Are You Rich? 

In last week’s newsletter we looked at the importance of finding people who share your passion for the work you are doing. It is equally important that people are aligned in the correct position within your organization where they can make the maximum contribution to the work. Often, business owners are the chief culprits in holding on to tasks that they are doing out of a false sense of necessity.

I came across a quote from Thoreau yesterday that really rang true for me. He  said “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” Think about the power of this statement. My rough paraphrase of this thought is this … “How much richer will you and I be if we exchange low value activity for high value activity?”

I have observed there are two main reasons why we hold onto these low value activities. The first is fear and the second is the perceived cost. Fear comes in two forms. The first fear is a fear of trust. We may recognize that there is someone, either inside our organization or outside that can perform these activities more efficiently or more effectively that we can. However, we just don’t believe they will do them the same way we perform them. The truth is … they may not. However, if they free you up to do more of the high value activities that drive the economic engine of your business, it is probably a good tradeoff.

Stop Chasing Dimes ...

The second fear is the fear of the cost involved. In this case, we are often spending our energy ‘chasing a dime’ rather than ‘chasing a dollar.’ If your high value activities are capable of producing $100 an hour in income for your business and you are spending those hours chasing activities that can be done for dollars an hour, you are making an unprofitable tradeoff. I see this all the time in my work. Business owners spend hours meeting with media sales people trying to decide for their advertising dollars instead of trusting someone who works at this all of the time. It might cost a few dollars to bring in the experts; many of the media outlets pay this cost in the form of commissions.

The same is true for keeping the company’s books. A friend owns a Padgett franchise. For a small fee, they take over all of the bookkeeping and reporting responsibilities for their clients. The client simply puts all of the relevant information in an envelope and the Padgett representative comes by to get the packet on a regular basis. The business owners receive timely summary reports that reveal the critical metrics of their business. The time they would normally spend on bookkeeping is spent generating additional income … income that will far exceed the cost of the service.

There are literally scores of tasks that can be re-sourced to people that have more talent and time to perform these tasks while you are free to generate additional income. Often the people with the skills you need for these activities are already on your payroll. They would love to take on additional responsibility in an area where they have specific strengths. If you don't find  the talent you need inside your organization you can often find sources outside your company that will perform the necessary tasks on a part-time basis or an outsourced basis.

Once you have streamlined your activities, you should do the same thing with your other employees … beginning with the most critical staff positions and moving throughout the organization.

The bottom line is “Stop Chasing the Dimes …”

Gary J. LaRoy,
President/Founder
Natural Path Marketing