You can achieve a lot of things with hard work. Ask anyone successful and they will tell you that one of the foundations of success is hard work.

People love this advice because it makes sense; the harder you work, the bigger the reward. There’s a sense of justice to it, when you know that at the end of the day everyone gets what they deserve based on how hard they’ve worked.

I’ve tried that route and it is true. There was a time when I dedicated most of my day to working on my business. There’s no bigger satisfaction than seeing your business grow from the sweat of your brow. I loved working on my business because it provided for my family and gave me purpose.

Then, my wife had a difficult pregnancy and everything changed. That experience made me realize what mattered the most. I had to work less in order to take care of my family.

And in the process it made me realize what I should be doing as a business owner. I was so busy working on my business I didn’t have time to do anything else. That was when I realized that in order to get what I really wanted, time for my family and a thriving business, I had to work smarter, not harder.

In short, I had to outsource.

I had to outsource my business

• In order to spend more time with my family. With 5 kids, 10 to 12 hour workdays just doesn’t cut it.
• Because there was so much more that I needed to do and I couldn’t do it all alone. I have a ton of sites running and software development on the side. I don’t want to lose my businesses simply because I don’t have the time for all of them.
• Because I know what my skill sets are. It’s more cost-efficient to just outsource the stuff that I don’t want to do it to people who do want to do it and can do it better than I can.

I’ve said it time and time again how the 4 hour work week by Tim Feriss has changed my life. It resonated with me because it made me realize that working less isn’t about being lazy. If you can do certain jobs a lot faster, and better, than anyone else that doesn’t diminish the value of the work that you do. In fact, it makes you more valuable. And doing anything that’s not worth your time just diminishes the value of you time.

Be The Boss

Being a business owner, being the boss and CEO of your own company, your time is better spent running your business than working in your business. This means making important decisions about operations, marketing, customer service, etc. It’s your responsibility as a CEO to focus on making your business grow. That means you have to focus on running your business from above where you can see everything and not in the trenches working.

If you want your business to grow, if you want to earn more with each hour you work, you have to let go of the things that diminish the value of your work. The only way to do that is by getting others to do the work for you.  This can either be local employees or outsourced workers…it doesn’t really matter which one. Working 17 hours a week doesn’t make you lazy? it just shows that you’re smart enough to focus on running your business and working less is just one of the rewards.

I can show you how outsourcing to the Philippines can help you achieve the 17 hour work week with my book: Outsourcing Lever. There I’ll show you where to hire, how to track your employees, how to make them stay, and so much more.