
If you have to fire someone because they’re an idiot, you can blame the
person/idiot being fired, or you can take a long hard look at your own system.”
Your system allowed this individual to get past the recruitment phase, then the
training period; finally him or her to operate within your company, obviously
demonstrating that s/he is an idiot. It’s your system that needs to be examined
quickly, then fixed.” Don’t blame the employee, the idiot managed to gain access
to your system. As Rich was making his points, I heard that little voice in my
own head saying: “hey, buddy, that’s what you do a lot! You get too many things
going at the same time; you can’t possibly do them all well.” I realized that I
need to sometimes say “no” to requests and to concentrate on my own core
competencies. I should not get unfocused by trying to do too many other, albeit
interesting things.
The 80-20 rule states that twenty percent of your projects (customers, clients,
patients, guests) bring in eighty percent of your profits. Whether it’s
“marketing” or any other business, let the other eighty percent be looked after
by those on your team who can do those tasks better and less expensively than
you. Do what you do best.
Roy MacNaughton is a niche marketing coach
and business writer. He’s a seasoned marketer, with more than 30 years of
international marketing and franchising experience, including nine years online.
His new e-book, (Marketing Yours), teaches solo practitioners, entrepreneurs and
professionals how to market their most important product. Learn more at his blog:
http://www.UmarketingU.com
Rich Schefren's web site is:
http://www.strategicprofits.com
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