Leveraging: How Virtual Teams Catapult Your Results, Increase Your Sanity & Free Up Your Time

Two and a half years into running my own business, I had an epiphany which transformed my business, catapulted my income beyond the six-figure range and finally allowed me to regain my sanity! I had three businesses with 17 projects all needing my attention right away! At this point I had one assistant who was trying to help, but she was overwhelmed too.

So what is REALLY important here; what shifted my mindset, freeing me from the burden of feeling constantly overwhelmed and scrambling to succeed is this: I learned how to LEVERAGE.

What is leverage? Leverage is the ability to apply a little bit of effort and get a massive result. Think of a lever - you move the lever a little bit and the lever applies the pressure to get a much bigger result. For entrepreneurs, there are three kinds of leverage we can tap into: money, systems, time.

Money

When you leverage money, you make more money. The three easiest ways are to:

1. Charge more
2. Offer your service to many
3. Package your service and automate its delivery.

Let's say you are a coach and you currently make money by coaching clients one on one for $100 per hour. You are limited by time and energy - you can only make as much money as you can work - usually about 10 to 12 clients per week. If you were to double your rates to $200 you would double your income. But if you charged $200 per person to attend an event that 10 people attend for one hour, and then you have exponentially grown your revenue. Now let's imagine that you take your process and package it as an information product and you sell it on a website. You sell your package for $200. Let's say with some really good marketing you can sell 20 a week -with no extra time on your behalf whatsoever.

Let's see how this breaks down:

Give yourself a raise (CHARGE MORE)
$200 x 12 clients per week = $2400 per week

Offer a group experience (OFFER YOUR SERVICE TO MANY)
$200 x 12 clients in one hour x 4 hours per week = $9600 per week

Package your information (PACKAGE & AUTOMATE)
$200 x 20 = $4000 per week with ZERO TIME

Do all three and you will exponentially increase your revenue!

Systems

Now let's explore the idea of systemizing. To systemize is to take a process and identify and document each step involved so that anyone could follow the process. There are two reasons why you would want to create systems so you can leverage your time.

First, most entrepreneurs get in a trap of recreating the wheel each and every time they need to do something. A system lays out a plan so that every time you do that particular task, you don't have to think, you simply follow the plan.

Systems become increasingly imperative when a team is involved because everyone has a different way of doing things - if you want it done your way, you will need to document the steps involved.

The second reason to systemize is that you can automate much of what you do. This is a necessary component of building your team effectively. When you are ready to add a person to your team, the system must be in place for that person to step in and do the work effectively and efficiently. Here are a few examples of tasks can be automated:

- Follow up emails and cards
- Reminders for events, phone calls, etc.
- Marketing materials on the web
- Purchasing your services or products
- Article submissions and press releases

I could go on forever but you get the picture. By developing and introducing systems to your business and virtual teams, you ensure that tasks are done consistently and as you want them done.

Quality experts tell us that the vast majority of any breakdown inside a business is due to faulty processes or systems, not human problems.

Time

The last leverage option, and my personal favorite, is time. You can leverage your time by outsourcing. To outsource something is to assign a task that you own and delegate it to someone else to perform for you. Think of it as cloning yourself to get more done. There are a few ways that outsourcing works. One is hiring people to accomplish tasks or projects that you don't like to do, can't do or is not the best use of your time. Another is hiring people to do what you do - but do it for less money so you make a profit by outsourcing it.

Successful entrepreneurs have learned to leverage the time and talents of other people to get things done. The Millionaire Business Owner has discovered that leverage allows him to apply a little bit of effort for a massive result. This picture above shows how by simply outsourcing and automating, he has created exponential results. This successful business owner is in the driver's seat of his destiny. He is not allowing his business to run him ragged!

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Comments

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 at 6:24 AM, by Business Process Outsourcing
It is a great article and how you defined leverage which the one thing that every business men need....nice article have a nice day

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