Over the past two days week I’ve been in a seemingly endless number of meetings as I’m preparing a few new exciting opportunities for my business. It’s been fun riding the Vespa all over town but I haven’t been in the office very much.

The good news is that I have help. In January I hired two new people to compliment my existing team and with their help and my business *almost* runs itself.

All the admin tasks get done, all my customers get quick replies to their emails, we’re developing new content, and we’re creating new features for our customers – all without me being there.

If you feel like the guy in the picture above then you need to begin delegating! Here are some steps to help you get started:

1) Make a list of all the tasks that you are doing that you shouldn’t be doing.

What are the tasks that take up a lot of your time, that have to get done, but that are low value work. For example, doing data entry or doing your own bookkeeping are tasks that others should be doing for you. If you’re not good at developing websites then have someone create your site for you. If you’re not the best salesperson in the world, have someone else sell for you. The key is to focus in on what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing. One of the biggest things that helped my business was to delegate the article writing. We now have over 60,000 articles on the system which never would have been possible it I were the only writer. Start making that list of the tasks that are the most annoying to you and take up the most time.

2) Clearly write out what needs to be done

Most entrepreneurs never write out how to do the things that need to be done to keep their businesses going. They just keep it all up in their heads. If you want to build a business beyond yourself then you clearly need to write out the various tasks that you want to delegate and give easy to understand instructions on how to accomplish those tasks. This is especially true if you’re going to hire someone who will not be working alongside you (ie a contractor from elance). The clearer the instructions are, the easier it will be for someone to step into your role and your business won’t skip a beat.

3) Hire a part time worker

Everyone who I’ve hired full time I started working with on a part time basis. It’s a great way to make sure that you work well together and you can learn more about what their skills are and where they want to grow. Hiring part time also helps you save money. The first person I ever hired was for one hour per day. I took some of the tasks I hated doing and gave it to him for one hour a day to handle for me. It was a great experience just to have that workload taken off of my plate and it wasn’t costing me too much. It was definitely a worthwhile investment at an entrepreneur-friendly price. From that one hour I was later able to hire him full time and later expand my employee base.

Most entrepreneurs just buy themselves a job instead of really building a business. You have arrived when your company can operate and thrive without you being there. At that point you choose to be there instead of you having to be there. Get started today by following these three simple steps.

I would love to hear your stories about how you have delegated tasks and built your business beyond yourself!

Evan Carmichael

Last year I did a profile on advice from the world’s richest man (Get In When There’s A Crisis – Advice From the World’s Richest Man).

I wanted to continue the profile today by discussing one of Carlos Slim Helu’s most infamous strategies – Go Away From The Crowd.

“When there is a crisis, that’s when some are interested in getting out,” says Helu, “and that’s when we are interested in getting in.”

The entire success of Helu’s business career has rested on one simple premise: go against the current. Much like his father who prospered in real estate during the Mexican Revolution, a time when most others were fleeing the violence and insecurity as fast as they could, Helu has become known for sniffing out great bargain deals and making investments that seem to be directly at odds with what the market, and his competitors, are saying is right.

Helu has never been one to worry about what other people think of him. After all, he says, “When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered.” Instead, Helu has built his career on standing out from the crowd. He was not trying to get noticed or to make the next day’s headlines, but by going for the investments that others were scrambling away from in fear, that is indeed what wound up happening.

The biggest investment of Helu’s life came at a time when his own country was in the midst of turmoil. Banks were faltering, businesses were collapsing, and people were living in daily fear of losing their lives. Throughout all of this, how many people would have taken the time to think to themselves, “Now’s the perfect time to invest!” As it turns out, Helu was one of the few, and the fortunate.

Helu looked for patterns in the market and singled out the unusual. If a company was underperforming, he did not turn away from it like the rest; he zeroed in his sights. Did this company have potential? Could he turn it around? Could he prove people wrong and make it a success?

The decision to purchase Telmex was a difficult one, especially in the operating environment in which it found itself. After all, it was not only Telmex that was suffering, but the entire country itself. And, Helu already had his hands full with many other small businesses he had acquired in the 1980s. But, in Telmex, Helu saw the potential and he developed a long-term plan to unlock that potential.

So, how does he do it? Does Helu simply look for deals that no one else is going for and throw his money behind them? Far from it. Helu engages in a strategic and meticulous plan of bottom fishing. Using his math background, Helu quickly determines whether an asset is being properly valued. He examines the entire sector, its outlook for the future, and the prospects for its competition. He goes beyond the regular number-crunching to take a long term perspective, evaluating from property holdings to human capital to determine the company’s intrinsic worth.

When he thinks a company is undervalued, he gets in on the action. And, that just so happens to be often what everyone else is getting out of.

Evan Carmichael

In this edition of Entrepreneur University we turn to Howard Shore from Activate Group Inc. Howard has developed a track record for helping organizations to accelerate revenue and profit growth rates at levels exceeding 20% annually. As a personal coach, Mr. Shore has helped executives and sales people to increase their personal success.

Today Howard shares with us how you can motivate your staff:

In today’s business environment, it is essential that we find ways to make our organizational resources more productive. In many organizations, the most prominent and expensive resource we have is our people. As a result, a lot of time is spent on creating processes and conditions that drive and motivate our employees.

Over the years, I have observed leaders trying many ways to motivate their people to higher levels of performance. Even the best leaders have experienced the frustration of trying to lead someone who seemed to refuse to live up to expectations. Ironically, their people were probably feeling the same way. The reason: Motivation develops internally from a personal desire to achieve goals that are important both to the individual and to the organization. Motivation is the force that prompts you to take action. If you are having trouble getting someone to achieve your goals, you are probably failing to understand what theirs are.

A lot of research has been conducted over the years to identify the factors that have the most dramatic impact on productivity. While pay, fringe benefits, and working conditions are important, research has shown that absence of these factors produces a lack of motivation, but their presence has no long-range motivational effects. Long-range motivational factors are recognition of a job well done, sense of achievement, growth, participation, challenge, and identification with the company’s goals and vision.

In spite of these facts, leaders and managers spend a lot of time trying to find ways to motivate employees through fear and incentive. The very essence of fear is negative and over time has diminishing effects as employees develop attitudes that lead to a decrease in quality, commitment, and productivity. Fear can be highly motivating, but does not produce positive results for any length of time. Incentive, on the other hand, is a positive motivator, that is, a reward in exchange for a specific behavior. This also has diminishing returns as employees expect fair compensation based on their contributions, and, many times, there is a disconnect between what the employee desires and what the employer is willing to pay. Over time, employees start gravitating toward desiring more of the intangible rewards such as respect, growth, knowledge, prestige, and recognition (to name a few) that ultimately govern their internal motivation. The challenge lies in recognizing each individual’s unique desires.

Here are 15 ideas proven to provide for long-term motivation:

1. Create a clear vision. Identify the organization’s mission and goals, and make sure that everyone understands the rationale behind them and how they contribute toward achieving them.
2. Clearly communicate departmental objectives, and solicit input from your employees on what they can do to help achieve them.
3. Make an effort to compliment each of your direct reports on at least a weekly basis.
4. Make employee development and retention a primary objective of each manager and leader and reward their success accordingly.
5. Ask employees for advice in areas where they have expertise.
6. Involve everyone at all levels in the goal-setting and planning processes, particularly if they are responsible for the results.
7. Let people know what is expected of them, and do everything you can to make them successful.
8. Develop a “servant leader” attitude, and be there for your people rather than having them there for you.
9. Treat everyone with dignity and respect.
10. Stand behind your employees and back their decisions.
11. Show the courage to let your employees learn from their mistakes.
12. Take time to listen carefully to other people’s interests, opinions, concerns, and goals.
13. Meet individually with your employees; help them clarify their personal goals and values; and assist them in identifying the skills they need to achieve their goals.
14. Find ways to enrich the jobs of your employees by increasing their authority or span of control.
15. Encourage employees to expand their comfort zone.

Reference and excerpts taken with permission from Leadership published by Resource Associates Corporation, Mohnton, PA

Evan Carmichael

It’s time for another YoungEntrepreneur.com poll!

Last week I shared with you the results of our most recent poll on Twitter (What is the best way to build your business through Twitter? – Entrepreneur Poll Results). We had a great response and I wanted to thank everyone for participating!

This week our new poll is asking:

“If you could meet one famous entrepreneur, dead or alive, who would it be and why?”

We’ve done a number of famous entrepreneur profiles here on the blog and I’d like to know if you had to just pick one person in history to meet, who would it be?

Is it a modern day entrepreneur like Richard Branson or Bill Gates? Maybe it’s an entrepreneurial legend from the past like Henry Ford or Andrew Carnegie.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and remember to please share why you would like to meet that person. What makes him or her more special than everyone else?

I’m looking forward to some interesting comments!

Evan Carmichael

Our 35th Review our Blog entry comes thanks to Geoffrey Gordon from Blaze Web Studio. You can read what he had to say about us in his blog post: Young Entrepreneur.com – Practical advice you should listen too.

“We at Blaze Web-Studio, believe that everyone should have a web presence, that looks professional, is affordable and easy to maintain. Web Design solutions: * Basic 5 Page Website, * Blog Design & Maintenance, * Hosting Packages. We offer simple solutions and work with you every step of the way! We all have ways in which we like to do things and not one person is the same as another. That is why we at Blaze Web Studio would like to help you put your business up on the internet, on a brochure or what ever manner that accurately describes your services and visually stimulates your potential clients.”

Thanks for the review Geoffrey!

Our 36th Review our Blog entry is by Vivek Krishnan from Youth Entrepreneurs Forum. You can read his review of YoungEntrepreneur on his blog: Website Review: YoungEntrepreneur.Com

“This a blog intended to help the youth who are motivated to become an entrepreneur and want to create something that will help them realize thier goals and at the same time provide relief to many other people who are involved with him/his organization. The posts in this blog will keep you motivated and running throughout your struggle to become the next big ‘entrepreneur’!”

Thanks for the review Vivek!

Our 37th Review our Blog entry is from another YoungEntrepreneur.com reader, Sherry Prescott-Willis from Market This!. Check out her review at: Learning from the Young Entrepreneur

“I’m passionate about helping people become better marketers. I’m a marketing strategist, author and my background includes both consumer and hi-tech products and services. I’m a mom of two and love helping businesses to make smarter, more effective marketing decisions. My new book, Market This!: An Effective 90-Day Marketing tool is designed for entrepreneurs and small business owners and is now available on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com.”

Thanks for the review Sherry!

If you are interested in doing a review, check out our Review Our Blog initiative for instructions.

Evan Carmichael

Which Famous Entrepreneur would you like to see profiled? Leave a comment below and we might take you up on your idea!

Thank you for your feedback Mits and Zuzanna. I did a Richard Branson profile in March (How To Lead Like Richard Branson) so we’ll wait a bit before we do him again.

This week I decided to continue the story of Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM. I did a profile on him last May (Be Yourself – Thomas Watson, Founder of IBM) which was well received.

Watson thought about his success in plain terms. When he was once asked what the secret to all he had achieved in his life was, Watson replied, “It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all.”

Rather, Watson believed that failure was not only an inevitable part of the equation in the formula for success, but that it was both a necessary and also a positive stepping stone towards achieving the goals he had set out for himself.

“I have made a good many predictions about the future of our business and I have been wrong every time because I have always underestimated its possibilities,” said Watson. Despite heading one of the most powerful companies in the country of his time, Watson was not perfect. He, too, made mistakes along the way – mistakes that would cost the company dearly. But, what set Watson apart from his peers was his determination to bounce back from his failures.

In his early years, Watson was struggling as a salesman with Wheeler and Wilcox in Buffalo. He had just relocated to a new city and was finding it difficult to adjust not only to the change of environment but also to having to now sell products door-to-door. After making a particularly hard sale, Watson celebrated his success with a drink at the local pub. But, when his equipment and horse and buggy were all stolen outside the bar, his success would be transformed into a failure in the eyes of the company. He was promptly fired. Disillusioned with his prospects, it took Watson over a year to find another steady job. Was having that one drink a mistake? Perhaps, but it was never one that Watson would regret since it would start him on the path towards running his own company.

Watson was never content to take the easy road. He set his sights high and tried his best. He made some mistakes, suffered the consequences, and bounced right back. “It is better to aim at perfection and miss it than to aim at imperfection and hit it,” he said. Watson was not about to let fear of failure get in his way of achieving the impossible. For him, the impossible was not only possible, but it was indeed the only thing that was worth striving for; it was the only thing that would differentiate him and make him stand out.

Mistakes, according to Watson, were nothing to be ashamed of and were, in fact, a necessary part of the process of running a business. Both failures and successes were something to be celebrated, because both signaled effort and triumph in the end. “The man who does not take pride in his own performance performs nothing in which to take pride,” said Watson.

Therefore, the choice for Watson was a simple one. “You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it,” he said. “So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.”

Which Famous Entrepreneur would you like to see profiled? Leave a comment below and we might take you up on your idea!

Evan Carmichael

Is there a topic you would like to learn more about for the next Entrepreneur University? Leave a comment below and we’ll try to find an expert to discuss your topic!

This week’s Entrepreneur University comes from GT Bulmer. GT is a freelance writer and a home-based Internet Marketer presently building his online presence with a portfolio of affiliate programs and products.

GT shares with us his advice on how to make money online:

“Since the dawn of humankind and the first exchange of an item or service for something else of value, the desire to succeed in one form of business or another has attracted many aspiring entrepreneurs.

The nature of business has evolved over time. Now Internet marketing is the trend. Not everyone succeeds, but for those with experience, or a little insider insight, the rewards can be spectacular.

Making money online doesn’t have to be difficult. Like any business, it does require determination and focus, but if you apply the right methods, success can be as easy as 1-2-3.

For example, here is the basic formula you need for online success:

1. Product or service, preferably something in demand that fills a perceived need

2. Method or system to reach the masses with your message

3. Built-in process to produce steady, residual income: either a product or service with recurring billings, or an autoresponder system that follows up with your list regularly, presenting new sales messages

You can spend a lifetime getting the necessary experience. Or you can save time and effort by learning from others who have paved the way. The challenge, of course, is finding the right marketing “guru” to guide you.

The key here is to spend time online researching products and opportunities, visiting business and marketing forums and generally becoming familiar with potential niche markets and products you may be interested in marketing and selling.

In the course of your research, you will begin to recognize marketing leaders and will be in a better position to identify and choose one or two from whom you may be able receive additional information, training or possible mentorship.

My basic philosophy for success comes from a few select leaders in sales and marketing.

For example, in the 1970s and 80s, I was inspired by leading mail order marketing guru of the day, E. Joseph Cossman. Cossman specialized in marketing proprietary products throughout the world and his sales reached into the millions of dollars.

His success did not stop at just the profits he made from direct sales of the items he promoted. He did something else to multiply his rewards: he helped others. He revealed his success system to others and he mentored the most serious of them to marketing success.

Cossman often said, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life.”

Like E. Joseph Cossman, I believe that true marketing success lays in helping others. The sense of personal achievement is greater, making the financial rewards much more meaningful.

Today, men and women around the globe are seeking success through Internet marketing. Those who achieve it the quickest are the ones who learn how to apply existing and proven systems for success.

With the right product or service, a proven method for marketing and a process for residual income, making money online doesn’t have to be difficult.

Do your due diligence and find the right product and methods for you. Internet success awaits.”

Is there a topic you would like to learn more about for the next Entrepreneur University? Leave a comment below and we’ll try to find an expert to discuss your topic!

Evan Carmichael