Tag Archives: delegation

Web design is still a growing part of computer industry.

Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, , , ,

Believe it or not, most business STILL do not have a real web page.  The market really fell out for the computer hardware business but we still are seeing a large demand for web design. The good thing about web design is that it has become easier and much cheaper to do but the perceived value has not gone down.  There are many companies out there selling sites for $5,000 or so that outsource it and pay less than $200 to get the site made, pocketing the rest.  I figure I can find a way to make a better site and charge much less.

When it has come to web design our company has usually passed it off.  It was not our core business, it was something that no one at our company knew how to do.  A few times we hired people to help us do web design for clients but every time it has failed, the designer was not as good as they thought they were and the client demand more than they originally wanted.

So now that our core business is down I decided that I would personally learn more about it.  Yea I know HTML, I know tables and forms, and I have built many pages over the years but to do the really good ones you need much more.  You need to know CSS to make it look good and have the same format.  You need to know PHP so that it is easy to change, dynamic and more functional.  So I set out last week to learn these two things.  CSS was easy, it is a simple concept that took only a few hours to learn.  PHP was much more complex because it is much more powerful, but after a few long days I feel I am good at PHP also.

The next step was to test out my ideas by making a simple website for one of my customers, I just happened to have one who needed a web page, so I built one for them.  You can check it out here. During the process of building this site I also have found a ton of really good resources

If you have been a reader for a long time you will know that I am all about delegating things.  My general rule is that if you can find someone who can do what you are doing for less, and is at least 80% as good you should have them do it.  The problem is that for me I have not found this, everyone wants to charge way too much and I have not found anyone who can even do the whole job at 80% the level that I now can.  I have found people who can do parts better or worse.  This is why I am not delegating.  If I start getting larger I may start to delegate more.  But in reality if you are building up a libary of tools it makes it much faster and easier.

Want the power to grow your company. Here it is!

Business, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, , , , , , , , , ,

I have talked to hundreds of people who own their own business.  Most of them had the same exact problem, they worked way too much.  They never had enough time in the day and usually never got to the important things that needed to be done to take their business to the next level.  They worked too much working in and for their business and not enough time working on their business.  This is a plan that will keep you stressed out, busy and poor.  There are two things that must be done when you are in this situation.

Bar Graph showing growth
Grow your business, learn how

The first one is to make systems for everything.  You need to write a system for writing an invoice, a system for cleaning the bathroom, a system for opening and closing your business.  When I was in business I wrote over 50 systems for various things, from how to pack a computer for shipping to how to make a phone call to a business.  You also need to create the paperwork and checklist for these systems.  We had a document for when a customer would leave a computer at our store, to documents for figuring out commission.  Later on I moved the most popular forms online and customers and employees would fill them out at a hidden website.  So this is what you need to do, systematize, document the system then create the resources (Documents, tools, equipment, etc.) to make system work.  Having a system makes everything you do predictable and much easier.  Buying a franchise is usually little more than buying a system with a marketing package, a high quality system will run your business, and is worth the tens of thousands they charge, but it is even better if you make it yourself.  It took me less than two months of working after we closed to write all of our systems and support material.

Now that you have a system in place you need to leverage it.  That brings us to part two, duplication/delegation.  When you have a system in place it is much easier to train people, to measure there performance, and get them to exactly what you want them to do.  People like to know exactly what is expected of them, most people like to have a system in place.  Now that you have a system you can start to delegate things that you have always done.  In many small business the owner does everything, they clean the bathroom, they do the banking, they service the customers.  One thing I have heard often is that if you can find someone to do something that you do and they can do it 80% as well as you do then have them DO IT.  When you have delegated to too many people that you can’t manage them, then promote someone to be a manager and delegate the delegating to them.

Think about what your company will look like if you doubled its size.  Then think about what would happen if you doubled it every month.  Without a system and with out delegation you will be sunk.  This is the number 1 thing that keeps most small business small.  You have to design and run your company as if there were 100 locations, what would you do different?  If you own a small business and working without a system and delegating, 60 hours a week you really have a glorified job working for your “business”.  A business is a system, it becomes viral, easy and fast, and other people do all the work, and you simply manage it.

For much more information here are some books you need to read on this subject.

HERE is another blog entry by one of my friends that expands on this concept.  Please read it.

I am Jason Dragon and I hope you enjoyed this, subscribe to my blog, and tell others about it.