Creating Business Success
I found Willie Crawford via an article he submitted to Idea Marketers. His article included links to his site in the body of the article, so I followed a link to his blog. There, Willie freely shares his business plans for 2007. You too can benefit from his plans by making them your own.
Mr. Crawford begins his list with this piece of priceless advice: OUTSOURCE EVERYTHING!
– If I can get someone to do it cheaper than I can do it myself, (based upon the value that I have personally put on each of my working hours), then I should not (and will not) be doing it.
– My focus will be on promoting and growing my business.
With advice like this, I have no doubt that Mr. Crawford makes the kind of money he proclaims to make.
The biggest mistake most fledgling business owners make is to try to do everything themselves. They create their own web site, they create their own brochure, they create their own letterhead and then wonder why business isn’t booming for them. Or, if they don’t have the skill to perform these feats, they then resolve to micromanage their outsource suppliers. As a result, they usually end up with a finished product which is FAR inferior to what they could have had, had they allowed their outsource provider to do his/her job.
I’ve spent almost a decade working with business owners on their web sites and I can personally tell you that my clients fall into two categories:
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The client who has to micro manage every detail of the project.
This client acts like a typo in the copy is the end of the world. They will drive me crazy with their obsessive attention to detail. One such clients paid for three hours of my time as she walked me through creating a table border pica by pica. Of course, this type of client begins screaming over a typo and makes changes on the fly. While changing a headline is a part of good marketing, this style client wants to change copy without testing it first.Oh, yeah. This type of client typically wants to build a web site then not spend a penny promoting the web site, nor spend any time doing what needs to be done to promote it. (Did I mention that I found Mr. Crawford’s article because he paid to have it positioned optimally on the web site?)
This type of client almost always squacks when the invoice arrives and frequently is fired by their web designer, copywriter or graphic artist. Not only have I fired this type of client, but I’ve also been unfortunate enough to be a second or third stop on that train to nowhere. Fortunately, I’ve worked with enough clients like this that my radar is now good and I dont’ accept them as clients anymore.
The clients I’ve worked with who fit this profile have never achieved any significant success. It’s almost as if they spend all their energy micro managing the details so the important stuff never gets done.
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The client who says to me, "You know the web, do your magic for me" and then lets me do my job.
This type of client is a joy with which to work. This type of client doesn’t sweat the small stuff. He/she knows that most readers of the web skim the page and even if there is a typo in the copy he/she sends me, it’s not the end of the world.The client’s I’ve worked with who fit this profile have gone on to achieve significant success, and these clients frequently hire me to create several different web sites for them.
A new year is quickly approaching and with the change of the year, many of us determine to break bad habits and replace them with new habits. If you’ve been guilty of either refusing to outsource or micromanaging your outsource providers, then it’s time to make this a New Year’s Resolution! (If you’re reading this AFTER January 1, it’s still not too late to make a positive change for your business.)
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