Day 11. Getting help.
If you have completed yesterday’s challenge you will now have your project plan so today we’re going to consider where you might need to get help and how to get it.
We all have different strengths and weaknesses, the things we do really well and the things that are best left to others. How much time do you spend doing tasks that someone else could do better and more quickly? Ask yourself, is doing this task the best use of my time? If you can sell your time at £50 per hour why are you doing a task you could delegate to someone who charges £25 per hour?
Do you ever find yourself saying, ‘By the time I’ve explained what I want to someone else I could have done it myself’? Do you think Richard Branson does everything himself? No, of course not, he knows his strengths and his weaknesses and has built a team to work alongside those. He appreciates the value of delegation and knows how to do it. I know that, for many small business owners, the costs of employing other people to do things for you may seem prohibitive but we’re going to look at ways of making it affordable in today’s challenge.
Know your strengths and weaknesses
Do you show a preference for left brained or right brained traits? If you’re left brained you are more task focused, you may be analytical, results driven and detail conscious. If you are right brained you will be more concerned with people, building relationships and may be more creative.
Of course we’re all a bit of both although one side is likely to be more dominant than the other. If your dominant side is right brained then you may need help getting things done and if you are left brain dominant you may need some help to generate ideas.
When we’re looking for help it is tempting to go for people like ourselves but this is often a mistake, two right brained people will probably have a lot of fun but struggle to get things done whereas two left brained people will have all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed but may not be able to find creative solutions to problems. Which are you?
ACTION: Use the SWOT analysis tool from Day 7 to analyse your own strengths and weaknesses; be honest!
If you would like a more objective view of your strengths and weaknesses I am offering 20% off Prism Brain Mapping profiling for the duration of this challenge. You complete a questionnaire and then receive a report detailing your strengths and weaknesses which I will go through with you by telephone or, if you are close enough, in person. Click here for more information.
Work to your strengths and delegate the rest
Take a look at the project management plan you completed yesterday. Which of the tasks on the list are ones that you are good at and should be done by you? Which will take you a long time and cause you anxiety? What skills, qualities or experience will someone need in order to those tasks well and speedily? Develop those into a job description or project brief which you can then use to recruit the help you need. You can then get on with making money at what you do best.
Finding help
Do you have other members of your team whose skills are better suited to those tasks? Do they have capacity in their working day to take on these new tasks or is there something you can do to rejig workloads?
If you don’t have anyone on your team is there someone in your network with the right skills and experience whom you could pay as a freelancer? If paying for help is not an option is there something you could trade in return for the help you need? For example a beauty therapist might be able to trade a treatment in return for some copywriting; a virtual assistant might be able to offer some admin support in return for a wardrobe makeover.
How about turning your problem into an opportunity for someone else? For example many graduates are looking for work experience to help them get a better job. Could you offer an internship or work experience to help them and help yourself (whilst graduates are sometimes willing to work in the right job for no money they do have to live so try to pay them a minimum wage or at least their expenses). N.B. Employment law varies from country to country so make sure you know what you are allowed to do in your country.
Could you offer an Apprenticeship to a young person looking for training and qualifications to improve their career prospects? In the UK there is some government help to support employers taking on an apprentice (the Mayor for London is topping up that help for a limited number of London employers to encourage them to take apprentices.) Apprentices have to be paid and receive training but this is still less expensive than taking on a more experienced person and allows you to do something to help young people and your business.
Do you need the sort of help that can be done from anywhere? If so why not post your job on the internet and invite bids from people who would like the work? Websites such as http://www.peopleperhour.com/ can connect you with people who are willing to work at very affordable rates. Other options are http://www.guru.com/ and https://www.elance.com which allow you to post your job opportunities which freelancers can then pitch for. To find more just Google ‘posting freelance opportunities’.
ACTION: Decide which tasks to delegate and give yourself time to recruit the appropriate help in line with your project plan.
Next steps, should you choose to take them…
- Share any insights or recommendations in the comments section here.
- Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.)
- Tweet this ‘I’m working on Day 11 of @Glenda_S 21 Day Make money Challenge #21DMMC‘
- Join us tomorrow to when we’ll be putting together our budgets.
Day 8. Time to make a start on the planning.
Congratulations for getting to this stage of the challenge. One week down and two weeks to go. How are you getting on? I know some of you are finding the challenge useful and thought provoking if a little hard. Making money is not easy but hopefully at the end of this challenge you will have a doable plan to make your goal. Don’t worry if you find you need more time to complete each challenge you can store the challenges up to do when you are ready. The next couple of days shouldn’t be quite so demanding as the last few.
What do you need to accomplish your goal?
Today I want you to start thinking about what you will need to turn your idea into an income generator. I want you to make a list. That’s all! I don’t want you to do anything with that list just yet we’ll turn your list into a plan on Day 10.
So what should be on your list?
What resources will you need? Think
- time
- money
- people
- equipment
- raw materials
- space
Will you need to learn any new skills? What are they?
What actions will you need to take? These can be quite broad at this stage so ‘marketing’ rather than specific actions such as ‘post to Twitter’
ACTION: Write your list and keep it safely ready for our project planning session on day 10.
A tool you might find helpful

http://simpleology.com is a really helpful planning tool to keep you on track.
I don’t know about you but I need a list to keep me on track. My problem is that I always have too much on the list to achieve in one day so I can spend ages transferring an undone task from one day until the next. For the last couple of months I have been using a free online tool that allows me to capture what I want to do and to use that information to plan my day.
There is some built in training which can become a bit tedious but is worth doing even if you don’t do it in full every day. Why not give it a try here? Let me know how you get on. If you are already using a tool that others might find helpful do share it in the comments below. Thank you.
Next steps, should you choose to take them…
- Share any insights or recommendations in the comments section here.
- Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.
- Tweet this ‘I’m starting to make my plan on @Glenda_S 21 Day Make money Challenge #21DMMC‘
- Join us tomorrow to when we’ll consider some I’ll share an idea for making the time to get things done.
Day 6. Will you be able to make a profit?
So here we are at Day 6, hopefully with some potential money making ideas taking shape and an understanding of the competition that you face. Over the next couple of days we’re going to start evaluating your ideas to see which has the best chance of success. Today we’re going to look at the numbers.
What are your costs?
Most ideas need some form of investment at least in time if not in money.
ACTION: Make a list of all the things that you are going to need to invest in and how much they will cost, be consistent about the way you deal with tax, either include it in all calculations or in none.
Here are a few things to think about:
- Raw materials: what will you need? How much will it cost? How long will it last? (Are there minimum order quantities and do these work for you?) What will the wastage be? Can you put the waste to other uses? Is there any resale value in unused raw materials? Try to work out a cost per unit.
- Premises: are you going to need to rent premises? How much will it cost you? Don’t forget that you may have to pay for set up and take down time? Do the charges include gas, electric, cleaning and any other premises costs, if not how much do you estimate these will be?
- Staffing: nobody wants to work for nothing so don’t forget to include your time calculations plus any staffing costs for your helpers. Be realistic about how long it will take you and set yourself a reasonable hourly rate. If the amount you can charge won’t cover your staffing costs the idea isn’t viable! All too often I see small business owners not paying themselves enough money. Get this calculation right from the outset even if you don’t actually draw the money until you are consistently making your targets.
- Packaging & distribution: if these costs are relevant to your idea calculate these too.
- Insurance: will you need any extra insurance cover and, if so, how much will it cost you?
- Equipment: if you don’t already have the equipment you need is it something you can borrow or hire? What will those costs be? If you need to buy equipment, how much will it cost? How long will it last? Will you be able to use it for any other purpose or do you have to cover all the costs with the idea you are currently working on?
How much can you charge?
I suggest you try out a number of different figures to ensure financial viability. So think about the figure you would really like to charge, think about the average price your competitors charge and think about your absolute lowest ‘sale’ figure which we hope you would only use to clear places or stock.
Work out your break even point
Add up all your fixed costs (costs which don’t change whether or not you sell anything) things like rent, salaries, insurance, loan repayments etc. It’s probably best to work these out for a week or a month but you could choose a different period.
Now work out your variable costs, those that are directly related to generating sales and fluctuate accordingly. Work these out on an individual item basis.
Once you’ve got all these figures we can work out how many items/tickets etc. you will need to sell to cover your costs and break even. Here’s an example, we’re selling widgets:
Fixed costs for one month:
Salary £1400
Rent £ 700
Insurance £ 50
Loan repayments £ 100
Total £2250
Costs per widget
Raw materials £ 25
Packaging £ 1
Delivery £ 5
Total £ 31
Research tells us that we can sell our widgets for £60 so to work out how many we need to sell to break even:
£60 (Selling price) – £31 (Direct costs per widget) = £29
The difference between the selling price and costs is known as the contribution to your fixed costs. So if we divide £2250 (our monthly fixed costs) by £29 (contribution) we can see that we will need to sell 78 widgets (77.59 rounded up) to ‘break even’, once we sell 79 we will be in profit, just!
So let’s see what happens if we could sell our widgets at £70, our direct costs would still be £31. £70-£31 =£39. £2250 divided by £39 = 57.69 so we will need to sell 58 widgets to ‘break even’
However if we have to reduce prices to £50 we have to sell many more. £50-£31= £19. £2250 divided by £19 = 118.42 so we will need to sell 119 widgets to break even. That’s a 50% increase in the sales needed just by reducing our price by 16.66%.
ACTION: Work out your break even point at the three different price points we discussed earlier.
Some things to think about when testing the viability of your idea
- How many items, tickets or how much time will you need to sell to reach break even?
- How much repeat business are you likely to get?
- How many new customers will you need to find to maintain sales? (I was recently working on targets with a client, we decided she needed 6 clients per week which seemed very achievable but when we worked out that, on average, her clients book two appointments it meant that she would need to find 138 customers a year to reach her target which seemed a bit more daunting.
- How long do you expect to maintain sales for and will this be long enough to cover all your investments, particularly equipment?
ACTION: Do these calculations for the top two or three of your ideas to see which is most viable. If none of them work then I’m afraid it is back to the drawing board 😦
Next steps, should you choose to take them…
- If you need help with today’s task do email me.
- Share any insights in the comments section here.
- Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.
- Tweet this I’m working out whether my idea is viable on @Glenda_S 21 Day Make Money Challenge #21DMMC
- Join us tomorrow to when we’ll consider some other evaluation tools.
Day 4. How will you make your money?
Hello again.
As we discussed yesterday the best way to make money is to find a target market with a problem that you could solve at a profit. If you struggled with that exercise then today’s activity might help you to identify other ways in which you could make money.
Ideas for businesses
If you are already in business then your best source for making more money is your existing customers. These are the people who already know, like and trust you.
- Ask these people what else you could do to help them.
- Review your existing customer’s purchase history & offer them a product/service that they haven’t bought before, perhaps as a special deal with something they buy regularly
- Remind customers that it’s probably time to buy again. For example we have a water filter that needs changing every six months or so, if the supplier reminded us it was time for a new one we would probably buy from them rather than going back to Google!
- Offer your existing customers a reward for introducing new customers when those people buy from you
- Put your prices up!
- Run an exclusive ‘customer and their friends’ event. Make it a party but use the opportunity to sell.
- Consider joining an affiliate scheme to sell other people’s products which would appeal to your existing customers.
- Introduce a new product or service based on your understanding of your current customers’ needs.
- If you run a delivery scheme could you charge another business a service fee for delivering a product on their behalf? For example a greengrocer could deliver bread or flowers.
Bring in new customers
- Every business needs new customers, do you have a regular marketing campaign to enable more people to hear about what you do? (We’ll be developing a marketing plan later in the challenge)
- Use your shop window or exhibitions etc. to showcase your offer in a way to appeal to new customers
Explore new routes to market
- Take your business out into new spaces. For example, Simon Osborne of Poisson fishmongers in Ealing is getting great results from a stall in Brentford market.
- Look out for pop up shop opportunities, for example Barclay’s Bank in Hounslow is offering opportunities for businesses to display their wares in their banking halls
- Should you have an Amazon or Ebay shop?
- Are you selling online either through your own website or via Facebook. Facebook seems to work particularly well for craft type businesses.
- Look for opportunities to collaborate with other businesses
Getting new ideas
- Read relevant trade press, visit exhibitions and trade shows to make sure you are aware of new developments and opportunities in your industry (more about that tomorrow)
- Keep your eyes and ears open, it’s surprising how easy it is to pick up new ideas by seeing what other people are doing or hearing people discussing their problems, likes and dislikes. (You might find this article useful http://thetrainingpack.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/are-you-an-entrepreneur/)
- Do a customer survey
- Borrow ideas you see on your travels especially when you are in a different environment
- Watch some of the business TV shows such as Dragon’s Den or the Apprentice
- Try some creative thinking techniques. Read the works of Edward de Bono or search ‘Creative thinking techniques’ on the internet.

Stimulate your creative thinking by coming up with a list of different uses for this plastic bottle. Try doing the exercise with other people to get even more ideas. I challenge you to get 50!
Ideas for new businesses
- Do you have a skill or a hobby that you could make money from?
- What problems frustrate you? Do other people have the same problems? Can you find a solution that other people would pay for?
- What are other business owners struggling with? Could you offer a product or service to help them? (Book keeping, marketing, administration, deliveries, customer research are just a few ideas)
- What new technologies are in development? Do these offer you an opportunity (think iPhone/iPad apps etc.)
- Are there any infrastructure developments where you live that you could take advantage of?
- What government initiatives could you exploit? (energy efficiency, recycling, employment support immediately come to mind)
Ideas for all
- Have a clear out! Have a sale or sell on Ebay
- Re-package your products and run a limited time offer on your existing range
- Christmas is coming, how about putting together some gift packages, maybe in collaboration with other traders.
- Sell your time by offering a service other people need: cleaning, ironing, gardening, baby-sitting, shopping etc. (This doesn’t have to be a long term option but can be a way of making cash whilst you get your big idea off the ground. A friend of mine did early morning cleaning when she was setting up her marketing business, it gave her immediate cash without encroaching on the time she needed to be available for her clients. Just make sure that you comply with relevant legislation)
- Do you have a skill that can make you money? Have you noticed how many cooks are turning their hands to running supper clubs?
- Write a blog, build your audience and then use it to generate an income from advertising. This is not easy but is working very well for some people.
ACTION: Read this article and then take some time out to let the ideas form. Go for a walk, do some gardening, go to the gym or just sit. Switch off interruptions. Put up the ‘Do not disturb sign’. Tell other people to go away! Just give yourself some thinking time. Write down your ideas today but don’t evaluate them, we’ll do that on Day 7 when your ideas have had time to develop.
Next steps, should you choose to take them…
- Why not use the Facebook group or the comments section to share your ideas and seek input from other challengers.
- Click to Tweet this I’m busy generating money making ideas on @Glenda_S Training Pack’s 21 Day Make Money Challenge #21DMMC
- Join us tomorrow when we’ll be understanding our competition.