It finally clicked! "Someday" is Today!

[Gamechanger]

I have been reading the book since Friday, and I am nothing short of flabbergasted. I have read so many "success" type books, and none of them come close. The sheer amount of truth in this book is amazing! Of all of the other books that I have read, not one actually listed out different types of businesses that you could use to be successful. They used concepts like "The power of positive thinking", "Think and grow rich", etc.

I have started several ventures that flopped weather they were my own "non-fastlane" business, or some type of network marketing/MLM (Yes I was a sucker not too long ago) thing. All I needed now was a little help figuring out which direction to go, and while reading this book, it finally clicked last night! My new business meets all 5 commandments!

I am fully committed, and will remain so. I did not want to wait for "the perfect time", so I have already begun the process, and I look forward to sharing my successes and failures going forward.

Filing LLC paperwork today, and I have already purchased the domain, however the website will be very complex, so I have placed in a poll, but open comments are also greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading
&
Thank you for the outstanding book @MJDEMARCO


"The question isn't who is going to let me; It's who is going to stop me." - Ayn Rand

 

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[Waspy]

Re: DIY vs Hiring.

It largely depends on budget. But this has actually been one of my biggest lessons. I have always been a bootstrapper and alway tried to do as much as I could myself. But eventually I realised that I would spend a huge amount of time learning a skill to produce something which ultimately was of a pretty poor quality when compared to what a pro would have produced.

Now if it's something integral to my business (like web development for a web based business) I always hire a professional. Looking back I was crazy to think DIYing some things was even an option.

 

[Gamechanger]

Re: DIY vs Hiring.

It largely depends on budget. But this has actually been one of my biggest lessons. I have always been a bootstrapper and alway tried to do as much as I could myself. But eventually I realised that I would spend a huge amount of time learning a skill to produce something which ultimately was of a pretty poor quality when compared to what a pro would have produced.

Now if it's something integral to my business (like web development for a web based business) I always hire a professional. Looking back I was crazy to think DIYing some things was even an option.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I was thinking that as well. I want something that is professional quality, and if time is the most important thing we have, I might as well save some.

 

[Scot]

The big debate between bootstrap or outsource.

Kind of going off what @Waspy said, it's important to learn how to do it IF it's part of the business. If your website is an ecommerce site to sell your novel, you'll want to do everything from scratch writing and publishing your novel. But the actual website could be outsourced, as long as the money you have to invest into a website will be enough to have a quality website.

I have been teaching myself coding, because I want to understand what's going on behind the scenes and not be reliant solely on developers. That being said, my product isn't my website.

 

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[Fox]

Two big questions are...

- Will this be an essential skill that I will let have to manage people in or supervise personally when my business is fully operational (for example sales)
- Is this a crucial part of my business that I need to know about

If yes to either of those I will put some time into learning and possibly mastering (depending on how big the yes is), if not I will outsource.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I didn't vote because the answer DEPENDS. It can be both, and for the same project.

It really depends on your long term vision, where your competencies lie, and the amount of time it takes. It also depends on who you hire. I've hired people and been utterly disappointed where I ended up doing it myself.

 

[Gamechanger]

Two big questions are...

- Will this be an essential skill that I will let have to manage people in or supervise personally when my business is fully operational (for example sales)
- Is this a crucial part of my business that I need to know about

If yes to either of those I will put some time into learning and possibly mastering (depending on how big the yes is), if not I will outsource.

Thank you for replying. Based on what is being said here, outsourcing is the way for me to go in this particular case. The website is a subscription-based brokerage system, so I will spend time learning so that I can make alterations if the need arises, but have it made professionally from scratch.

 

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[Gamechanger]

I didn't vote because the answer DEPENDS. It can be both, and for the same project.

It really depends on your long term vision, where your competencies lie, and the amount of time it takes. It also depends on who you hire. I've hired people and been utterly disappointed where I ended up doing it myself.

Thanks for replying. I think that I should spend most of my time on the marketing aspect. I have to get the page in front of the right people. It's a subscription-based brokerage system, and my long term goal is liquidation.

 

[MidwestLandlord]

My opinion on outsourcing...

Outsourcing can be a huge time leverage. If you have 4 others doing work for you, that's 5 people working total. So it's a great way to get things done much, much quicker.

Keep in mind though that you don't only pay them in money, you pay them in control.

So it depends on which portion of the work you can afford to lose some control over. Give away too much control, give up control on the wrong things, or give control to the wrong people, and you'll spend more time repairing the damage than you would have just doing it yourself.

Hire the right people, and then follow-up! (trust, but verify)

I would guess there's about 20% of what I do that I wouldn't outsource come hell or high water. But the rest? Much more efficient for me to hire that stuff out. The other 80% of stuff I honestly feel is below me and a waste of my time (as arrogant as that sounds haha)

 

[G-Man]

So it depends on which portion of the work you can afford to lose some control over. Give away too much control, give up control on the wrong things, or give control to the wrong people, and you'll spend more time repairing the damage than you would have just doing it yourself.

It's a decision matrix.
Example 1: My car needs repairs. I don't know shit about cars. Is it worth my time to learn? My decision is no, because the downside of being uninformed is low, and the upside is limited. Worst case scenario: I get gipped by the mechanic for a few hundred bucks, or I have to go spend 5k on another old car. Not a life-changer. Upside: I save the occasional few hundred dollars on repairs over the course of my life.

Example 2: I need to hire a consultant to do an Netsuite implementation, but I'll be heavily involved, even though I don't know the mechanics of the programming side of it. Downside: I waste my time babysitting people who are perfectly competent and can deliver a great system all on their own, but I still have peace of mind about it. Upside: I prevent a major disaster because the consultants fundamentally don't understand the business (because they lied and have never done a manufacturing implementation) and will build an ERP system that will cripple the business for months, result in inability to report on time and threaten the company's RLOC.

FYI both examples really happened. The ERP guys very nearly caused the apocalypse, but because I took the time to be involved in every stage, I was able to know when to fire them, do damage control, and at that point I knew enough about how the sausage was made to help the new implement team we hired get the system turned around in less than 2 weeks.

I still don't plan on learning anything about cars, though

 

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