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I started reading the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris a while back. I was also an avid listener to The Tim Ferris Show (a podcast) as well until he started pumping it full of advertising and affiliate links.
I love the concept of a 4 hour work-week and can see how the system can be achieved for a number of business models however, in businesses where you need to keep customers happy over an extended period of time, there is a real problem with the model.
The 4 Hour Work Week is all About Automating Your Business
Automating your business is a fantastic concept. Imagine owning a business and being able to just rock up when you want to, check that things are being done right and that the business is performing well financially, and then heading off for a round of golf or a local craft beer.
Or if you didn't want to spend your time on a golf course, wearing shockingly bad fashion, you could spend your hours working on another business and getting that one fully automated. In time, you could have three or four businesses. All of them running themselves and making you a giant stack of money.
Amazing Concept, if you can get it to work
In most cases, automating your business means employing staff to take on the work that you don't want to do yourself. For example, I don't want to train people myself. So I employee a small team of personal trainers to do that for me. This means that I can simply focus on marketing my business, selling memberships and managing the accounts.
I'm not about to tell you that automating all aspects of your business is impossible. It can definitely happen, and I've even seen it work. But what I will tell you, is that this concept is only going to work when your team is as passionate about your business as you, or at least completely on board with wanting to help you grow your business.
No one will be as passionate about your business as you
And this is the key flaw with the 4 Hour Work Week. Tim Ferris leads us to believe that outsourcing or automating some of the most important parts of our business is simple and can be easily done. He does mention that you might not see the same standard of performance, but brushes this off as if it isn't a huge deal.
What he doesn't really tell you though, is that you need to make sure that your staff are extremely passionate about your business and want to see it grow as well.
The only times I've seen my staff feel passionate about my business is when they see me working hard on making it grow as well. If I step away from my business, then my staff tend to lose motivation and drive and my business slows.
The Logical Solution is to Give Incentives
Most people will tell you that you need to give your staff an incentive to grow your business for you. These incentives can be:
- Cash bonuses
- Rewards via paid training
- Gifts
- And so on.
But what if your staff aren't motivated by these things? Many of mine aren't. They simply appreciate a regular wage and a fun place to work. But that doesn't drive them to actively grow my business.
And this is where I am at now. How do I properly incentivise my and encourage my staff to help me grow my business so that I can step away a little to focus on other things (like Steemit :P)?
I don't have this solution yet, but I'll certainly come back and let you know how I go with rectifying this issue.
Have you had any experience with this type of thing? I'd love to hear your experiences or thoughts in the comments
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I started reading that book once too.
You need to find out what makes your workers tick. If they like a fun place to work then fun is the ticket. Do you have a social club, Christmas party or something like that they can work toward or enjoy as a benefit.
The carrot always works better than the stick. You just got to have the right flavour of carrot :)
Yep. Ruling by fear never works. I suspect the fun factor might actually be the trick with this crew.
I wasn't able to get down to a 4 hour work week, but I did manage to get to 12. That's because I did all of the layout for the two newspapers I owned.
At one point, I had a partner and full staffs for four newspapers. Then, the split came and I held on to the staff for two of them. But over a rather short period of time, those folks left or were let go until there was three of us forming the core group—one running the office and doing all the paper and book work, a managing editor, and me—with a frequently changing group of freelance reporters working around us.
By the time it was all said and done, we were running as about as efficiently as we could get. I didn't have to look over anyone's shoulders and the work got done in the ways and at the times it worked best for everyone.
Incentives can be tough, and when money or recognition isn't working, even tougher. What kind of fun do they like to have? Are they competitive? Do they want to party?
What about the growing the business or marketing process? Is it rather simple? What are you hoping your employees will do specifically? Make cold calls? Get referrals from clients you already have? Hop on social media? Leave leaflets on cars?
You're right, you will be very lucky if you ever find someone who has as much passion about your business as you do. Maybe a financial partner. Would offering some part of the business be helpful?
My guess is, though, that if they're not already naturally inclined to help with the incentives you've tried, it could be they're just not salespeople. I know I'm not wired that way, and it would have been great if I were. Personal trainers might be great at training, but lousy at selling. Or find it less fulfilling.
Just throwing things out at this point, which I'm sure you've already looked at and considered. Without being deep inside the numbers, and the business model, those are the thoughts I would have.
I think you’re right. They just aren’t sales people. And I can’t expect them to sell. All they really need to do is get referrals from existing members and manage social media. So it’s not a big ask.
My new team member is excellent at social media so I let him handle that and it’s done well. The people who need to sell just aren’t all that good at it so that’s something that needs to change.
Thanks for the response. You have great insights. Get your article written!
Are you offering incentives to the gym members to give you referrals? If you're not, then maybe you could bypass your staff enirely, within reason and with whatever resources you have, obviously, but the members would give you a larger networking force.
If you are already offering members incentives for referrals, but things just aren't happening, then what can be changed? What kinds of things have you tried and what else is there that you could try?
I've only leant on my staff to run referral programs so far. But have found in the past that when I step in with an offer, we generally get some uptake.
It's worth looking at. And I am essentially living in the gym again. So running things liken that are easier since I'm here to speak with members a lot more.
I was actually just at a business networking event. That gave me a few ideas as well so I have some things tow work with.
All they can drink Fitaid?
Haven’t tried that one. :P
I'd say part ownership works, but with small percentages, they just say thanks and that's a bonus.
Just be honest with them and throw up some sales targets. And let them know if you can't meet them then you'll all be out of a job.
Everyone thinks the boss is raking in the cash, but if you aren't then they might feel a little guilty goofing off.
You might lose some workers who fear job security but you don't want them anyway.
And if they meet these targets, the cash bonus means more.
Yep. Small percentages would be pretty pointless.
You’re spot on. The old team had the idea that I was a millionaire. I’ve been more open about the challenges that we’re facing lately which seems to be getting through to some extent. But we’re still not seeing the changes we need.
Setting targets will be a must. And there might be a need to remove people who resist change too much. But at the end of the day, if they’re not the right fit then we just can’t keep them.
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I love that book. I think the premise is to give up activities that don't really add much value so that you can focus on what means the most to your business, like long term growth.
Finds ways to ditch responding to email, accounting, advertising, and other menial, routine chores so you can be engaged with actively growing your business and developing your team.
I think it's about getting back 10 hours you would have spent on menial chores and spending five to eight more hours on really purposeful stuff. In the end, the menial stuff gets done by others, you spend more time on truly impactful activities, and you might get some extra FREE time out of it, too!
Hey! You’re still here!
You make some good points. I’be actually been doing exactly that for the past couple of months including removing a stack of data management and reporting duties that simply wasted time.
We’re gradually becoming an efficient beast. I’m quite hopeful that we’ll be a success yet.
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I ask myself why would I want only to work 4 hours a week when having my own business? In fact, I work almost 10-15 hours per day, when I include everything which I relate to work and the attached consequences. Thinking about clients and my customers as well as talking about work counts as "time spent". But as I am having a rather small business and no infrastructure involved other than my physical body and my laptop it's easy for me to outsource the book-keeping for the tax office and that is it.
Getting passionate people they have to be an entrepreneur as you are one. What I think is that entrepreneurship is something not many people like to become. It's understandable, the many requirements and legalities to run a company with staff are really taking back the sense of becoming an entrepreneur. Workers are usually people who want a stable salary and some fun, as you said.
I think one must get some fun and joy out of being a leader to a group which likes to pull inspiration and motivation out of the leading figure. Young people need a place to be trained and they need a mastery business owner who can teach them what is needed for being responsible and working with passion - or at least look up to a team leader if not the owner. I don't know but I am only able to focus on so many people and give my full potential and heart to them. If it gets too much I am losing my drive.
One can consider himself lucky to have employees who run the business as if it were theirs even though they just get a salary. I was this person when I was younger and I never felt disadvantaged.
I guess you will do it right.