Outsourcing Staff and Free Exposure with Blogs and Email

Outsourcing staff and getting free exposure is Guy Levine’s method for his online business, in this interview excerpt you see how he likes to run things…

Excerpt from interview… “I’m 24. I live in Manchester, in the UK. Did my eight hours at college and then decided that I didn’t want to go to a university. I was going to start up my own business, and decided to become a website designer.
So I’d say the easy title has got to be website designer. And then the entrepreneurial bug hit me more. And now, it’s ‘Guy Levine, internet

entrepreneur and public speaker’.

Alan: Alright. So how old were you when you started your web design,
Guy?

Guy: 18.

Alan: And were you self-employed or were you working for someone?

Guy: I’m quite proud to say I’ve never had a job. I’ve been self-employed from the word go.

Alan: Okay. So how successful was and is your web design company?

Guy: It’s successful enough to be able to be run on two days a week of input and to still do a six-figure turnover.

Alan: Six-figure? That’s nice. And how many employees is there?

Guy: None. Myself. I believe in working hard and working smart, and I didn’t want to pay for a secretary to spend time fixing her brows with her boyfriend, that forced her to work. And I didn’t want to pay people while they’re on holiday.
So I thought the best thing I could do is build a team of freelancers, and they all interact by an internet, and to do it that way.

Alan: So when you say interact by an internet, do you want to explain that for our listeners a little bit more, Guy?

Guy: Yeah. Basically, we’ve got a secret website where we can video conference, where we can have a message board to leave notes for each other, I can administer tasks to any of the members, we can share files, we can share contacts.
And basically, instead of them turning up to the office, they log in in the morning, they get their work assignments, they do it when it suits them, how it suits them. And they upload it by the time I check it the next morning.
Some of our guys work between 12:00 at night and 7:00 in the morning. It suits them.

Alan: That’s fantastic. I know for a fact, Guy, that some of our listeners’ ears will be perking up when you’re talking like this. So how does somebody actually get into doing that? Because I thought somebody like myself and other people who are older, you’re probably part of a newer generation that’s growing up a little bit more with e-mail and the internet, when I didn’t.
So when people are listening to you talk about internet and these secret websites, how can you break that down, just to make it a little bit simpler for people to understand?

Guy: We just did a bit of a stitch on the internet for stuff like online collaboration and online project management. I think there’s actually probably 30 different companies of which, at this precise moment I can only remember one, which is Microsoft.
And I know if you go to the List Builder website, Microsoft’s got one on there. And you can rent it. It’s like $60 a month. And as soon as you create the user name, password and put your credit card details, you’re up and running.

Alan: Wow! Simple as that?

Guy: Yeah.

Alan: And if you’re looking at loads of retail shops on our streets, the difference in overhead. Do you have any idea what your overheads would be a month for that particular outfit, your design business?

Guy: Actual overhead is a 70£ a month phone bill and probably 250£ a month in online rentals and things like e-mail, newsletter server, online appointment server and collaboration server.

Alan: The big advantage is you’re not getting wrapped up in the wages
of staff.

Guy: No.

Alan: Do they just give you a price? Or how does it work?

Guy: I get quotes on every job, and then get invoiced at the end of it. So I don’t have to worry about any of that sort of wages. I only have to worry about my own.

Alan: And how are you going to spend it?

Guy: Yeah. The key thing is the minute I start a job, there is a cost associated with that job. Whereas if you’ve got employees, there isn’t a cost because it’s all covered in your running costs.
What I’ve found I’ve had to make sure is to have the confidence to start charging initial fees upfront. Because I know that if I want a set of visuals and it’s going to cost me 300£, I need to say to the client, “There’s a 300£ upfront fee.” So if they decide, “I don’t want to go ahead with that anymore,” I’m not left with the 300£ bill from the contractor.

Alan: If you could, just expand it just a little bit for the listeners. Are you telling me that the whole thing from A to Zed, from the beginning to the end, is done online with your clients, as well? Do you sometimes have to meet people?

Guy: Yes, I meet a lot of people. Nowadays, I think I like to have a first meeting face-to-face. I think it sets good boundaries. I think when work is day late and you’ve met the person face-to-face, it’s much easier to explain it than just a voice on the other end of the telephone. There’s no relationship there.
But I’ve got clients that I’ve never met before. Nowadays, people are busy. They’re quite happy to just do it over the telephone…”

In the rest of this interview Guy reveals how he used email and a blog diary to talk to his customers so click here to listen…

©Copyright JT&L Global Sydney Australia This may not be copied, whole or in part

Joint Ventures

Joint ventures are all about working with other people who have what you don’t. See how in this interview excerpt with Johan Mok

“I can really identify with the little guy. I started off as a little guy, someone with no resources. I didn’t have all that big money that I could invest in my business. And the strategy that I’m going to talk about is basically joint ventures.
For most people out there, who are listening right now, the word “joint venture” may sound pretty intimidating because you feel that you need to have lots of resources or you need to be someone really special in order to
connect with people.
This is a myth that I would actually like to debunk. It’s because you’re not talented and it’s because you don’t have resources, all the more you need to rely on the resources of other people instead of thinking of doing it by yourself. I think it is something that I really want to clarify.
I started my internet business in a little bedroom in Boston, where I was studying. Basically, my life revolved around going to school, coming back to my bedroom, sitting at my computer and sort of trying to run an online business I was a college student. I didn’t have much money. I started my business in my bedroom, and I still managed to take it from there.

One of the things I want to share, actually, is to teach people how to use other people’s resources. One of the things people fail to do, the first thing people need to do, is to recognize their strengths. So, for instance, in my particular case, I wasn’t really good at anything. I couldn’t do web designing. I wasn’t exactly good at product creation. I wasn’t a programming genius. The only thing I could do was scrape together a decent piece of copy.
So when I started out with nothing, I would try to barter trade my copywriting services in exchange for website design. So this is how I initially managed to get some of my websites designed by someone. I couldn’t do any of that stuff.

So the first piece of advice to everyone listening out there is to look within yourself, what kind of value you can provide to someone else and leverage that skill, that special something that you have. You need to get more of the resources don’t have, and build your resources from there.

I don’t see many people out there doing the same thing that I’ve done, because I think, in general, people tend to look inward to themselves and try to accomplish everything by themselves, as opposed to looking  outside and asking for help.

I think one thing that I’ve noticed in the past few years that I’ve attended many internet boot camps, is that most people – and it’s sad to say – most people don’t listen. They tend to talk a lot about themselves. When you meet someone for the first time, you don’t just go bragging about your accomplishments, you’ve done this, you’ve done that.
What should really be done is to ask them what you can do for them, as opposed to bragging about yourself. If you’re all that great, then there’s no need to receive any help. And if you’re not going to be receiving any help, then good luck!
So I believe that no matter how great you are and no matter which level of internet marketing expertise you at right now, you need help. You can always do with more resources.

©Copyright JT&L Global Sydney Australia This may not be copied, whole or in part

How To Succeed Online

How to succeed online is such a cliche title for this blog because it’s an overused phrase for sure. There are a lot of people online who tell us all the ‘essentials’ to succeed online and after a while you kinda go ‘yea right’ and switch off.

Anyway, for those of you who know me you knew 2008 was a rough year for me. In late 2008 I made the life changing decision to take a day off work to attend a Wealth Creation Seminar here in Sydney. I had heard about the seminar because I had worked for the woman who held the event, Roberta Fadoul, earlier in that year. I wasn’t expecting anything, I just wanted to get some fresh ideas about where to go in my future and figure out how to be an entrepreneur.  So I went along with an open mind and a willingness to learn from people who teach others about investing and business.

On the third day of the seminar Brett McFall was on stage talking about Internet Marketing. His presentation made so much sense to me! I was instantly catapulted head first (not literally, but I have been known to bump into things) into making an internet business my means of income for the future.

One of many commendable things about is Brett is he gets into the mental stuff as well as the technical. Here’s an excerpt from an interview with him about the common characteristics of successful business people…

#1 – Be A Dreamer

“I was speaking a seminar two weeks ago, and I actually opened the conference by getting people to close their eyes. And I said to people, and I want you to do this at home too, folks, it’s like, “Okay, why are you in here? Can you imagine where you are on holiday right now? Picture a sandy location, a beach location. Can you feel the sand underneath your feet? Can you hear the water lapping at the shore? What about that breeze? Can you feel that breeze coming through the palms? Can you see the palms swaying? Oh, and wait! Here comes a waiter down the beach, and he’s carrying a cocktail. What colour is that cocktail? Guess who that cocktail’s for? He’s bringing it over to you, and it’s icy and it’s lovely and cool, and there’s a big umbrella in it and a straw and it’s huge. And it just tastes wonderful. Can you imagine that? Can you see that? Can you see a holiday?”
Then I say, “What car are you driving? What colour is that car that you’re dreaming of? How many doors does it have? Is it a four-door or a two-door? Does it have a sunroof? Can you see yourself driving it?”
I do it to invite that dreamer in all of us. Because you’re not usually at an event or a seminar, you’re not actually there for the information, believe it or not. You’re actually not there for the information. It’s what I’ve just described is why you’re really there. That’s the change you want to bring about in your life. And I believe very, very strongly, you need to be a dreamer.

You have to be a dreamer. You absolutely have to be a dreamer. I’ve been on boards, when we had like a frequently-asked-questions section, a Q&A section during a seminar, and you have all of the speakers up on the stage and the audience is throwing questions at you, and most of the time I think the audience misses the point because they’re asking all these little questions about, ‘How do I actually fix this problem? How do I go about solving that?’ And they’re okay questions and we can give answers to them. My question if I was in the crowd is ‘what does it take to be where you are?’ ‘Why are you there?’ To me, they’re the bigger questions.
I always look at that panel of speakers, and I’ve never thought any different when I’ve looked around any panel I’ve been on, these guys, these women, are all dreamers. Every panel I’ve been on, they’re all dreamers.
I know you do it as well. You’ll dream about what the future will hold. What can I do? What will be here for me? What can I create?
And I think that being a dreamer is what drives you to events like this, that we hold anyway, or to any event. I’d support you going to any sort of event where you’re going to learn to dream on how you want your life to be.
Some people are afraid to dream. They get so logically-minded, that everything’s got to add up and everything’s got to make sense. And they forget about that part, “What do I really want to dream about? What is it that really excites me?”
You need to start getting your mind thinking.”

©Copyright JT&L Global Sydney Australia This may not be copied, whole or in part