As useful as outsourcing and delegating can be, it is important to understand that if you are considering outsourcing or delegating anything, you should test to see if these tasks can be automated first.

Automation is generally a fixed, one-time cost (if that), so it can be a lot cheaper than outsourcing. In most, more simple cases, it can even be free!

If a task can be automated, you should then check to see if a task can be automated for a reasonable price and if automation does a reasonable job at performing the task. [click to continue...]

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a concept called aiming high in one of my posts. I think it is very important to understand just what aiming high is and how important it is for your success.

However, it is also important to know how it is especially appropriate to apply this concept to your daily practice of running your business.

For those of you who want a quick synopsis of aiming high, aiming high is the practice of setting high and ambitious goals and being motivated enough to achieve them. It thrives on the belief that the only barrier that stands between you and success is yourself: what you believe you can and cannot achieve. [click to continue...]

The failure of these companies has created quite unprecedented conditions in the financial markets. There are a lot of buzzwords that we have been hearing as to why these companies have failed: debt, risk, sub-prime, greed and many, many others. But there is one key reason for this entire mess and it presents a valuable lesson for all of us entrepreneurs, managers and investors alike as to what to do and what not to do.

What is the true reason for this crisis? Its very simple: these businesses all had a short-term outlook. Allow me to explain: CEOs are under a tremendous amount of pressure from shareholders to generate stellar returns as quickly as possible. The board of directors, acting on behalf of the shareholders want a return and they want one now. They view returns on a quarterly basis, NOT a yearly basis. If there is a similar company generating even larger returns than this company, this company’s CEO is seen as doing a poor job. He/she will need to amend the company’s portfolio of assets to make sure that this company delivers like (or greater) returns. Otherwise, the CEO is fired. [click to continue...]

How would you like to earn $600 per hour? How about $2,000? $10,000? Sound enticing? Well, if you know how valuable your time as a business owner could be, this shouldn’t sound that enticing at all.

Why? Firstly because this ties a specific, fixed value to your time. Granted, earning $10k per hour is a lot of money, allowing you to earn $20 million dollars a year if you work 40 hours per week, but it still requires you to actually be there, doing the work in order to make the money.

In order to earn money this way, you are required to work in order to maintain your current pay. I find the concept of working to grow your bottom line much more fascinating and much more worthwhile. [click to continue...]

Why can’t it? What stops your business from being the next Google?

It turns out that business owners fabricate many reasons why they can’t experience the same massive success and resort to competing at the bottom of the business “food chain”.

It is for this reason I would like to introduce the concept of aiming high and how it can lead to enormous success. [click to continue...]