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Page 12 GO IT ALONE! over one million Gallup poll interviews related to job activities and found that “the real tragedy in life is not that each of us doesn’t have enough strengths, it’s that we fail to use the ones we have.” In contrast, successful go-it-alone entrepreneurs have figured out how to structure their businesses as systems that allow them to spend far more of their time on the meaningful, productive activities that take advantage of their greatest strengths. In Koch’s terminology, they are able to significantly “move the time spent on high-value activities up from 20 percent.” The best way to describe this systematic approach is extreme outsourcing. Here, outsourcing does not mean sending jobs or functions out of the country (the practice of offshoring). It simply means that a specific function is handled not by the entrepreneur’s business but a separate business. Extreme outsourcing is farming out absolutely everything except the core functions, which are designed to capitalize on your greatest strengths. Today, this type of outsourcing is easier than ever because of the Internet’s communications capabilities, creating the instant exchange of information between separate companies that can be physically located thousands of miles apart. Quite simply, innovative go-it-alone entrepreneurs employ extreme outsourcing because they recognize that their most valuable asset is their time, which allows them to achieve an unprecedented degree of focus. They know that they may be capable of doing many things, but they are constantly setting priorities that will best build their businesses. Go-it-alone entrepreneurs may be superb computer programmers, salespeople, or graphic artists, but they won’t hesitate to outsource these functions if another entity can perform them well and cost-effectively. As much as possible, these entrepreneurs spend their time using the unique skills that make their businesses valuable. A typical classic entrepreneur might say, “Yes, I can grow my business on my own—if I can only find 300 hours in each
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GO IT ALONE! Copyright 2004 by Bruce Judson. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
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