Have you ever wondered how successful people seem to get so much stuff done? It seems although they have the exact same 24 hours as everyone else, they just seem to keep cranking out more than everyone else (and it doesn’t even seem they are working so hard).

In this post we are going to reveal:

• Is the 4 hour work week possible?
• How exactly these successful people seem to get so much done in so little time
• The cost of taking the load off (and is it worth it?)
• The 13 tedious marketing tasks you are absolutely wasting time on
• How to get to the point where you are only doing what you love

So Let’s Get Started…

Do you believe in the 4 hour work week? It could be possible. I personally don’t believe in it because I love what I do and I want to work way more than 4 hours a week. Heck, I want to work more than 4 hours a day and I do…every single day! There are so many wonderful things to do online for your business and most of the time, it doesn’t really feel like work.

This feeling only comes when you love what you do. Obviously, if you work a job that you hate, it does feel like work and quite honestly, it sucks and only you can change that situation.

When you do get to the point of loving what you do, there are still some shitty tasks that need to get done, but you yourself don’t have to be the one completing them! The goal should be spending more time on the RIGHT tasks and leaving all the other tasks for other people to do for your business. This is how all small business owners should be thinking.

If you are spending your time on tedious tasks that aren’t going to make you a lot of money, then you are spending your time on the wrong areas of your business, and essentially, you are wasting your time….EVEN IF YOU FEEL PRODUCTIVE and even if you are getting stuff done.

This is essentially how the successful people do it! They are only concentrating on high level tasks that make them the most money and the other tasks are getting done by qualified people. Of course, not everyone can afford to hire an entire staff of people but hiring one or two people to tackle the tasks you should not be spending time on is completely doable and completely mandatory. If you expect to grow a business, you can’t do everything yourself. It’s impossible.

However, dumping the load of tedious work does come with a cost….

The Cost…

I am not talking about the monetary cost – that should be obvious. If you are hiring someone to work for you, of course there will be a monetary cost.

I am talking about something that many marketers might disagree with me….BUT, I do believe you have to have a basic understanding of the tasks you need done for you before you start hiring people all over the place. For example, if you hire someone to format a book for you or design you an ecover, you need to have a basic understanding of the work that needs to be done. If you don’t then you may be in danger of getting taken advantage of or you may not know what to look for when you are reviewing the work someone does for you. Unless you have a whole lot of money to burn, then you must have some knowledge of the tasks you are assigning others to do, otherwise known as the tasks you are outsourcing.

Like anything, there is an exception to this rule of course. Sometimes this will be impossible and you just have to hire trustworthy people to get your job done. For example, if you hire someone to create a piece of software for you, it might be hard for you to know what to look for because if you don’t know how to code, then it’s going to be like trying to read another language! It’s impossible. This is where you need to work with the right people and unfortunately, you might end up getting burned, that’s just what happens sometimes and it’s the risk you have to take.

Over time, you will naturally gain a deeper understanding of all the tasks you are outsourcing to other people.

Working Hard

It’s one thing to work hard and it’s another thing to work hard on the wrong tasks for your business. Working hard on the wrong tasks don’t pay off in the long run. It’s like chasing a one outter in poker; you may hit that one out today, but if you keep trying to chase it over and over, you will lose money…a lot of it. Sorry if you don’t get the poker reference, but it basically means taking chances where the odds are against you. In the poker world, that person is called a Donkey.

Living the lifestyle of a 4 hour work week is getting to choose your own hours, getting to spend more time with your family, picking your kids up from the bus stop and pretty much making your own schedule. If you want to get up at 11am and start working at 11pm and work all night, you can do that. You might (and should) be putting in more hours than a 4 hour work week, but you have the freedom and the luxury to make your own hours and the ONLY thing that will allow you to do that is hiring people to do tasks that don’t make you a lot of money, but yet, are necessary for your business.

Let’s take a look at them.

13 Marketing Tasks You Are Wasting Your Time On

I want to share with you a visual from a well known marketer, Kim Roach.

As you can see in the left hand column, Kim points out 13 tasks she calls $10 tasks. All of these tasks are tasks that are important, but don’t make the best return if you are doing them yourself as a business owner.

I am not going to go through all of these on the list, because it is pretty straight forward, but Kim suggests (and we agree here at Fearless Social) that you should aim to focus your precious time on the $100 and up tasks. This is where you will see the return on your time and dollars.

Where To Find Outsourcers

Finding outsourcers is not hard these days. There are so many qualified people to do the tasks that don’t make you happy doing in your business, and the tasks that Kim calls $10 and less tasks.

Here are some places to look for great people:

Odesk

Located at http://odesk.com

If you choose to take a freelance job through oDesk, jobs are either flat rate or hourly. For hourly jobs, oDesk freelancers download Time Tracker, a program that records work time with screenshots. Freelancers can edit Time Tracker, requesting addition of hours manually and deleting screenshots. Freelancers set up a portfolio with work examples and links to sites featuring completed work. Additionally, oDesk sends freelancer information to potential clients. Testing, some free, some with a minimal charge, verifies freelancer talents, however tests are not required to qualify for work. To apply for a job, contractors submit a cover letter.

ODesk freelancers provide talents for a wide range of projects. They choose categories for which they are qualified. The first step is setting up a portfolio. Contractors apply for jobs by submitting a cover letter and having a contractor request an interview. You can either accept or decline an offered contract. At the end of a job, both the contractor and client provide feedback, which is averaged to provide a score, the highest of which is 5.0.

Elance

Located at http://elance.com

Similar to oDesk, Elance was once inhabited almost exclusively by programmers and IT gurus, but has turned into a general-purpose freelance website. However, its “general orientation” is a bit of an exaggeration as the IT jobs and specialists still prevail on Elance. As with oDesk, registration is free. Elance has the reputation for a higher level of expertise for freelance work. With Elance, you do not need to search through job postings, as Elance prepares customized job lists and portfolios and delivers them to your email.

Freelancers on ODesk and Elance can choose one or more payment methods, using a credit card, PayPal, or bank account. Payment for a jobs can either be flat rate or per hour. The freelancer receives payment when the work is completed. oDesk gets 10% of the payment amount and Elance takes 8.75%. Both sites provide dispute resolution for freelancers. Odesk provides money back within the first two workweeks for hourly work to contractors if they are unsatisfied.

Fiverr

Located at http://fiverr.com

Fiverr.com is a website that people can use to buy or sell services for the flat rate of $5, $4 of which will be deposited to the freelancer’s account and $1 of which will be keep as Fiverr’s fee. The individual ordering something from Fiverr must pay $5 with a credit card or by PayPal. Registration to buy and sell on Fiverr is free. Service categories are tremendously varied, ranging from graphics, to voice overs, to writing short articles. Once you are registered on the website, you will be notified when someone orders your service.

User reviews are more positive for oDesk and Elance, than they are for Fiverr. Some of the problems cited by users of Fiverr include inadequate customer service and no ability for recourse if there are payment problems. Generally speaking, people seem to either love or hate Fiverr, based upon the experience they had. Many of those who use Elance do not like their Work View time-tracking application.

There are many other site where you can find very high quality people for very cheap.

Here are a couple:

• http://easyoutsource.com
• http://staff.com

Great people exist on all of these sites. You might have to go through a few duds before you strike gold – but that’s business right?

Doing What You Love

It’s all about doing what you love. There are other tasks that you might consider as higher level tasks but if you don’t love what you are doing, you are not going to be happy, so you might decide to train someone on other higher level tasks once you develop a good working relationship with the right person. If you feel like you are forced to do tasks that you don’t enjoy, those tasks are going to get harder and harder to get done and it may decrease your productivity because you are bummed that you have to do work you hate doing. Try to avoid this as much as possible because they will bring you down and drain you.

What you need to do is make a list of all the stuff you enjoy doing for your business and all the stuff you absolutely hate doing. The stuff you hate doing, outsource them as quickly as possible Get them off your plate. The sooner you do, the happier you will be.

=> Share with us how your life and work life changed when you started outsourcing a low level task that you hated doing. Please share with us, we want to hear from you!!