The objective of leverage is to achieve the most advantage with the minimum effort.  Specifically, for us, that means greatest return on investment with minimum personal involvement, and we can make this happen via outsourcing.

Previous articles described ways of obtaining leverage by 1) re-using, and 2) re-purposing content.  In this article, we’ll address obtaining leverage by outsourcing routine, or non-value-add work, and any work that simply doesn’t fit our unique skills, experience and/or nature.

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman documented some interesting findings from 25 years of Gallup organization research – initially in their book, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, and then elaborating on those findings in several subsequent books.  Two of their most important findings for online marketers and home-based business owners in general are these:  1) Play to your strong suits, not your negatives, and 2) Hire assistants for talent.

Online business has a rather large learning curve and involves a lot of different abilities.  Unfortunately, few people are gifted at all of those areas – and even those who multi-talented, may not be applying their available time and other skills when they focus on areas that are relative weaknesses for them.

William of Occam, noted for “Occam’s Razor,” has noted:  “It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.” As online business owners, this has much to teach us in terms of our personal time usage.

Tim Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Workweek” is a major promoter of the use of virtual assistants to handle repetitive, low prioritiy activities or those for which he does not have either the time or inclination to perform.

Contrary to popular opinion, outsourcing is not restricted to major companies, but recognizing the low cost of international virtual assistants, even small, online companies can afford to delegate many activities to VAs.

One task that many internet marketers choose to outsource is writing articles.  Many see the importance of writing articles, but either can’t write well, or simply don’t want to write, so they delegate those writing tasks to ghost-writers. 

Another task you might consider outsourcing to a virtual assistant (or call center) is the telephone and email follow-up required for lead generation and sales closings.

If you focus on your areas of strength, you can multiply your results, whereas, focusing on your weaknesses willonly marginally improve your results. 

Which would you rather do – multiply your results, or simply see incremental improvements?

If you would like to discover how to leverage your resources, sign up for the Online Success for Beginners course.

Related posts:

1. Outsourcing Your Article Marketing Will Make You Money If you outsource your article marketing needs, you may be able to increase your profits even if you have to pay somebody else to write the articles for you.  There...
2. Offshore business process outsourcing There are manifold companies in the market. All these companies have the mission to offer the best products or services within the minimum time limit. All the companies are attempting...
3. IT Software Outsourcing: A Business Perspective The year 1960 is considered as the starting point of the outsourcing business; however, 1980 is actually the year in which this marketing strategy was realized to its full potential....
4. The Advantages Of Outsourcing And Why You Should Do It Running your own business can be challenging in today’s economic climate. For businesses things have taken a downturn as buyer demand has decreased leading to greater and greater competition for...
5. Business procedure outsourcing (BPO) Every company, that begins as a small concern and ends up as a giant organization, has a business process in the background~Every company, that begins as a small concern...