Blog Minx

This is part three of a four-part book review of Timothy Ferriss’s new book The 4-Hour Work Week, which aims to help people live their dreams while still earning a strong income. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2. Summary first, my reactions at the bottom.

Step III: A is for Automation

8. Outsourcing Life

• Outsource all the little tasks you hate doing to a virtual assistant at a cheap rate (in India, for example). This will free up your time no end.

• You will need to learn to manage your new employees: start small, give them specific instructions and tight deadlines.

9. Income Autopilot I

• The goal is to create an automated business that can run efficiently and make money without much/any input from you.
• Try reselling/licensing or creating a product to sell that is aimed at a market you are familiar with (eg. moms if you are a mom). First, test the market by going niche and looking at ads in magazines related to that niche.
• Advertise your new product before manufacturing to check the market demand. Then outsource everything including manufacturing, customer service and marketing.
• Become an expert on your chosen topic in three weeks by joining organizations related to the topic, buying three top-selling books related to that topic, making notes, then giving a seminar on the topic using those notes. Hey presto, you’re an “expert” and the media will call you.
• A list of URLs are provided for testing the market, manufacturing a product and marketing it.

10. Income Autopilot II

• Best (check the product is better than the competition), test (create a site selling the product and have a small spend on AdWords to check interest) and invest/divest (depending on the results of your ‘microtesting’.)
• A list of URLs are provided for testing keyword popularity, learning more about AdWords and setting up a website with purchasing enabled.

11. Income Autopilot III

• When is the time to remove yourself from the business?
• Focus on the customers who are pleasant and reliable; don’t waste effort on the difficult ones. Think of your customer base as an elite group.
• A list of URLs are provided for call center outsourcing, affiliate programs, sales and marketing help, infomercial companies.

Reactions to Step III:
An awful lot is covered very quickly. His approach of testing the market before creating a product to sell would probably benefit a lot of people. There are some useful urls in there that I’ll probably use to help build this blog (which is my “product” – I’m more interested in virtual information, not manufacturing.)

The idea of creating a business that simply runs itself is kind of appealing but then I enjoy being involved and working. His lifestyle doesn’t appeal to me at all (apart from the travels, but I do that already). Outsourcing is something I wouldn’t have a problem with if the employee was treated well and paid fairly but it seems to be taken to silly extremes. I would not outsource things like buying gifts for my family; that’s lame.

A few questions arise: did he outsource the research for the book? The writing of the book? There seems to be a bit of hypocrisy in there: do things you don’t want to do to challenge yourself (eg. the latest Comfort Challenge: lying on the floor for 10 seconds at Starbucks) but outsource the things you don’t want to do to save yourself the bother. Can I outsource the Comfort Challenges?

Next: Section IV: L is for Liberation