The Billionaire Told Me To Quit.

I recently read a great article about what a billionaire said was the key to going from a millionaire to a billionaire. It was shocking when he said his advice was to “be a quitter”. (read entire article here: http://darrenhardy.success.com/2013/07/i-quit/). The shocking title made more sense when you understood what the author meant. What he meant was that in order for a business to grow beyond a certain point you eventually have to quit doing everything and get others to do it for you so you can work on the business instead of working in it. To me this is the difference between being a business owner vs being an employee at a company you started. 

The cliche is that “time is the one resource you can’t get more of”. Actually that is false. When you hire someone you not only are purchasing their skills, you are also more importantly purchasing their time.  It is true that you can’t buy yourself more than 24 hours in a day, but you can outsource what you do in those 24 hours to someone else. Business owners who are complaining about never having enough time should keep this in mind. Time is a precious thing that can be purchased, invested and wasted so it is important to use it as wisely as you do your money. This may sound easy but is not that simple. There is a risk in handing over the reigns of what you are doing to someone else. However, it seems to be a risk that must be confronted mitigated and overcome if you want to grow. 

The Risk

The first risk is financial. You work for free, the people taking over for you will not. This can be a substantial expense. However, what you are really purchasing with these extra dollars is free time for yourself. You will have to be the one who creates a plan for how to use this new time and forecasts the profitability of the plan. If you are confident that the extra free time will lead to substantial return then it should make the increase in expenses easier to justify. 

Another risk to consider is the people you are handing things over too. People are an X factor that can be hard to predict, but I believe there are some ways to mitigate this. After taking ASQ’s six sigma program I have become highly aware of process thinking. I once had a COO of a billion dollar company tell me that business owners often by default blame people without ever deeply considering process flaws. Even a good employee working a broken process will produce sub-par results. Before an owner gets someone to take over some of the processes they are running they needs to ensure the process is “outsourceable”. The more standardized, organized and streamlined you can make a process the easier it is for someone else to take over. 

Build, Run, Outsource

I personally have created my own methodology for business development which I call “Build, Run, Outsource”. First, build a process for whatever needs to be done (sales, payroll, accounting etc). Then run that process yourself for whatever amount of time is needed to ensure that the process is producing the desired output and that it is capable of being outsourced. Then go about finding someone with the skill-set to run the process and move on to the next area. 

I think most entrepreneurs tend to be a little ADD. The beauty of this model is that you never are doing the same thing. You are always creating and testing something new and as soon as it gets boring, you give it to someone else. This leads to building and owning a business, instead of simply creating a job for yourself. Don’t be afraid to be a quitter, just make sure you quit things at the right time and in the right way. Thats the advice from a billionaire.   

Questions for Reflection

Do you feel like you don’t have the time to do X even though X is important to your business?

Can you identify things you do that you could streamline into outsourceable processes?

Have you ever taken inventory to where your time goes?

Do you take the time to run the processes you create for your employees so you are aware of what their job is like day to day? (don’t be the boss who is “out of touch”)

Do you feel like a business owner, or that you just created yourself a job?

Do you feel confident that if you had more time it would lead to financial returns for your business?

Have you created a plan for how to effectively use your free time?