I’m reading The 4 hour Work Week & for the most part it is an exercise in challenging myself, my values and my world view. There’s plenty I disagree with & at times I question the integrity & ethics. Overall though it never hurts to see a new perspective & I have found a few interesting discussion points:

He suggests “Contract outsourcing companies that specialize in one function vs. freelancers whenever possible so that if someone is fired, quits, or doesn’t perform, you can replace them without interrupting your business. Hire trained groups of people who can provide detailed reporting and replace one another as needed.”

This is interesting and why building a team is strategic (with additional complexities and risk) while being a solepreneur who rents their time has its challenges and ceilings. Both admirable but different.

“Most entrepreneurs begin with the cheapest tools available, bootstrapping and doing things themselves to get up and running with little cash. This isn’t the problem. In fact, it’s necessary so that the entrepreneurs can train outsourcers later. The problem is that these same entrepreneurs don’t know when and how to replace themselves or their homemade infrastructure with something more scalable. By “scalable,” I mean a business architecture that can handle 10,000 orders per week as easily as it can handle 10 orders per week. Doing this requires minimizing your decision-making responsibilities, which achieves our goal of time freedom while setting the stage for doubling and tripling income”

Funny thing about this is I’d argue Finance & Accounting teams at some of the largest entities struggle with the exact dilemma and don’t adopt automation quick enough. It isn’t easy but we should be aware of this common challenge so we can get in front of it.

Who wants to work 4 hours anyway? Find a job you love & that’s not the goal! But working with #scale & #efficiency & #automation has value for all?

#financeautomation #smallbusiness #entrepreneur