Link-Building. For those of you who don’t know this is the process of acquiring links from other sites to move your site up in natural search engine rankings. Now that I actually have an information product (I wrote an ebook) I think it may actually be feasible to put someone on this full time. My hope is that this will lead to more sales.

At any rate, I am trying out this website to see if it helps me out at all (it is supposed to have procedures and trainings for VAs right out of the box). Anyway, since the task is so specific and should directly impact profits I think it may be worthwhile.

Last year after reading the 4HWW and starting my business I went and hired a VA and everything else way before I was ready; I was trying to get into the mindset of having others work for me.

It was actually a disaster – mostly because my work was not repeatable yet.

It would take me as long to explain something to my VA as to do it. And all my effort training the VA was lost because the task usually did not need to be repeated.

Only now have I started seeing how a VA could help because I need to start generating traffic to my website and a lot of that SEO stuff seems like a time sink.

However, like Patrick I have had tremendous results from outsourcing my personal chores. We now have a cleaning service coming every week and a handyman to do most of the household chores. This actually helps me stay focused and it also gives my wife and I better quality time.

Love the show, this episode as well as the entire series in general. I enjoyed listening to you go “against the grain” with this episode. Sometimes I feel like too many of the “gurus” have forgotten what it feels like to be just starting out. Of course when they’re pulling in 5 or 6 figures every month it makes sense to pay for some help, but that decision is a little more difficult when you’re first developing a new business.

That being said, I would argue that planning for the addition of a VA, or whatever type of outsourced help you might need, is a vital part of establishing and growing a business. Lately I’ve been trying figure out what parts of my business model I’ve been neglecting, and if/how a VA or other professional can fill in the gaps. I’ve come up with quite a few ideas, but I’ve yet to put them to the test by actually hiring someone. Still, I think this has been a valuable exercise in that it has forced me to expand my thinking, stepping away from the details and thinking big picture.

Further, it seems to me that a common problem among aspiring IM’ers, especially those whose business growth is not meeting their expectations, is the fear of paying for quality help, whether that is in the form of premium educational content or paid professional help. I’m not sure if it’s because people are focused on bootstrapping and getting started as cheaply as possible, or if it’s a symptom of wanting to do it all themselves. But I’ve definitely struggled in this area, despite the fact that every time shell out some cash, I get a positive return on my investment.

I’ve already done a few things that are a little like outsourcing – paying neighbor kids to mow my lawn, shovel my driveway, or watch the kids for a few hours while I get some work done on my business. Even in those little $10 or $20 increments, the first time I did them I felt a little weird about it, like I was nervous that the income generated by my time wasn’t going to cover the amount I paid to free up that time. But after that it got easier, to the point that I now have regular times established for babysitting and mowing the lawn (I’m a full-time stay at home dad, so any time I can free up is golden).

Anyway, I will be adding an overseas VA to my business soon, definitely by the end of the summer. My situation makes it possible – I have had consistent, and consistently growing, income over the past 18 months, and I know that there are more areas where I can develop my businesses. Hopefully a VA will help with that, and generate greater and faster growth than I’d be capable of on my own.

Thanks for the great show, and keep up the good work.

I found it interesting that you spent so much time dealing with negative connotations of the term VA. frankly, I never saw it as a negative concept. sounds like the hubris of IM clique building.

-good work gentlemen.

@Gifted & @John, thanks! Good to hear some solid support for working hard (doing the right things of course) to achieve your goals.

@Uwe, Agreed. The big *IF* there is the key factor. Zero cash at bootstrapping often makes the decision for you. We’re definitely talking about where a lot of people are.. right before their first sales. If you have the money to invest and you are clearly going in with a good biz plan and good chance of success, then outsourcing work is the most rational thing to do.

Sadly, though, the majority of people don’t have any extra cash to spend before they’ve launched. Time? Yes.. some time, but not a lot. Better to just buckle down and do the work and worry about outsourcing when you’re profitable or have an extremely clear path to doing so.

You guys are right. As a business owner you have to get in there and get your hands dirty so can identify where your business is at, where it’s headed, and where it’s going.

I find myself changing the direction of my business as I see changes in technology, marketing, and my niche in general.

In short, if you’re not a hands on business owner interacting with and researching the market, you’re not going to go anywhere.

I think there is a huge myth behind the whole internet business world. You do have to really work hard!