One of the biggest setbacks one encounters in the later stages of running a work at home business is that they get burned out by doing everything themselves. As a result they are not able to grow their business. Most work at home business owners, especially affiliate marketers, do everything themselves and are used to generating $100 out of $0 (their efforts). The amount of efforts you can put is limited and so does the output! To really grow your business, you must treat your business like a Business and think and act like a businessman. A businessman always looks for opportunity to turn $100 into $200 or more. He takes risks and has employees working under him. He creates plans and then makes his employees follow the plan. Can you imagine Bill Gates writing code himself (now)? To really grow your business and your fortune, create a winning system, hire employees (or outsource), teach them to follow the system, repeat the process. Come out of the $0 -> $100 mindset and adapt to $100 -> $200 mindset.
It is possible to hire people and work with them only if you first build a secure network for communication. If some one is intercepting your mails and communications and carrying out Man in the Middle attacks, your focus first is on securing your network against the hackers.
I think it does help to have a plan and think things out, and as you are saying Vishal, to treat it like a business. However, when you are starting out, I don't think there is much harm in doing everything yourself as long as you are able to maintain a certain level of professionalism (e.g. do your websites look good, or do they look like someone who put it together doesn't know a thing about web design). Even then, knowing how to sell is usually more important than making everything look pretty - you can have the prettiest website in the world, but if you don't know how to write effective sales copy, no one will buy from you. In my case, I don't think I would recommend outsourcing until you have gotten your feet wet and have done a little trial and error. Many small business owners do almost everything themselves and don't hire people to do other things until they grow - I would think that many internet business owners follow the same trend. Of course, most small businesses fail, so its not surprising that most people fail at earning money online.
Vishal P. Rao: To really grow your business and your fortune, create a winning system, hire employees (or outsource), teach them to follow the system, repeat the process. That's it in a nutshell! There is a limit to how much a single individual can produce over a given time period. Once that limit is reached the only way to increase production is to utilize automation along with the skill and resources of other people. In the beginning, it may be economically and practically feasible for the work-at-home business person to do much of the work. But that period ought to be view as transitional. That period should be used to understand what's involved in the various aspects of the business; to develop more effective plans for growing the business, and to institute systems for executing those plans. So when it comes time to outsource or hire people, she'll know exactly what skills and talents to look for in other people, and how to instruct them to get the job done to her specifications. Hermas
getagrip: However, when you are starting out, I don't think there is much harm in doing everything yourself as long as you are able to maintain a certain level of professionalism (e.g. do your websites look good, or do they look like someone who put it together doesn't know a thing about web design). You are right Keith. What I'm stressing through my post is regarding the later stages of your business when you are running at 100% of your capacity. Like Hermas said, there is a limit to what a single individual can do. Moreover, if you regularly max yourself out, your creativity is bound to decline. And that is the most important element for success. New ideas can sprout only from a creative and relaxed mind.
It can be very frustrating too, to know what to do first and what to 'farm out' for someone else to do! But I know from experience that it is easy to just do nothing if you get overwhelmed with it all. Or to start something and never finish it...
The bottom line is you have to have a goods system. (What is your objective for a home base business?) A good system will aloud you to build the system then put people in place to run the system which will give you more time freedom. If you looking to make 100,000 online will you going to need some help to do it. As a owner of your business your job is to work on the business not in the business. Now if you looking to make some extra spending money, then you can do everything yourself.
Vishal P. Rao: You are right Keith. What I'm stressing through my post is regarding the later stages of your business when you are running at 100% of your capacity. Like Hermas said, there is a limit to what a single individual can do. Moreover, if you regularly max yourself out, your creativity is bound to decline. And that is the most important element for success. New ideas can sprout only from a creative and relaxed mind. I agree. Once you start growing, it is difficult to run everything by yourself, and at that point, it is best to hire employees or outsource.
