Beyond Automation: the Half-Hour Work Week
If you’ve reduced all your chores to automated methods and systems, it’s time to think about taking yourself out of the equation altogether. While you may have reduced the amount of time you spend on repetitive tasks, you may still be a “bottleneck” when it comes to other aspects of your business. Take a hard look at what’s chewing up the majority of your time and ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?”
Perhaps you’ve heard of “absentee owner” businesses. They have complete systems of executing a business plan on “autopilot”, without input from the owner. From something as simple as a balloon-vending kiosk in a tourist attraction to a chain of self-service car washes, people have found ways to make money without having to show up and work for it themselves. By careful planning in advance and accounting for every step in the process, business owners can create automatic money-makers that take the owner out of the equation. Internet Marketing is ideally suited to this method of doing business.
Content providers, whether they supply writing skills, graphics or Web design can set up a business model that could be run by a manager, freeing the owner to set up other ventures. As long as there is a proven system for handling all the problems that crop up within that business, the owner can rely on automation and trusted employees to handle everything related to running the business. Careful planning and research will show you how to do this.
Copying successful business plans that have proven to be effective is a good start. The idea of creating an “autopilot” business from scratch may seem daunting, at first. Don’t do that! You don’t have to re-invent the wheel. Go out and find businesses that are already doing what you want to do and “reverse-engineer” their business model. The longer a business has been in existence, making a profit and growing continually, the better the model to copy.
Another important consideration is scalability. Your business model will be able to grow indefinitely large if it can be applied to many different niches. Suppose you are a programmer who has produced a how-to video on installing affiliate management software for “tech challenged” marketers, sold via an automated system that you know works. By creating videos for other niches (sales management systems, content management systems, etc.) and using the same sales methods, you can expand your business as much as you want, with a one-time effort in starting each new niche. All you’ll have to do is monitor your bank account and spend the surplus!
Outsourcing will be a very important consideration for you. Getting a team of remote workers to handle your clerical tasks, manage your operation and supply your customer service takes some skill and experience. This is one area where a bit of caution will pay off in the end. You’ll need to reduce your tasks to a specific set of instructions that a person of average intelligence can understand and follow without a lot of personal tutoring by you. This can be laborious at first, but once you’ve done it correctly, those instructions will continue to work long after you’ve set them up.
No matter whether you hire employees, outsource to India or automate with software, taking yourself out of the process of your business means you are free to do whatever else you want. That includes pursuing a passion that will occupy all your time and energy, along with a big chunk of the cash you make from your autopilot business(es). Give yourself the choice to do so. Get yourself out of the moneymaking equation and concentrate on money spending.
Regards,
Ian
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Even if you do outsource, you still need to manage them. Also, connecting with your workers are out of the question since they are not presently next to you.
David Kams last blog post..Replace the Beam with Rotten Timbers
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Hi, this is about Home automation business is a direct result of modern technological advances. People all over the country are able to live more leisurely lives.
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But i think employee interaction is an important part of a succesful business.
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Really interesting idea, It doesn’t seem like there are that many businesses where you can do that though.
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Whilst I agree with David that outsourced work does need to be managed (maybe sometimes more so than if the work was in-house), if you can find a good person or company to outsource certain aspects of your work to, the rewards can be phenomenal.
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I think this a great idea but much easier said than done. You have to really know what it is you do everyday and be able to break it down into clear steps, how-to’s etc. It takes a lot of time upfront but makes it possible for you to pass of the work to someone else to do.
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I read similar article also named Automation: the Half-Hour Work Week | Internet Business Blog to Make Everything EzyAs123, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me
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