More than once I've been asked to write about "outsourcing", "delegation" and other aspect of "getting help" into a speaking business. Given that this is a fairly general business topic, I hope this broadcast is as useful to owners of other small businesses, as it is to professional speakers.

Your biggest challenge
As regards the overall idea of needing extra help in your business, my personal experience calls on me to administer some "tough love" here.

Why do you believe you need some extra help?

Is it because you have so much business that you can't handle it all?

This would be a good reason for needing extra help. Almost every other reason is spurious and I'm afraid the (oft quoted) reason of, "because I'm so busy" is no reason at all. Busy doing what? It's an excuse and an admission of poor organisation.

Sounds tough, I know (and I'm not claiming to be perfect myself, by the way - we're all on the same journey). Let me explain by going back to basics:

There are only two decisions you are required to make, so far as your your business is concerned. Decisions that will add value to your business and decisions that will reduce cost. That's it, nothing else counts. It therefore follows that if these are the only two decisions, then you ought to be able to track every action taking place in your business back to a decision that either added value or reduced cost.

Can you do this? If "no", stop the action, right now.

If "yes", do the actions live up to the original decisions and either add value or reduce cost? If "no", stop them.

This simple audit clears a lot of rubbish out of the way and frees up time for you to do stuff that either (a) adds (real) value, or (b) reduces (real) costs.

Dealing with what's left
Having cleared all the rubbish out, you may find you have enough free time to do all that needs doing. This of itself is an excellent result, however let's look more closely at "adding value". To some extent the belief as to what adds value to a business lies in the eyes of the business owner. For example, I have a view that as I run a speaking business it's important that my office phones be answered by a real person and not a recorded message or voice mail service. To me this "adds value" to the experience people have in trying to contact me when I'm not available personally. I choose to have this expense associated with my business.

Prior to setting up my own business, I worked in the IT industry for many years and consequently I'm reasonably self-sufficient from an IT perspective. That said, I no longer build my own websites. Why? Because the technology moves so fast that unless you're dealing with it every day, you'll be highly inefficient compared to an expert. I use my IT knowledge to carefully specify what I want and to check that the bids I receive are reasonable.

Who do I use?
The short answer is; people I know. Here's why:

• Bob Burg's comment is applicable here, "All other things being equal, people prefer to do business with people they know, like and trust." Put simply, it's nicer doing business with people I like.
• I have very high standards and I've found that many potential suppliers just don't work to a level of detail I consider necessary. People who've already worked with me know what I'll find acceptable.

For this process to work, you have to work your butt off networking your way into some good suppliers. You also have to be prepared to pay a little over the odds on a per unit cost basis to try out new ones with small projects. Every now and then you end up kissing a frog that doesn't turn into a prince. That's life. Just make sure you never give a vital piece of work to a frog. In time you'll develop two divisions of suppliers; the princes and the frogs. The princes get the vital stuff, the frogs get stuff that needs to be done, but it's not the end of the world if they screw it up.

By the way, be very careful about from whom you take recommendations, as regards potential suppliers. Always cross-reference. There are competitors out there who would happily recommend their frogs to you, just for the trouble it would cause in your business. The dominance of 'networking' in modern business is all well and good, but you have to be very clear about whom you chose to trust and why.

What about on-line resources, like Elance and Onlineguru?
I tried them and they didn't really work for me. At the end of the day, I didn't know the person at the other end and they just couldn't produce work to a quality level I was happy with.

Summary

• Cut out all the "stuff" that isn't adding value or reducing cost.
• Find people you think you can trust. Test them with a small project first.
• Pick people you like personally and who live in your own time zone. You have to be able to develop a relationship with these people, so it's nice if you can physically meet every now and then.
• All check out multiple references on anyone who is "recommended" to you, unless you 100% trust the source.
• The chances are very high that if you cut out the crap, you'll have enough time and energy to get a lot of good stuff done, without needing extra help.

That's it folks for this week - as usual, your comments welcomed and appreciated, particularly with reference as to what you'd like to hear about. I do get quite a few e-mails by the way, and I read them all, so please don't feel shy about getting in contact.

Best wishes for the coming week.

Chris Davidson
Editor, Professional Speakers Journal
editor@professionalspeakersjournal.com

 

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