The 4 Hour Work Week Gone Wrong
Posted by admin on Thursday, November 26, 2009 · 2 Comments 
Why do people go
online to create
their own
businesses? They all
pursue the 4 hour
work week, a term
coined by Timothy
Ferriss in his
book of the same
name. The idea of
working just 4 hours
a week to make a
living is definitely
a good one. To be
able to spend all
the time with your
family, having fun
or doing what you
like while still
being able to put
food on the table is
every man’s
(and woman’s)
dream.
So we
go online where all
that 4 hour thing is
supposed to happen.
But here’s
what happens.
Granted you do
everything right and
learn the quirks of
doing business on
the Internet
(otherwise nothing
happens at all), you
end up doing
something else than
the promised work
week. Raise your
hand if you spend
hours and hours
online every single
day, often late into
the night.If I count the time
I spend online
working on my online
business, it gets
even more than a
regular 9 to 5 job.
Here’s what
happens every single
day:
- I spend around an hour or two thinking and researching what to write about to my sites.
- I spend an hour or two writing posts to my network.
- I spend an hour or two writing posts to distribute to other networks that I’m subscribed to.
- I seem to always necessarily spend at least an hour planning the future of my sites and new projects.
- And finally, there’s the email thing and other little mundane online tasks.
That adds up at
least to full 8
hours most of which
is pure work. Things
get much worse when
I undertake a new
project. And to add
to that, as if there
were too much time
on my hands, I spend
a couple of hours on
various forums. 4
hours a week, I was
saying?
So what am I, and as
far as I know the
majority of aspiring
online entrepreneurs
are doing wrong?
I’m trying to
do all by myself
– that’s
it.
Any successful
entrepreneur will
tell you that
outsourcing is key
to achieving what
you set as a goal to
begin with. I went
only as far as to
have a few articles
written for me. I
know it limits me
and I will always
have to work long
hours while I work
alone (to keep the
income that I want
anyway).
So what to do? First
of all, by doing
what I did above,
you need to break
down your business
into systems and
tasks. Tasks that
can be outsourced or
dedicated to
employees should you
choose to go that
way. That’s
all there is to it
in a nutshell.
The challenge is
outsourcing as such.
I have tried
numerous times to
hire freelancers to
do certain tasks,
and almost every
time it took me time
and effort to find
the right person.
More or less the
same time I would
spend doing it
myself. That is
certainly
discouraging.
And lastly, believe
it or not, I like
doing this stuff. I
don’t always
like spending so
much time on it, but
it is still fun,
especially when you
see the result. That
“comfort
zone” gives
you the luxury to
put things off.
But there’s a
time in every online
entrepreneur’s
career when you have
to step over the
line (not just dip
your toes and run
back right away),
and add other people
to your business.
Only then something
like the 4 hour work
week is possible.
Although I
don’t think it
is necessary to
literally work only
4 hours a week,
especially if you
love what you do
– you can
always do better
just by spending an
extra hour a day.
February 18th, 2010 at 1:30 am
There really isn’t a 4 hour work week. If you continue to grow your business, you would definitely spend more then 4 hrs on planning and evaluating future and existing projects. Even if you outsource there is still the monitoring and the checking up on the outsourcers because outsourcers are just like employees and we all know that there are daily routines and drama involved when dealing with employees.
February 21st, 2010 at 6:04 pm
I have phased out my income on autopilot idea and I must say that the up front stuff to get everything going takes – absolutely correct – FULL TIME effort. However, once you get it going, and you pass the phase of massively marketing, promoting and optimizing so you get a certain level of income, then the goal is to find the biggest items of value to outsource for time/effort vs payoff.
Your work should reduce to 1-2 hours per day and if you discipline yourself, 5 days a week once you get out of phase 1 f building and automating as much as possible. So in essence 5-10 hours a week as a goal for say, phase 2.
If, in the future you can’t do this, then focus on the FT job instead. It also depends on the niche. Some niches have a ceiling that simply do not allow you to earn above no matter if you put in an extra 1000 hours. As with any biz, finding a good niche that has the level of income possibility and then finding the RELIABLE people to do your task-based stuff, is the key.
Also, patience and persistence – keep trying – and use your time wisely – and trust me I feel the pain and frustration, been there! Determine how long with idea #1 before you say, ok, either idea #2 is next, or I’m done. Just do your homework! I put considerable amount of time into my eBook “How to find a Money Making Niche” to help others do that, BEFORE they commit because they must make absolutely certain that they have allowed the 3 things to intersect – income potential/opportunity with interest with skill/ability – I call it basically the online success triangle – without all 3, the online biz model triangle collapses!