There are two things we can never seem to have enough of in life.  That’s  Time and Money. We are always trading one for the other. I can’t help you much with your money, that’s all up to you.  But in this post I will try to show you some ideas that will help you regain some more time!

I’m not a full time marketer. I do own my own Internet Business and do my best at managing it on a part time basis. But no matter who you are, or what you do, you are always trading your time for money.  If you work full time like I do as an employee for someone else, you are trading your 8 hour days, every day of the week for money (The Paycheck).   I think we all can agree the reason we are interested in started an Internet Business is to be able to have more of both time and money.

I can’t help you to manage your business or your money. I will try, from time to time, to show you how to cut the cost of doing business.  But in the end managing your money is really up to you.

However, I can help you with some ideas to save you some time. One of things I’ve done to help me recently get more time is to take advantage of outsourcing.   I can’t tell you enough what a big step it is to actually have a dedicated person working for you to help you finish the tons of projects you have.

Outsourcing may seem like something only for big corporations. But really the act of outsourcing is just as simple as giving someone else a task that you need done, either temporarily or permanently, so that you can get more done.

There are a couple of simple ways you can outsource. Outsource temporarily or outsource permanently.

Outsourcing something temporarily is really just giving a particular task to a 3rd party contractor such as Elance or Scriptlance (to, for example, have articles written).  This is a one time shot where you have someone write up a bunch of articles for you.  The drawbacks to this process is that you don’t know if the person will do the job correctly.  You may have to have the project go back and forth between you and the contractor before the job is done right. It may take a little while for the contractor to fully understand exactly what you want done and how you want it done to reflect your business needs.  Then once the project is over and you start another project, that whole process of going back and foht starts all over again.

Outsourcing permanently is finding a full time contractor to work for you all of the time. (For example finding a dedicated writer for your content).  The best part of this solution is that you develope a relationship with your contractor, they get to know your business, what you like and dislike and you are able to be more productive. The bad part is, like hiring an employee you become a manager where you have to screen applicants, weed out the bad performers and even occasionally make the tough decisions of firing someone.  There is also the added expense.  A full time person is a financial burden to your company if you don’t have the income to fund a full time contractor.

You’re probably saying, “Oh sure Joe, just go hire someone – I can’t afford that and where would I find someone to begin with!” .  Yeah you’re right.  The other challenge is where do you find these affordable full time contractors?

From what I know there are a couple different options for you.  I can tell you what I did and show you some other alternatives.  For me, I used John Jonas’s ReplaceMyself.com.  There are others out there but I liked Johns service. It costs $97/mo – but honestly you should only need to pay for one month (consider it a finders fee).  He has a ton of great training, not for you but for your new hire.  He also has some great tips for you on how to go about hiring someone. It’s well worth the hundred bucks for sure.

Now there are other ways too.  Craigslist is great for finding help. I personally prefer hiring people out of the phillipines.  They speak great english, are very friendly, hard workers, and are very affordable, especially for small business just starting out and don’t have a lot of money.  I found a great girl (honestly THE BEST).  She works FULL TIME for me for  $200/mo. I will be giving her a pay raise very soon as she works very hard for me.  I will tell you it was a challenge to find her, but its a challenge to find any good employee.

Overall, if you can afford to permanently hire a contractor to help you with you day to day business needs, whether you are a full time or just a part guy like me.  I highly, highly recommend it.  It will help you achieve your goals so much faster and in the end build your business an make money!  Which is what you really want in the first place right?

Times are tough for most us. Christmas is here and we are scrimping and saving to make sure our families have the fun filled Christmas they desire. Most of us are working part time at our internet business too, while still maintaining a full time job. We juggle our time and our money to build our businesses so that eventually we can work our business full time and quit the 9 to 5 headache.

Well I can’t much help you with your time, but I can help you to shave a few dollars off of your bottom line of your business. I’ve put together a list of tips that I hope will help you reduce the cost of running your business and in turn help you grow your business.

1. Stick to a budget. Get your business to a point where it is at least breaking even. To start, your first expense maybe only web hosting. There are lots of very cheap web hosting companies out there. Most are only $7 bucks a month. Get your business to a point where it is making at least $7 a month. This will pay for the web hosting and your company will survive. Anything else you make can be invested back into your business for content, new domains, training, etc.

2. Free Autoresponders. When you first start out, start with a low-end free starter package at one of the major email autoresponder companies. I know that Mail Chimp and Get Response both offer free email service for very small lists and infrequent mailings. Use them until you get a larger list. Once you have a larger list going it will be for itself.

3. Don’t Make Knee Jerk Purchases. With Christmas here I’m sure you’ve been inundated with product launches and irresistible offers. Try not to be spontaneous. Marketers are wanting a good Christmas for themselves too and are marketing you heavily this time of year. Research the products you want and save up to buy them. If they are good valuable tools for your business they will be around later. Resist the marketing hype surrounding product launches. It will save you in the long run.

4. Be your first affiliate for products you want to buy. Is there a new ebook, gizmo or gadget you just HAVE to have? Sign up to be an affiliate first! That way you can be your first customer! This really helps offset the cost as well as reduce the risk. If you don’t like the product ask for a refund. If you like the product, BLOG ABOUT IT and make some sales from it!

5. Look for a Guarantee. Be sure products you buy come with a guarantee. Always look for a guarantee with any product you buy. If you’re not 100% SATISFIED!! GET YOUR MONEY BACK! There are a lot of crap marketing ebooks and software out there. If you don’t like whatever it is you bought, you want to make sure you have options.

6. Ask around. There are a lot of different forums out there that are filled with very experienced marketers. Post questions and ask for REAL testimonials. You’ll find most people are very candid and will give you real honest answers.

7. Use Those Guarantees. If you don’t like a product or it doesn’t live up to your expectations then get your money back! This ties back in to number 5.

8. Search for Coupons and discounts on popular products. Warrior Forums and other Membership sites often offer discounts. If you search Google you can always find Godaddy coupons that will get you new domains for only $7.49. It never hurts to do a search.. you could easily save half of the cost.

9. Use Caution with Upsells. When you buy a product many marketers will try to up sell you. Godaddy is especially famous for it. If you don’t need it now, don’t buy it now! This is where you can easily get stuck with information overload. You buy more than you originally wanted and get lost wondering where to start.

10. Create a Plan and Stick To It. Stay focused. If your goal is niche marketing then work on niche marketing until your making money with it. If your goal is info products, then work on them until you are making money at it. Jumping around from business model to business model is the sure way to failure. Stay the course and beware the shiny object that will lead you astray.

Do you have any tips of your own? How have you shaved some dollars off of running your business? Leave a comment below and let us know! We’d love to hear about it.

Photo Credit: dotbenjamin