I know, you don’t really want to outsource your whole life, just the tedious and difficult bits, right? I’ve been re-reading Tim Ferris’s book, “The Four-Hour Work Week”. Compared to the average small business owner’s week of 45 to 80 hours – just FOUR does seem fanciful, even ridiculous. It all comes down to how to make more money with less time in the business, freeing you up to do a variety of things you enjoy. (The book has been updated/expanded in December 2009).

When following the steps outlined in Ferris’s Dreamline worksheet, the cost for those things that we put off every year (a great holiday, a car upgrade, a gardener, etc) are typically not that much in total monthly income — remembering that figure is on top of the usual household costs. In fact, some of my “costs” also could provide an income, if using a low-cost virtual assistant. (Part of the outsourcer’s work could be billed to clients, or at least free me up to do more billable projects.) Tim Ferris blog – Ideal Lifestyle Costing has all the necessary calculators to work out costs of your own ideal lifestyle.

Also, qualified remote support staff can be outsourced for as little as US$300 per month (around $2 an hour) and they can do a variety of things like follow up calls, invoice creation/reminders, link building for your SEO, etc… all those things that eek away your daylight hours. Because they are working specifically for you on the projects you need, there won’t be any staff time wastage or double-instructing. See www.remotestaff.com.au for ongoing administrative tasks, or ask about the specialists at Infusionoz.com.au for higher level tasks like web design, e-marketing, CRM implementation, and content writing (also offering good value/prompt attention services and located in Australia).

Of course, remote outsourcing goes hand-in-hand with automated technology and streamlined systems. Great systems means higher productivity. Higher productivity for the average small business owner might mean more billable hours, with less stress and chaos in their lives. For a Mumpreneur it might mean more time to spend with family because her income doesn’t drop with periods away from the business.

So many business people are still stuck in the paradigm of exchanging time for money – what is my hourly rate, how many hours can I bill?

But when we see our business as a marketable entity – with products (passive income), Intellectual Property to record and protect, and a brand to promote – we start to see it as an Asset. We may even have a saleable asset, if someone else could take over the systems and product sales down the track and continue the revenue streams. Does that sound worthwhile?