Top 3 Reasons to Outsource – Do You Grow Your Own Dinner?

Every weekend, I shop at Trader Joe’s for ingredients for Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Body. And yes, I’m trying to trim some around the waist; I just hide it well tee hee. I don’t progress much, but that’s because I eat an ice cream cone almost every night.

Anyway, I was looking for protein as prescribed in the book. Mmm chicken, eggs, sausages, turkey breast, beans and so forth. Plus, vegetables.

I could roll my cart and in 30 minutes I would have ingredients for a week’s worth of food gathered from all over the nation. If we include a bottle of Italian wine, then it’s more like all over the world. Sure beats the bow and arrow method.

When people tell me that they don’t believe in outsourcing, I ask whether they farm their own dinner. Do what you do best.

#Efficiency #EndowmentEffect

So, do you hunt for your own dinner?

Trust me. I am a victim of wanting to do everything myself too. You’re not alone.

However, let me help you realize three things with this post:

1. Why do you like to slave away at your business?
2. If you choose to outsource, which parts should you delegate?
3. What’s the benefit?

Endowment Effect

Endowment Effect is a psychological term used in behavioral consumerism that talks about one’s growing attachment to certain tasks, projects, products, etc. due to time invested.

For example, a child who builds his / her own bear at Build A Bear will absolutely love that animal more than any stuffed animal in the world. This is even if their bear is ugly, missing an eye, torn, etc. Right, parents?

Why? They built it themselves.

Automatically, the worth or value for this item escalates in their eyes. This is the exact same thing for photographers who insist on editing their own photos or the gazillion other tasks we cannot part from.

Get it?

We’ll always make excuses that no one can (something) as well as you can… Remember the following words.

What To Outsource

Shelley Weber asked, “how do you figure out what to outsource?”

Good question.

I like Karen Pienaar Dalldorf‘s response of “whatever you dread doing! ;-p”

Here’s my guideline:

• If it’s something that is repeated
• If it’s something with instructions that can be written down
• If it’s something that requires human involvement

For example, I can outsource my blog backups and comment filtering on Tofurious, but I cannot outsource the voice of Tofurious. Or can I? Hrm…

What’s The Benefit

Let’s first examine our roles as entrepreneurs. Our role is simple – shift resources from lower yield to higher yield. Simple enough.

My younger naive self used to think that it was solely money. More money in your bank account, the happier you will be, right? Wrong.

The answer is time. Money buys you time. So why not skim off some from the top and buy just that?

• Wouldn’t you like to wake up an hour or two later? Or whenever you want?
• Wouldn’t it be nice to snuggle with your husband / wife / boyfriend / girlfriend and not be rushed?
• Wouldn’t it be nice to have two extra hours to play with your kids or your dog?
• Wouldn’t it just be nice to JUST HAVE MORE TIME?

This gets back to the whole idea of work to live or live to work conundrum.

You Like?

If you think this post will help others, share via Retweet and Facebook buttons below.

Next, comment what you will do with the extra time.

Your diet-cheating friend,

Lawrence Chan

P.S. A lovely note from Dani Rose titled, “Dear my LIFE SAVER…” (like the candy I guess haha)

I don’t know if you know how awesome you are, but you should. You are literally saving people like me from hours of frustration with all of your helpful tips and products.

Seriously, I appreciate that you are not jacking up the prices of your products simply because you can. It’s truly helpful and appreciated. Thanks and keep posting!!

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