100 Day Program Week 11 Curriculum

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Brianna Terry
5 years ago
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100 Day Program Week 11 Curriculum KEY LESSONS LEARNED In order to build your personal wealth and business revenues isn t about what you do but how you do it and WHO you are.

1 100 Day Program Week 11 Curriculum KEY LESSONS LEARNED In order to build your personal wealth and business revenues isn t about what you do but how you do it and WHO you are. Some people think I m in the wrong business. Take a closer look at how they operate their business, how they are showing up and where they are making money (or not) you may see they re not in the wrong business, they re in the business wrong. As entrepreneurs we have NO SHORTAGE of ideas. But we do have a shortage of time. ARE YOU READY TO BUILD A TEAM AUDIT Tick the following boxes that apply to you in your business: You have more than 3 projects or ideas that will make you money but you don t have the time to work on them. In the last 30 to 60 days, you have had to say NO to at least two attractive opportunities because there isn t enough time to do everything. You are working 40 or more hours/week but not making as much money as you would like. You fall behind or don t complete critical tasks like billing clients, balancing your checking account, client follow up, updating your own marketing materials and website etc. You have more client leads than time to complete the work. Your revenue growth is stuck because you can t work anymore and in order to make more money, you have to work more. You want to take more time off but you can t afford to lose any time at the office you stop making money or things fall apart if you aren t there. You routinely over-promise and under-deliver on your deliverables to clients or vendors. Add up your total number of checked boxes 5+ If you checked five or more boxes, you are in dire need of a good team. Waiting to build (or strengthen) your team will critically impact your bottom line. 2 5 If you checked two to five boxes, you would benefit from a team and should start now. 2 - If you checked fewer than two boxes, are you sure you are REALLY an entrepreneur, or perhaps you are just starting out? So now you have identified that you would benefit from a team, or more importantly, you are in DIRE NEED OF A GOOD TEAM!

2 WHEN Is the Best Time to Start Building My Team? You will know that you re ready to start building your team when you want to start making more money, taking more time-off from your business (perhaps to travel with your family), and pursue that THING that you were so passionate about when you first quit your J.O.B. and ventured out on your own. But if you LOVE the drudgery of the day-today grind, wearing ALL the hats of the entrepreneur and your family (or lack-there-of) isn t so important, then by all means, carry-on! However if you find yourself at the point where your business growth has levelled off and you cannot physically do much more than you are doing and you are spending a lot of your time each day doing tasks that have nothing to do with the future growth of your business then it is time to get help! Another way to know when you are ready to leverage your business is when you find you re doing really well you re making enough money now to support yourself and your business. You ve refined your marketing message well enough at this point that it s happening. But you re beginning to feel overwhelmed. You ve made do up to this point, but at this stage the way to focus your energy is to actually build your team and fine-tune and refine your systems. What I m talking about is taking time to create an operations manual for your business. Even though you re busy and thinking, I don t have time. I m too busy to do this, the thing that will get your business growing is making your systems rock solid. If you want to become a successful entrepreneur then you need to apply leverage. For entrepreneurs, there are three kinds of leverage we can tap into: money, systems, time. Leverage #1 Money When you leverage money, you make more money. The three easiest ways are to: 1. Charge more 2. Offer your service to many (instead of one) 3. Package your service and automate its delivery. Leverage #2 Systems Now let s explore the idea of systemizing. To systemize is to take a process and identify and document each step involved so that anyone could follow the process. There are two reasons why you would want to create systems so you can leverage your time. First, most entrepreneurs get in a trap of recreating the wheel each and every time they need to do something. A system lays out a plan so that every time you do that particular task, you don t have to think, you simply follow the plan. Systems become increasingly imperative when a team is involved because everyone has a different way of doing things if you want it done your way, you will need to document the steps involved. The second reason to systemize is that you can automate much of what you do. When you are ready to add a person to your team, the system must be in place for that person to step in and do the work effectively and efficiently. Here are a few examples of tasks can be automated: Follow up s and cards and reminders for events, phone calls, etc. Putting marketing materials on the web Purchasing your services or products Article submissions and press releases

3 Leverage #3 Time The last leverage option is time. You can leverage your time by outsourcing. To outsource something is to assign a task that you own and delegate it to someone else to perform for you. Think of it as cloning yourself to get more done. There are a few ways that outsourcing works. One is hiring people to accomplish tasks or projects that you don t like to do, can t do or is not the best use of your time. Another is hiring people to do what you do but do it for less money so you make a profit by outsourcing it. The #1 Reason Why Entrepreneurs Fail To Leverage Their Time With A Virtual Team is FEAR. I know because I have been there! This fear can be broken down into three types. Fear #1: Losing Money There are so many issues around money for entrepreneurs: wasting money, spending too much money, not having enough money. For the small business owner, any new cost can feel insurmountable this is exactly how I felt when I first hired my first VA Claire. First, let me point out that to build a successful business, you will need to invest in key strategies that are high-payoff. Knowing the difference between a bright, shiny object and a high-payoff opportunity is key. The best way to do that is to identify what your priorities and values are and how this opportunity will help you achieve them. Secondly let s address the mindset of seeing a team as a cost versus an investment. A cost is something that doesn t have a real return. However, building a team is an investment in your success. Look at it this way. How many opportunities do you say no to because you don t have time? What are you currently doing yourself that if you were to delegate it to someone else who could do it better, faster and cheaper, you would free up your time to pursue those bigger, money making opportunities? Entrepreneurs often believe they can t afford help. Here is the real question: Can you afford not to? What is it costing you to not accomplish your dreams? What are you giving up that was an integral part of your reason for starting your business in the first place? I hear where you are coming from because I have been there too and I still get challenged by it. Instead of saying, I can t afford to hire that person, they are way too expensive, pose the question, How can I afford this? This is a mindset shift that brings creative solutions. I know there are sometimes budget concerns. And you should know how you will leverage your team to increase revenue and profit. This is where one of your skills as a business owner comes in. You will benefit by completing a cost-benefit analysis and a Return on Investment projections. Identify how much revenue you need to make in order to cover the costs of hiring a team member. It should look something like this: Budget for a copywriter: $40/hour, 10 hours/month: $400/month My XYZ Product is $197. If I sell 2 additional products per month, I will cover the cost of my copywriter. My outsourcing priorities for my copywriter are: Send out 2 newsletters and 4 blog posts each month Keep fresh content on my website to increase search engine optimization Generate discussion, interest and click throughs on my website

4 If you do the math, you can see that it becomes a no-brainer to outsource even the simplest tasks! By outsourcing even three items to your copywriter, you will probably free up at least 3 5 hours a week, which will allow you to focus on new moneymaking results. Fear #2: Having to Manage People It is self-evident that businesses, like people, are supposed to grow; and with growth, comes change. Unfortunately, most businesses are not run according to this principle. Instead most businesses are operated according to what the OWNER wants as opposed to what the BUSINESS needs. Michael Gerber This fear brings in a lot of stress and overwhelm. Fear is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. We often make up stories in our head based on past traumas or bad experiences. Many corporate refugees who suffered major trauma or unpleasant experiences as a manager in their career created an ideal business vision that included freedom from employees. This fear leads to It s just easier if I do it myself thinking! The truth is that building a virtual team does not have to be the same as hiring permanent employees. A good team will have strong personal standards, be responsible and be self-starters. Generally business owners who avoid building a team also don t have systems or standards in place and don t know how to let go. The secret to a good team is not to hire people to work for you, but to bring in partners to work with you. These people are independent contractors, responsible for their own taxes, insurance and all those things that can bog down a traditional business. The mindset of a partner is infinitely different from an employee s. When you take the mindset you work for me out and replace it with let s build together it creates a whole new dynamic! The golden rule of thumb for virtual team building is: Hire to your weaknesses not your strengths. Hire complementary skill sets to your expertise and you will find it a freeing experience. Fear #3: Losing Control You know the business owner who spends too much time on busywork and they spin around in circles all day putting out fires. They cringe at the idea of someone else seeing their financials. No one can ever be as good at writing sales copy or sending out their e-zine as they are. The idea of slowing down to train someone feels like a complete waste of time why bother! OK, how do you think Fortune 500 companies got where they are? There is not one successful business that consistently made a six and seven figure revenue by doing everything themselves. This fear can be conquered with a few simple strategies. You must first start with a mindset shift. Successful people leverage the power of a team. If it can be done for Microsoft, it can be done in your business. Secondly you just need to create the systems to train people properly. Procedures need to be in place so that in each situation that arises, the wheel doesn t need to be reinvented! Delegation is vital to keep the business owner focused on growth (and job security for the team!). Quality control must be exercised to ensure the product is delivered consistently. And again, communication is essential! I hope by now you see the value of delegation. I know it can seem painful to let go. But with the right systems, you never let go you delegate. The scope, time and budget of your business are still in your control; you are just letting other people do

5 the work. To help you systematically determine what to delegate, it is important to know what the Return on Investment (R.O.I.) is. Before you can determine your R.O.I., you will need to know what you are worth per hour. What are you worth per hour? Take your weekly income and divide it by the hours you work, what do you get? This number will give you a general guideline on what makes sense to delegate. For example, if you are worth $50 an hour and hiring an assistant for a couple hours a week would cost you $25 an hour, it makes sense to hire an assistant. You will free up time and energy that are better spent earning more money. What to Delegate First It s true that not everything can be delegated. It is imperative for the business owner to know what to delegate and when. Apply the following system to determine what to hand off to a team member. For instance, if you are worth $250 per hour, and are writing your own sales copy (which you could pay someone $50-$75 per hour to do), then you are saving $75 per hour but could be billing $250 hour. The opportunity cost is $175. Head on over to the resources on this week s curriculum to download the Entrepreneur s Delegation List and start highlighting all the things you could begin to delegate now in your business. How to get your team running smoothly Once you realize you need a team you are probably going to want to get started quickly. That s how we work as entrepreneurs, an idea gets in our head and we leap forward. I m going to give you a few ideas here on getting started but I do want to caution you with a story about a client named Sheri. Typically we rush to bring a new team member on board because we need help now. How can you fix this? A few key elements can easily remedy about 85% of common hiring mistakes. 1. Create a vision statement. Make sure you have written out what you want your life and business to be like when you hire the person. Don t skip this step it really is crucial to attracting the right people to co-create the experience you want. 2. Develop a job description. Map out exactly what you want the person to accomplish for you. This will also help with estimating the number of hours to plan for. 3. Identify your standards, values and culture for your company. If you don t communicate them up front, how will you know if they share your standards, values and vision? If your standard is to respond to phone calls within 24 hours and your VA s is to return calls within 5 days, you could have a problem. (Want an example check out our UQ Power values here 4. Create a checklist of skills, work style preferences and resources team members must have. Do they need to have experience in your particular trade/ industry? Do you use Microsoft Outlook and need to be compatible? Do you prefer to work with self-starters who need little guidance or want to be intimately involved in the day to day operations with them?

5. Take time to interview and check references. Interview at least three to five candidates. Ask questions like, Tell me about a time when you didn t know how to complete a job, what did you do?

6 5. Take time to interview and check references. Interview at least three to five candidates. Ask questions like, Tell me about a time when you didn t know how to complete a job, what did you do? or How did you learn how to perform your duties at your last job? Once you get the basics down, here are two quick-start strategies to build your team. My final tip: hire slow fire fast! When you ve reached a frustration level as discovered in the points above, the temptation is to rush out and just hire anyone to get the job off your hands! But when you get the wrong person on your team, it s much harder to get them out. Imagine attitude problems with your personal assistant, lateness and sloppy deliverables. You discuss it with your assistant and everything seems to be fine for a while, then it slips again. Your best customer calls with complaints. A new prospect gets cold feet and goes with a competitor. You can t afford this! Do yourself a favour and take the time to find out as much as you can about a potential addition to your team. As the online shopping company in the USA Zappos practice they pay careful attention to the hiring of staff with a 3 step selection process, followed by a 3 week induction process. Why? Because they know the value of having the right people on the bus and the cost of hiring the wrong people and having to remove them. So take your time with selection and if you do hire the wrong people, get rid of them quickly! Don t get caught on a sinking ship. Basically ladies your business won t run on its own at some point you re going to have to attract, hire, train and retain high performers in your business. You re going to have to get extraordinary levels of commitment and talent in your company of you re going to make the level of income you desire. You have to be strategic in who you hire so the people working with you and for you are absolutely committed to taking your business to the next level. Similarly you have to have efficient systems. Systems to measure how you are doing in each area of your business so things happen in a replicable and repeatable way. If not you will find yourself and others in your business doing a lot of busy work and not really creating cashflow and progress. Your systems ultimately should give you more freedom and allow you to have more fun in your business and life! QUOTE OF THE WEEK I don t believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process. Oprah Winfrey THIS IS YOUR GROUP ACCOUNTABILITY TASK FOR THE WEEK. Take a moment to go to the curriculum page and download The Entrepreneurs Target review the target and complete the time you are actually spending and what you think is optimal. Please share the percentages you come up with for your actual time spent in each three target areas.

2/13/2015. Marianne Costello President The VA Collaborative. What Should You Delegate. When Should You Delegate. Tips For Effective Delegation

2/13/2015. Marianne Costello President The VA Collaborative. What Should You Delegate. When Should You Delegate. Tips For Effective Delegation Marianne Costello President The VA Collaborative Why Should You Delegate Mindset Money What Should You Delegate When Should You Delegate Tips For Effective Delegation I am the owner and founder of The