Timothy Ferriss Saves Your Money

Absolutely! Agree 100%. That’s why when you are in business for yourself, you constantly look for ways to move stuff off of your plate and onto someone else’s, i.e., a secretary, an accountant, a salesman. However, there are a few things to consider.

First, if the work you are moving is billable, and you’re still charging your full rate, but you’re ‘outsourcing’ this work for less than you bill, then its pure profit and you’ve increased your profit by 50%, assuming you fill that ‘saved time’ by continuing to work yourself at your full rate.

Second, if the work you are moving is NON-billable, then you have to realize that before you moved it, it was actually costing you your full rate for every hour you did it. So if you pass it along for less than your hourly rate but continue to perform billable work in its place, then what you’ve done is actually turn that time into something that is at least somewhat profitable. Now you’re making your full rate minus what you’re paying out for your non-billable work. Still a win, if you ask me.

Finally, sometimes its just about buying some free time. So, moving some work off of your plate to someone else can give you a ‘breather’. That can give you the time to relax, think, work on pet projects and spend time with friends and loved ones. This will refresh your soul, put a spring back in your step, and give you a more positive outlook on life. Not to mention that if you are moving work you don’t like to do, you’ve just shed that irritation as well. So, even if you end up losing money, you may still be gaining in a big way.

Absolutely! Agree 100%. That’s why when you are in business for yourself, you constantly look for ways to move stuff off of your plate and onto someone else’s, i.e., a secretary, an accountant, a salesman. However, there are a few things to consider.

First, if the work you are moving is billable, and you’re still charging your full rate, but you’re ‘outsourcing’ this work for less than you bill, then its pure profit and you’ve increased your profit by 50%, assuming you fill that ‘saved time’ by continuing to work yourself at your full rate.

Second, if the work you are moving is NON-billable, then you have to realize that before you moved it, it was actually costing you your full rate for every hour you did it. So if you pass it along for less than your hourly rate but continue to perform billable work in its place, then what you’ve done is actually turn that time into something that is at least somewhat profitable. Now you’re making your full rate minus what you’re paying out for your non-billable work. Still a win, if you ask me.

Finally, sometimes its just about buying some free time. So, moving some work off of your plate to someone else can give you a ‘breather’. That can give you the time to relax, think, work on pet projects and spend time with friends and loved ones. This will refresh your soul, put a spring back in your step, and give you a more positive outlook on life. Not to mention that if you are moving work you don’t like to do, you’ve just shed that irritation as well. So, even if you end up losing money, you may still be gaining in a big way.

Great points, Mr. Wilson. You’ve nailed it all. It’s really a good book to shake our heads open with and give some air to our thoughts.

Totally agree with this.

I employ a number of people for various tasks, which are completely mundane for me, or beyond me, and of course the rates is far lower than I can earn in the same period.

Not rocket science though is it, basic economics right?

Just call me Chris, gentlemen, and we’ll just try not to get confused.

And no, its not rocket science. However, its important to note that a LOT of people get so caught up in doing stuff themselves when they are just starting out, that they get into the routine of it. I’m guilty of it myself from time to time. You start getting buried in client requests, and then you start turning work away because you are too busy.

Too busy doing WHAT? is the question to ask at this point. That’s when you start looking for ways to offload work. But as I say, when you’re treading water just to keep yourself afloat, sometimes you forget to put your feet down to see if maybe you can’t find a place to stand. ;)

Also, a quick side point: This works just as well for tools as for people. I’ve seen artists scrambling to find someone help them meet deadlines because they didn’t have the time or skill to pull off certain pieces of a job. On a number of occassions, I’ve turned them onto software solutions such as Photoshop filters that will cost them as much, if not less, than hiring a professional, and then they’d also be able to keep the tool to use with future jobs. Big savings if you can find the right tool.

Hi Chris,
Just got finished listening to the latest episode of Internet Businsess Mastery. Sterling and Jay, the two co-hosts were very enthusiastic about the book. Haven’t read it myself but those are some good recomendations. Jay (Jason Van Orden) is the author of Promoting Your Podcast and was one of the presenters at Podcamp NYC

All the best,
Ted Sudol

Hi Chris,
Just got finished listening to the latest episode of Internet Businsess Mastery. Sterling and Jay, the two co-hosts were very enthusiastic about the book. Haven’t read it myself but those are some good recomendations. Jay (Jason Van Orden) is the author of Promoting Your Podcast and was one of the presenters at Podcamp NYC

All the best,
Ted Sudol

Well Chris – you may have “hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head” with talking about finding someone to do the tasks that you don’t like to do in order to be more productive. But even mentioning, yee ghads whatever were you thinking – saying Virtual Assistants and $12.50 per hour in the same sentence? VAs are professionals even though most of us work from a home-based office – we have expenses to deal with too – whatever makes you think we could operate on such a low hourly rate?

Sorry – you are way off base there! I’m a Virtual Marketing Assistant – owned my own business for 14 years and am considered a professional in all that I do and it’s an insult to think about $12.50 per hour!

VAs make your life easier, but everything has its price!

Carol,

Hope I’m not sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong, but I think he was just using $12.50 as an example. No offense was meant to anybody, or I’d have to be offended by the notion that they mentioned I was supposed to be making only $25/hour.

$12.50 was only used because it was half of the original rate of $25. 50% is just very easy to calculate. However, there are ALL types of assistants, virtual or otherwise. We could be talking about a number of different types of jobs. Move your accounting and billing to an accounting service. Move your office cleaning to a professional cleaner. Move your shirt ironing to the local cleaners. Move your copy/ad writing to a professional writer.

Sometimes is makes sense to hire work that you:
a) don’t like to do
b) don’t do very well or very quickly
c) don’t have time to do
d) whatever else fits
to someone else. And even if they charge the same rate as you (lets up the ante, shall we? we’ll pretend that we AND our VA make $50/hour because its a nice even number) if it only takes them 1 or 2 hours, but it takes you 3 hours, you’re still getting a great deal.

All of that being said, sometimes it just DOESN’T make sense to move some work off of your plate. The point is to keep your eye open for possibilities and opportunities.

Carol,

Hope I’m not sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong, but I think he was just using $12.50 as an example. No offense was meant to anybody, or I’d have to be offended by the notion that they mentioned I was supposed to be making only $25/hour.

$12.50 was only used because it was half of the original rate of $25. 50% is just very easy to calculate. However, there are ALL types of assistants, virtual or otherwise. We could be talking about a number of different types of jobs. Move your accounting and billing to an accounting service. Move your office cleaning to a professional cleaner. Move your shirt ironing to the local cleaners. Move your copy/ad writing to a professional writer.

Sometimes is makes sense to hire work that you:
a) don’t like to do
b) don’t do very well or very quickly
c) don’t have time to do
d) whatever else fits
to someone else. And even if they charge the same rate as you (lets up the ante, shall we? we’ll pretend that we AND our VA make $50/hour because its a nice even number) if it only takes them 1 or 2 hours, but it takes you 3 hours, you’re still getting a great deal.

All of that being said, sometimes it just DOESN’T make sense to move some work off of your plate. The point is to keep your eye open for possibilities and opportunities.