Marlon Sanders’ latest article is titled “Marlon’s 22-Step Put Your Business On Autopilot Cheat Sheet”. [Article]


Marlon Sanders’ latest article:

Marlon’s 22-Step Put Your Business On Autopilot Cheat Sheet

This cheat sheet gives my best tips and resources for putting your business on auto pilot.

MYTH: You can’t live the Internet lifestyle without a big office, lots of employees and so forth.

TRUTH: I’ve been doing it since 1997 and before.I have a small office now and don’t use 80% of the space I have. But for many years I worked 100% out of my home office.

1. Get something working

You can’t autopilot what doesn’t work. You can only autopilot working things.

2. If it isn’t working yet, then find people who have it working, get their procedures and do them.

You CAN use virtual assistants to do this for you.

Would you pay $2.22 per hour for someone who has an engineering degree (thus, they are obviously smart) and can type 70 words per minute?

Here is what she has to say about your job post for transcription help:

“I’m very much interested in your job opening to transcribe 10 hours of video. I have excellent verbal and writing skills and I spell accurately with good grammar construction.

“I would be able to give you an estimate of how long I can do an hour of the 10 videos once I hear it, even just the first part. Being honest with my employers and being able to deliver on my promised time is very important to me so I would not like to commit on a time frame unless I can really deliver it. I can format the report and edit it in a readable way and I can specify if it’s a man or woman speaking.

“I type 70wpm and I am familiar with all Ms applications and the internet. I am new … but I am hoping to make a good reputation here.

“Thank you and hoping for your favorable response.”

Example: I have 200 autoresponders in Aweber. In 5 hours one of my virtual assistants went through all 200, entered them in a spreadsheet and recorded in depth details about how each one was set up, what confirmation subject line were using, automation rules and so forth.

This past week, I gave my Ateamers my 10-step procedure for how I got this person in written form. I don’t have time to cover it here since it’s a whole article by itself.

Here’s the BEST part: There was no debate about why I wanted this done, should it be done, how was the best way to get it done, why did I want it done, how hard it was going to be to get it done, what an unreasonable person I was for wanting such a detailed task done, why my
desire to have it done fast was wrong.

It just got DONE! And it got done overnight.

Can you see the beauty in that?

3. Read the “4 Hour Work Week”

Just read it. Seriously. Buy a used copy off Amazon or at your used bookstore.

Why?

Because you’re going to see that even if you’re a newbie,even if you’re just getting started, even if you don’t have big dollars rolling in, you can STILL use the things I’m talking about in this Cheat Sheet.

4. Read “Work The System” by Sam Carpenter

This book has changed the way I’m doing things for the better, and I already was doing a lot of what he taught.But just his perspective amazes me.

Sam will open your eyes and show how that everything is a system.

For example, Sam had health problems prior to discovering systems. He realized that his health broke down into sub-systems.

So he had his doc run a complete blood analysis and found 4 hormones out of whack. For example, he had too high cortisone levels. And almost no levels of several other important hormones.

So he changed his diet to fix this and improved his health bigime.

5. Realize that you can create a step-by-step procedure for almost any process.

It’s really just a matter of doing it.

So here on my hard drive I have an ebook called Google Streak and another one called Ad Infiltration. Those are just two examples of ebooks that have processes I plan to document and then assign.

Now I’m thinking I need someone to TAKE my ebooks and create procedures from them.

But first I need a procedure for that!

6. Create systems for the PIA factors first

The British would call it “Pain in the arse” I believe.

You know, what’s the thing that needs done but you don’t want or like to do it or you can’t do it?

THAT is where you start!

For me, it’s doing some of the accounting stuff that I don’t want to pay an accountant $50 or $100 an hour to do.

But it needs done.

So I wrote up a 33-step procedure to do it. That took me maybe 3 hours.

But it’s going to save me 3 hours a week or 4 hours a week because that’s how long it takes to do each week.

On my Ateam calls, Nancy is still struggling with technical things. So she hired someone to help with a particular thing she had problems with.

That’s a smart use of your outsourcing dollar.

7. Concentrate on repetitive tasks

Find the things that need to be done over and over. Above, I gave the example of my autoresponder assignment.

That is really a once a year thing, so it isn’t the best candidate to outsource. I just happened to want it done fast.

The main things to outsource are those that occur over and over.

Listen, we live in the Golden Age of Outsourcing. When I got started in this business, man, I was using the personal trainer at the gym with not very many skills for $20 an hour because I was desperate for help.

8. Look for omissions

In “Work The System” Sam Carpenter has a whole chapter just on omissions. Things that should be done but aren’t.

Let me give you an example.

Facebook lists the birthdays of the people you’ve added as friends.

Some of those are my key affiliates.

Don’t you think it might be smart to have a system where I do something with that birthday info?

Now, you can just automate it through a Facebook program.

But maybe something more personal would have more impact.In the old days, when you had to pay $12 to $20 an hour to get something like that done, it sucked.

You maybe couldn’t see the roi.

But what if you had to pay $2 or $3 an hour to someone really efficient and pleasant to work with?

That day is here.

What else COULD you do that would bring you in traffic or dollars IF you did it like Clockwork?

9. Find a way to communicate with your outsourcers

In my business, we’re going to take a look at Microsoft Sharepoint. My friend Lee McIntyre uses Google Docs which is cool because it saves you a ton of money.

I suggest you start with Google Docs and then as your business grows, look at other things like Sharepoint.

10. Get your autoresponders in shape.

The second most important system you have is your autoresponder system.

You need this thing roaring like a lion.

After someone gets on your list, you need a drop dead series of emails to send them.

This one you may need to write yourself. But if you have a little dough, you can fine a writer to do it for you on Warriors Forum.

11. Get your upsellls and downsells working like a machine.

When someone buys, you offer them something more expensive. And if they don’t take that, you offer a cheaper something or the other.

We call those offers upsells and downsells.

The customer has their credit card OUT, so these processes are EXTREMELY critical to your success in marketing.

12. Swap procedures with your friends

I need some more accounting procedures.

So I’m going to contact my buds and ask them what they got that is written up and documented.

13. Create an internal wiki

If you’re more advanced, you may want to create an internal wiki.

This is a place you store your checklists and procedures.

14. If you have NO idea how to write up procedures, check out http://www.operateyourbiz.com

Those are my original systems back from 4 or 5 years ago. I don’t use those systems anymore but they’re a pretty good example of how to document systems.

15. Get familiar with freelance sites:

You have guru.com, elance.com, scriptlance.com,getafreelancer.com, odesk.com, rentacoder.com and many more.

16. Review the posts in freelance sites to get ideas for what you can outsource and how you can do it.

Just surfing through those sites and reading the job openings will be a big eye opener!

17. Did I mention that you should read the book Work The System by Sam Carpenter?

Yes, I did? Then go read it AGAIN! And this time do what he says.

18. Keep it simply

MYTH: You need fancy flowcharts to document systems.

TRUTH: Step-by-step written instructions will work for many things.

Flowcharts have their uses. In complex processes, it can help to make them visual. But for most things, just simple written instructions will work.

19. Have a goal to document a new system every day

Systems are like apples. You need one a day.

This is a general guideline and isn’t carved in stone.But if you do one a day, in 90 days you have 90 systems.

If you also hire a few people to operate those systems,you’ll be 90X STRONGER and more powerful than you were 90 days before.

20. Dumping outdated systems has to be part of your system.

One of the key points Sam Carpenter makes is that you need to reevaluate your systems and dump ones that aren’t working for you.

21. Make it easy to update your systems.

You want it to be easy to update your systems.

In the PAST I used screen capture video for my systems documentation.

But you can’t update video easily. You have to create a whole new video.

With written instructions, it’s 100X easier to update them.

22. Find the right people to operate your systems.

My pet peeve is drama surrounding the system.

You know, 100 questions. Which boils down to a bunch of reasons to NOT have to do the work of operating the system.

The less noise you have in your systems the better.

This is why I think the new world of outsourcing is a GREAT freaking age to live in.

So I outsourced my Aweber documentation late on a Friday night and had it done by Saturday morning by someone in another country who worked in the opposite time zone. So my night was their day.

SUMMARY:

Putting your business on full or partial autopilot involves having systems and people to do those systems.

It’s a fairly simple process that anyone with average intelligence should be able to do.

With the Golden Age of Outsourcing, it’s super simple and easy to find people to operate the systems you put together.

Marlon Sanders

Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy.” If you’d like to get on his mailing list and receive tips, articles and information about online marketing, visit: http://www.marlonsnews.com.

*IMNewsWatch would like to thank Marlon Sanders for granting permission to reprint this article.

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