Tim Ferriss--not the Joker--4HWW, Autograph, done by eponymousx on flickr
This outsourcing thing makes me think: we’ve Been Rubes! Rubes!
So it’s “smart” to use OPM to build your business. Doing-it-yourself sucks!
You’re a “sucker” if don’t leverage the hell out of your ability to work and earn. Tim Ferriss only works 4 hours, yo.
The underlying message here is this: that there is a leveraged ratio that doesn’t but up against diminishing returns. The more money you spend on spinning some flywheel, outsourcing routine tasks, the more of a businessman you are. Borrowing money doesn’t mean risk I call bullshit.
The gurus croon: You shouldn’t be working that hard. Have the ‘good life,’ relax, hire people to work for you. Hard work is dead. Ahem.
Outsourcing means you must work “on” and not “in” your business. And that is a siren song. But the gist is that people are looking to…not work “hard.” People are looking to escape the workaday tedium and the application of effort that it takes to make something cool & beautiful. But dude, repetitious boredom pays off. It’s precisely what others aren’t willing to do.
Michael Gerber has his uses. I’m not gonna discount the goodness that he’s brought into the world. Having a path up and an idea that you have to standardize yourself is cool. But it begets entitlement and laziness. It takes away from the standard of excellence. I can control the tone of voice and the amount of compassion I transmit to someone. I can bear a burden for my clients. A script can’t.
Throwing Money At A Problem = Loserdom Throw Heart instead.
When I read the copy for the Outsourcing Conspiracy, Brian Clark and Jon Morrow understood this. If you’re not an owner you’re not gonna achieve that standard. When I call people, I can always tell when I’m dealing with someone who has their ass on the line. You can feel it. It vibrates.
You don’t leverage yourself because you bring complexity and fragility into your life. You have to manage people, to chase people with less spark, with a need for security over excellence. And it’s not possible to do. It’s got serious diminishing returns. You might do less paperwork (drudgery), but you’ll do more stress and juggling.
What’s better? Making $150k a year by hustling and doing the work, say on $180k in revenue? Or making $180k on $350k in revenue?
When I look at the people I admire they don’t have the same attitude towards outsourcing. They love their businesses. They love what they are doing. And they don’t avoid the work. They become more efficient, and delegate some of it, but at the core they feel good when work is done & done right.
Getting tinfoil hatty on y’all: who wants you to have complexity? Folks that sell financial products and services. The more fragile you are, the more likely you are to take a loan to get you the flexibility ‘you need.’ Flexibility comes with a cost: a background stress load that is always there, and is always creeping into your life.
Flexibility is better than servitude. The pimps and hustlers get small businesses to have to make poor, moneynow decisions because they are owned by the banks and financiers.
As for me, I’m gonna pay my entire debt off. I’ll have–tomorrow–a sidebar with what the debt is. I’ve cut it from $170k to just over 80. Miles to go though.
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As a small business owner I can understand your point it’s that leap of faith that we are all afraid of making. I am glad I am here today it’s been a long road and yes, I still have a hard time letting go and delegating… small steps I am almost there.
Great post and right on the money.
I have been outsourcing for several years now and it has been a lot of headaches. I find that less than 10 percent of the developers I hire are worthy of long term work. The time and effort required to manage them is just not worth it.
I would also go a step further and extend the same argument to employees. Expanding a business by hiring employees will also encounter substantial diminishing returns. I believe that most single person businesses can make more money than if you have 5 employees. Your returns will start increasing once you break a larger employment level of about 10 employees but that is a completely different business. You are a bureaucrat not an artist at that stage.
For most people, myself included, hiring or outsourcing is just not worth the headaches.
Hire the right outsourcing company, and its heaven. I have been working with the same guys for 3 years – my business has slowed, but my income has not, because they do the work. Get it? You can survive in this crazy economy if you work smarter, not harder.
[...] sharing this because this whole taste has soured me against finance. I don’t want to be in debt–even if it costs me. It adds a level of complexity and [...]
I get your point, Chris, but some level of outsourcing could be a good thing. I like a lot of what Tim says, but think it needs to be applied individually. You know I care about my business and my clients. I would never want to give the helm completely to someone else, but more time to do other things is a GOOD thing.
Thanks for the post.