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EDITED JUNE 27:

Platinum Membership is now open. Only 5 spots left…click here to grab one.

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A little while back, I interviewed one of our Outsourcing Sweetie Platinum Members about how her outsourcing experience was going. We talked about:

Her outsourcing experience prior to working with us and things she has learned along the way (these lessons are important for all of us).

Better communication and working efficiently with contractors.

How to decide what to outsource each month and keeping business rolling, even when you’re busy.

Download the Audio & Full Transcripts

You can grab a copy of the 27 minute audio recording and the full transcripts here. Learn from someone else’s experience…and even her mistakes…to make the most out of your own outsourcing experience.

Click here for the mp3 recording.

Click here for the PDF transcript.

Enjoy, apply and join us for Platinum!

You may already be familiar with Outsourcing Sweetie Gold Membership, where we provide training materials for you and your contractors to make the most of (i.e. make more money!) your outsourcing experience.

At only $10, it’s a no-brainer to help you cut your learning curves in finding the right people, training them and working with them efficiently. BUT…it still means you have to go out and find those people, train them and make sure you’re working efficiently with your helpers.

That’s a lot of work, isn’t it?

Here’s a Solution That Not Only Cuts the Learning Curves - It Cuts the Workload Too

I’m pleased to announce that we’re now ready to open up our Platinum Membership offering to the public. We’ve been operating quietly and privately since December, but we’re ready for you now. And if you’re ready to stop the procrastination and cut out the headaches that sometimes come with outsourcing, the timing is perfect.

Platinum Membership Includes:

• All the perks of Gold Membership.
• Direct access to my personal team of professional and reliable workers.
• A robust list of services hours included each month.
• One-on-one coaching from to ensure you’re always heading in the right direction.

We’re gearing up to accept new clients for June (registration begins May 28), but you can get all the details right now by clicking here.

I look forward to working with you!

You might recognize that gal below to the right. That’s Vera Raposo, a local gal and a long-time student and friend of mine. Several years ago, she looked me up after reading an article about me in the local newspaper and asked me to give her some tutoring help with her website. She was just at the beginning of her online career at this time, but boy has she come a long way.

She’s actually a Platinum Member at Outsourcing Sweetie, which means she works with my own personal team to get a huge chunk of her work done each and every month. She recently wrote to me a couple days into April to tell me:

“Ta-da! I did it.

Actually I’ve made $1000 in the first five days of this
month alone, I’m thrilled!

A huge part is working with OS (Outsourcing Sweetie) and
focusing on planning things out and getting work done when I
had the chance as I was running to many appointments.

If you ever want to do an interview with me for OS or
anything else you need I’ll be very candid and would love to
share.

I’m so thankful that I never gave up, thanks Alice, you’re
really a great person and I feel so happy to have met you.

And guess what?? I haven’t touched eBay in a year and I feel
so FREE!!!”

Obviously, I’m absolutely thrilled for her and proud of my own team at the same time for doing such a great job. I have taken Vera up on her offer of an interview and we’ll be recording and transcribing it this week.

I will make that interview available to my readers here at some point, or if you want to be the first to know when it’s ready, just join us for a $10 sneak peek at Outsourcing Sweetie. If you’ve been trying to get more done without so much darned work, you’ll be glad you did.

If you’re doing business side-by-side with little ones, you know how overwhelming it can get to maintain the balance between getting work done, spending time with your kids and keeping the house from complete disaster.

One of the best ways to keep things ship-shape, spend time with your little ones and teach them lifelong valuable skills are to get them involved in the household chores - and in particular, tidying up after themselves.

Chores for Your Little Ones is the topic of this week’s The Household Helper podcast. Listen in for a frank conversation about getting the kids involved and saving your sanity.

Earlier this week for Tough Question Tuesday, I asked “Do You Take it Personally” if someone unsubscribes from your list or asks for a refund.

I confessed that now and then, it does bother me a little bit. After all, I’m human…but in the grand scheme of things, I let is slide. In fact, I completely ignore it most of the time.

How do I ignore it?

It’s simple. I do not receive either my unsubscribe notifications OR refund requests. No, it doesn’t mean that I ignore people on these occasions. Of course not! Instead, my VA receives them and takes care of any details that need attention.

This ignorance is bliss for me and here’s why:

1. One man’s trash is another Sweetie’s treasure: It’s no secret that we absolutely cannot please everyone, even though for some reason, many of us continue to try. I have carefully defined my own target market and prefer to attract a certain type of reader/customer. As long as I continue to satisfy those people, I am a happy camper.

You know, it’s really funny, but in a previous ebook project I was working on, we would get completely contradictory feedback from our customers. Most customers were very happy and said that our products were exactly as described and provided all the information they needed. Then a few people would complain that they were expecting something different and they didn’t feel we provided enough information.

Interesting how two different groups could see things so differently, hey? Of course, we did take the criticism seriously and tried more carefully spell out our offer so there would be no confusion…but ultimately we knew that our system was working well for the majority of our customers.

2. I pay attention to trends, rather than individual complaints: Just because my VA gets all the unsubscribe notifications, processes the refunds and deals with any complaints, doesn’t mean I’m completely unaware. She brings my attention to matters that need my attention and alerts me to any common themes among the constructive criticisms.

But the best thing is, she can take all the less-than-constructive criticisms and plain old attacks and put them where they belong - in the virtual trash which brings me to…

3. My days aren’t ruined because someone had to take their anger out on me: Like I said, we’re all human and if we said that none of this bothered us, we probably wouldn’t be complete honest. And even if it only bothers you for a little while, it takes you away from the focus of your tasks at hand. I don’t need that and you certainly don’t either.

EXTRA NOTE OF COMFORT: The bigger your list gets and the more you sell, the more unsubscribes and refunds you’re going to get. It’s just the nature of numbers, so if your requests seem to be rising as you’re pocketbook gets bigger, that’s not such a bad thing.

The other day, I was intrigued by Mila Sidman’s article entitled “The Truth about Outsourcing – STOP Throwing Money Down the Drain!” that she published in her May Issue of the Internet Based Moms Newsletter.

The gist of Mila’s well-written article was that in one’s desire to reduce their workload, they may be sacrificing profits and control over their business. She mentioned the often sought after 4-Hour Work Week and how this goal may not be in the best interest of everyone, especially when they don’t have a full understanding of their own business.

I completely agree and I’m sure my Outsourcing Sweetie students are aware that you always need to:

Have a good understanding of the various aspects of your business before you outsource them. i.e. Don’t just tell someone to make you a website and let them run with it. You don’t necessarily need to know anything about design and programming, but you do need to know how you want your site organize, what functionality you need, etc.

Constantly evaluate all the functions of your business, outsourced or not. The truth is, much of what a company does in a day isn’t likely very efficient or profitable. In fact, many of us confessed to this recently. Always reevaluate whether or not the various activities your business is involved in are profitable and/or necessary for your online business.

If you’ve been approaching outsourcing simply as a way to work less, it’s time to get back to basics. Without understanding your business needs and constant re-evaluation, you’re throwing your hard-earned money down the drain.

By the way, if you haven’t been inside Outsourcing Sweetie yet, grab your $10 sneak peek here. Do it the right way from the beginning and you’ll not only work less, but you’ll MAKE MORE too.

An online business is certainly a big blessing. We can grow our income in our pajamas and set our own schedules.

But have you stopped to think about retirement? Do you really want to do EXACTLY what you do now for the rest of your life? Will you be ABLE to do what you do for the rest of your life? What happens when you’re gone and it’s time to leave something valuable to your family?

A lot of online marketers still resist outsourcing and are determined to control most, if not all, aspects of their online businesses. But this does not set you up for any type of retirement - whether you want a complete retirement or a semi-retirement.

Maybe you’re different and you have a plan.

And that’s today’s Tough Question Tuesday:  Do you plan to retire and how will you do it?

A lot of people hesitate to get help for their businesses, particularly enlisting help for writing tasks, because they will like they will lose the voice they want to keep in their business.

They mistakenly feel that they are the only people who can bring that personality and expertise to their writing. Well, while you and I may be talented writers with the ability to connect with our audiences, allowing ourselves to think we the only ones qualified to write could end up meaning either:

1. We’ll work ourselves into an early grave.

&/OR

2. We’re not maximizing all our opportunities to promote and build our businesses through the written word.

Let’s look at just some of the things writing can do for our online business:

Writing sells our products through pre-selling and sales copy.

Words help us connect with and sell to our email subscribers.

Writing makes building incoming links possible through its distribution (think articles, press releases, etc.).

Words allow us to build meaningful (and profitable) relationships with our blog readers.

Words are the building blocks of many info products we can create to sell.

The written word ensures our customers and potential customers have their questions and concerns addressed.

Writing helps seal the deal on joint venture partnerships.

Writing facilitates communication with our assistants, contractors and service providers.

…and that’s just scratching the surface. I don’t know about you, but I can’t do all of that all by myself. I’m guessing that if you think you can do it, you’re working yourself too hard.

Having Others Help You with Writing is Not a Loss of Voice

If you’re still concerned, consider these tips to help you get a hand with your writing (whether it’s a ghostwriter, customer service assistant, JV manager or someone else):

1. If you put your name to something that someone else wrote (ex. ghostwritten articles), read and edit the content to match your voice. Just because you hire someone, doesn’t mean you throw out control of your business. Save time by having most of the grunt work done and then make it better before publish it.

2. You don’t have to put your personal name on all the writing your business produces. Sometimes it’s hard for us to separate our personal selves from our businesses. But we are not our company and our company is not us. Yes, they are very linked together, but just like every other business in the world, we need to realize that there are many faces to our business, including the people who work for us.

3. Hire people or find contributors who represent your similar values and viewpoints. While you don’t have to agree on every fine point (remember, separate yourself from your company…just a little!), you can still build a team that represents your business appropriately.

So please…don’t hold yourself back because you’re caught up in thinking this is a one man or woman show. A business that grows and survives the test of the time allows for more than one voice. It really does.