From the category archives:

Oursourcing

Tabasco Sauce in the Bathroom and Effective Outsourcing

by admin on January 6, 2010

Guess what’s on my bathroom sink, neatly lined up with all my shampoos, soaps, electric beard trimmer, and dental floss:

A nice bottle of Tabasco Sauce.

It’s true.  My housekeeper puts it there for me every week and ensures it’s fresh.

What the hell do I need Tabasco sauce in the bathroom for?   Beats me.

But it seems Helena thinks I must indeed need it, because it’s there every week.  And the thing is, she’s a VERY bright, alert, hard working, sweet woman.

Turns out a few months ago I was rushing around and suddenly realized I was late for an appointment while I was eating my lunch (Amy’s organic black bean soup).    Apparently I didn’t want to stop eating it (it’s REALLY good) so I dragged it upstairs with me to the bathroom before I took a shower.  Not the most grown up thing I ever did, but que sera’ sera’.

Anyway, since I work at home, my housekeeper tries to bother me as little as possible.  She just tries to anticipate what I need and please me.  And apparently she thought that henceforth I’d be using tabasco sauce in my bathroom routines.

And me, mister brilliant, educated doctor that I am, fell right into the routine thinking it was so neatly lined up, it looked like it really belonged there… maybe I AM supposed to do something with it.   Of course, I kept meaning to say something, but I was just too busy.

So for months  there’s been a bottle of tabasco sauce, needlessly sitting on my bathroom counter, for no reason at all, and my housekeeper’s been wasting time and effort thinking this is an important way to please me.

Which got me to thinking…

In total, there are over 30 people who work for me, some directly, some indirectly via various levels of management, etc… many of whom have probably developed ridiculous and superstitious routines in their efforts to please me.

And the truth is, there ARE certain things I’d like to have set up in the bathroom in a very particular way each day for myself, I just never bothered to write out the system and communicate it.

Similarly, how many OTHER things am I dismissing as trivial while people around me scramble to read my mind and make me happy?

If you’re going to outsource effectively as an entrepreneur, it’s something worth thinking about!

Do the people working for you REALLY know what it takes to please you?  (Don’t answer too quickly)

Dr. G :-)

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Outsourcing Sucks, Delegating Sucks, Unless…

by admin on June 23, 2009

It’s common to hear internet marketers say “just outsource it” or “delegate or die”.

And of course, there’s really no way to earn $1,000 an hour if you’re busy doing $10/hr work yourself.

But, the vast majority of online educators leave out the critical piece … how the do you do that?

Not “where do you find good quality labor for low rates” … that’s relatively easy.   Not “how do you decide what to delegate and what to do yourself” (an admittedly harder, but manageable task).

What you never hear is how to preserve your VISION of the outcome, and the purpose of your delegated/outsourced work across the multitude of people and personalities working on your project.

If you get this component wrong, that $10/hr writer you hired on elance can end up costing you $500/hr in lost productivity, delayed deadlines, and squelched morale when they come back a month later with something totally different than what you really needed.

How the hell do you do THAT?

Dan Pfister is one of my favorite students.  He’s taken my research methods to the nth degree and applied them not only to his marketing and sales process, but more importantly to the development of materials and products which actually DO scratch the itches no one else is scratching in his market (the leadership market).

In this very practical interview, Dan reviews some of the most important components of vision and team building which elude the vast majority of entrepreneurs.  If you’re feeling overwhelmed in the slightest at the prospect of getting REAL help for your business, or even if you think you might be when you grow in the future … I definitely endorse Dan’s materials.

Dan’s the real deal, and I’m proud to present this free MP3.

Enjoy :-)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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