How Much Is Your Time Worth?
You can’t afford to outsource?
One of the things I hear aspiring internet marketers saying all the time is they can’t afford to outsource. They
feel like they haven’t made enough money online to justify paying somebody to do one of the many tasks necessary to run a successful business. They claim that when they’re making (insert figure here) per (insert time frame here) they won’t be able to NOT afford to outsource.
The good news is it’s just a mindset shift that can be easily remedied. The bad news is you’re killing yourself and your business until you make that shift.
It’s a question of perspective
First of all, let me say that I struggle with this same thought pattern from time to time myself. I know about being new and having a very limited (or nonexistent) budget for running your business. I also know how long things can stay the same when you keep doing the same things. That is why I’m turning over a new leaf and I’m going to share with you a method that should help you do the same.
When you’re looking at how to value your time you can’t be stuck in the present or past. In other words, just because you’re only making $200.00 per month that doesn’t mean your time is worth only $200.00 per month.
You say “what I make is what I make; how can you say that’s not a useful yardstick to price my time?”
This is where the shift comes in. Instead of using the present or the past to set the value of your time, you need to look at the future. What are your goals? What timeline have you set for your success? Have you written these things down?
If not, stop right now and come back to this article after you have committed to success targets that are specific and written down.
Glad to have you back.
It’s also about faith
Let’s say that your first target includes an income of $500.00 per month. If you are spending at least 40 hours per month on your business, that means when you get to that mark your time will already be worth $500.00/40 hours or $12.50 per hour. Keep in mind, that if you only spend 20 hours on your business, this figure doubles to $25.00 per hour but I’ll use the lower figure to make my point.
“But Jeff, I’m not making $500.00 per month now.” “Why do I care about a future hourly rate?”
My answer to that is to say what you focus on is what you attract. If you expect to never make anything online you never will. Any goal setting method worth a hoot will tell you you have to act like the person you want to become BEFORE you’ll become them.
The same rule applies to the value you place on your time. In order for you to get to the $500.00 per month mark, you need to make decisions as if you’re already there. Part of this is using the hourly figure associated with this goal to make choices on how you should spend your time and money.
Let me be clear about something: I’m NOT saying that you should run out and spend the $500.00 you expect to make on an info product. I’m also NOT telling you run up debt foolishly because you have faith the money will be there. What I AM trying to do is to get you to think like the person you want to become when you’re making important business decisions.
Let’s run some numbers
I’ll give you an example. Let’s say you have recently purchased and read an internet marketing infoproduct. You’ve implemented some of the tips already and have verified they work. You believe in the product and think that others would benefit from it. For the sake of simplicity we’ll say you only have three things you need to do to promote it.
They are:
- Do a blog review of the product listing its pros and cons with a call to action using your affiliate link
- Write a keyword-targeted article based on your review
- Write a ten page ebook on an interest your niche has to attract people to sign up for your list as part of the affiliate campaign
I know this is a very simplified example but it will be enough for you to get my point.
Using the new hourly rate we calculated above, we can now evaluate if it makes sense to do all of this yourself or to pay somebody to help you. Let’s look at each task and run some numbers.
- Blog review-this should take you no more than two hours to do. Total cost of your time is $25.00
- Article-since this will be based on your blog review, it shouldn’t take even thirty minutes to do. Total cost of your time is $6.25
- Ebook-This will probably take you at least six hours to produce. Total cost of your time is no less than $75.00
Let’s now look at each of these in terms of outsourcing:
- Blog review-it’s your blog and you should do this because you have a unique voice and experience with the product.
- Article-you’re not going to be able to get an original article written for $6.25 unless you’re ordering in quantities.
- Ebook-here’s where we see the greatest opportunity. you can get a no-frills, ten page PDF ebook researched and written by professional copywriter Tim Bossie for $80.00.
Can you see the power of this?
You just bought back six hours of your time by paying to have the ebook done rather than doing it yourself. Could you use six extra hours? How about taking that time and doing some social marketing or setting up a few emails for an autoresponder series? The choice is yours.
The bottom line is that you’re accomplishing the tasks you started out to AND you’ve created other opportunities by not thinking you have to do it all yourself.
Now, here’s the REAL secret…
The results get more dramatic at each income goal
OK. You’re now making your goal of $500.00 per month. Your next success target is to make $1000.00 per month. Assuming that you spend the same minimum of 40 hours per month on your business, we come up with a new hourly figure of $1000.00/40 hours or $25.00 per hour.
Can you think of a few more tasks you should pay somebody else to do? Will you add more to your marketing mix? It’s all up to you.
Final Thoughts
My goal here is a simple one. If you keep thinking only in terms of where you are now, how are you ever going to get anywhere else?
Goal setting is not just the scribbling down of a bunch of words on a page. It is a careful analysis of where you’re at and and where you want to be. Part of that analysis should include looking at how much your time is worth to you now and at your next success target. Saying you don’t make enough so your time is worthless is not only dis-empowering but an absolute death sentence for your business.
Finally, remember that you have to constantly re-evaluate the goals you’ve set. This assures you stay on track and that you always know the value of your time.
Did you enjoy this article? Does it resonate with you? Am I out of my mind? I would really like to know what you think. Please leave me a comment below and bookmark it at your favorite social site using the ShareThis icon below.
Best,
[tags]goal setting,value of your time,internet marketing business,business strategy,outsourcing,tim bossie,guaranteed-ads.com[/tags]
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tagged with: business strategy • Goal Setting • guaranteed-ads.com • internet marketing business • outsourcing • tim bossie • value of your time
Filed under: Goal Setting
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
This idea seems to be floating in the atmosphere. I recently wrote about setting your value on my blog; and recently read another blog on the idea of deciding which of the millions of ideas you should start capitalizing on on Kendall Summerhawk's blog. This is another important part of the equation. Thanks for the clear examples and the reminder that goals and outsourcing help each entrepreneur!
Best,
Peggie Arvidson
Hi Peggie,
It's been a subject on a lot of people's minds. With so many people worried about the economy, the natural tendency is to want to cut back on the cost of doing business. This is especially true of people new to internet marketing.
Thank you for your praise. My one goal is to show that not taking an action such as outsourcing can be much worse for the life of the business. Not only does it pretend to reward the person by supposedly saving them money but it also creates a bad mindset for building a business with.
Jeff
Jeff,
Love the practical, go-do-this aspect of your post. You break it down so that the person reading your post will know what they have to do after they read it. I'm sure that when people read this post they are already formulating a plan (either in their head or on paper) about what to do next.
I also believe that people don't “act” like they want to better their business. Your example of acting like you're making $500.00 a month is spot on. That goes for any amount. Once you hit a plateau there is always another one waiting. To reach it you have to “act” like you're already there. Without being foolish about, of course.
Great post and thank you for mentioning my website.
Tim,
Thanks so much for your kind words and for appreciating the mindset shift necessity.
My most sincere hope is that people really act on the information I've provided.
Thank you also for taking the time to set up a page for me to direct them to. I'm saying my prayers.
Jeff
Hi Peggie,
It's been a subject on a lot of people's minds. With so many people worried about the economy, the natural tendency is to want to cut back on the cost of doing business. This is especially true of people new to internet marketing.
Thank you for your praise. My one goal is to show that not taking an action such as outsourcing can be much worse for the life of the business. Not only does it pretend to reward the person by supposedly saving them money but it also creates a bad mindset for building a business with.
Jeff
Jeff,
Love the practical, go-do-this aspect of your post. You break it down so that the person reading your post will know what they have to do after they read it. I'm sure that when people read this post they are already formulating a plan (either in their head or on paper) about what to do next.
I also believe that people don't “act” like they want to better their business. Your example of acting like you're making $500.00 a month is spot on. That goes for any amount. Once you hit a plateau there is always another one waiting. To reach it you have to “act” like you're already there. Without being foolish about, of course.
Great post and thank you for mentioning my website.
Tim,
Thanks so much for your kind words and for appreciating the mindset shift necessity.
My most sincere hope is that people really act on the information I've provided.
Thank you also for taking the time to set up a page for me to direct them to. I'm saying my prayers.
Jeff