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…
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