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How Much Money Will You Save By Outsourcing?

Listen to that. Someone just started a lawnmower in my backyard. As I write this article, I’m listening to the sound of someone besides me mowing my lawn. You could also call it “the sound of outsourcing.” Instead of cutting the grass myself, I’ve contracted a local lawn care company to come do it for me once every couple of weeks.

Now, I am perfectly capable of mowing the lawn myself. I even enjoy mowing the lawn… sometimes. The thing is, I outsource my lawn mowing because doing so saves me a lot of money. Here’s how I calculated my savings.

When I do client work, I charge at least $35 an hour. Mowing the lawn takes me about three hours (we have a large yard and thick grass) not including ice tea breaks on hot days and cleaning myself up afterwards. Mowing the lawn myself will cost me at least $105 because that’s three hours out of my day where I could have been producing revenue instead.

I pay this lawn care company $30 each time they mow, which means every time they come out, I’m saving over $70.

In Calgary, our growing season is shorter than most. We usually start cutting the grass in late May and by early September, it’s stopped growing. If the grass needs to be cut once every two weeks during the summer, that’s around 8 or 9 times. Which means over the summer I’ll save $70 about 9 times. So, I’m saving $630 every year just by outsourcing my lawn mowing.

And that’s just my time. If I had to buy and maintain my lawn mower, it would be a lot more than that.

What about you? How much money are you losing by doing jobs you could easily outsource? Maybe it’s a home maintenance task like mine. Perhaps it’s a business task like maintaining your website or writing articles. In any case, here’s a simple formula you can use to find out how much money is slipping through your fingers by hanging onto those jobs yourself.

Step 1. Write down the dollar amount you make per hour.

Step 2. Multiply that amount by the number of hours it takes you to do the job you’d like to outsource. Be careful here – include all the time you spend planning, preparing for this job, as well as the testing and tweaking you’ll do at the end.

Step 3. Write down the amount it would cost to outsource that one job to someone else. If you don’t know the exact amount, pick up the phone and find out, or do a quick online search.’

Step 4. Now, subtract the amount in Step 3 from your answer to Step 2. That’s how much money you would save each time you outsourced this particular job.

Step 5. We could stop there, but let’s take it a few steps further and save you even more money.How many times do you do this job over one year? Is it a one-time thing, or is it something you do every week or every month? Write down the number of times you do that job every year.

Step 6. Multiply your answer to Step 4 by your answer to Step 5. That’s how much money outsourcing can save you annually.

What does your outsourcing sound like? It may not sound like a lawnmower motor, but it is probably close to “cha-ching!”

Denise Willms is a ghostwriter and owner of WAHM Articles, a directory of reprint articles for women. Visit WAHM Articles for high quality reprint and ghostwritten articles designed to help you reach the lucrative “mom market.”

6 Simple Steps for Turning Your Articles into an e-Book or Special Report

By Denise Willms

Have you been thinking it’s time to finally write that e-book or special report? Perhaps you want to give it away to gain more subscribers for your list. Or maybe you would like to increase your passive income by selling an e-book or report.

Whatever your reason for creating it, turning your articles into an e-book is an easy way to repurpose content you’ve already written. Here are some steps to follow to do just that:

1. Compile articles that are on a similar theme so they work together as a book or report. If you’ve written an article series, or have several articles that are on one topic, these would be good candidates for your e-book or report. If you don’t have this in place, take some time to write what you’re missing.

2. Organize your articles into a logical format. I like to write a short introduction and conclusion for the book as well, so it feels like a book or report, not like a few articles put together.

3. Depending on how long you’re making your book or report, you also might want to add a table of contents, to make the e-book easier to use.

4. I usually format the articles and content in a Word document and then publish it as a PDF to create the e-book or report. For this, I use Adobe Acrobat, but there are some good free programs as well.

5. You’ll also want to add some active links to your new document, so they can visit your website or any affiliate links you have in there. If you use a table of contents, you can link that to the various articles throughout the book.

6. For an e-book, you’ll want to add a professional looking cover. If you’re like me and don’t do graphics, you can hire a designer to create one for you.

One more quick tip - ask some of your online friends or clients to review it for you and use their testimonials on your sales page or download page. Now that you’ve published your first e-book, the next step is to let your market know how much it can benefit them.

Denise Willms is a professional article writer who specializes in creating content for moms. Visit www.WAHM-Articles.com to download her free ebook, Get Started!! Making Money by Writing WAHM Articles and learn how you can tap into this lucrative market.

Your Work from Home Office - A Work at Home Mom`s Guide to Creating Space to Work from Home

When you first decided to work from home, you might have started out like many other moms and turned your kitchen table into your work area. From this nexus point, you can easily keep an eye on the kids, plus easily manage all the household activities like phone calls and listening for the load of laundry to be done, while working on your own projects.

Or can you?

When I began working from home four years ago, my kitchen table seemed the logical place for me to work. But after several months, when I evaluated my goals and my lack of progress, I began to wonder if my kitchen table “office” was part of the problem. Since then, I’ve found creative ways to carve out my own “work from home” space, even in the midst of never-ending activity.

If you’re having trouble finding space to work from home, you might find some of these suggestions helpful.

A Work from Home Space to Call Your Own

One of the problems with using a kitchen table, is that your work space can feel “borrowed.”  If your family is like mine, you can only use it until it’s needed for something else, like the kids’ lunches or a friend coming over for tea. Then you have to pack up your business and put it away somewhere else.

If you’re serious about achieving your home business goals, it’s important to treat your business seriously. If you’re constantly moving it out of the way, you might be subconsciously telling yourself your business isn’t is as important as the other things you do.

When you can’t have a designated office space in your home, look into creating a portable office for yourself, that you can move around as needed. Purchase boxes and files where you can organize your work and store it safely, without being in anyone’s way.

Staying Safe When You Work from Home

Did you know that working at the kitchen table can be dangerous for your health? If you work at a keyboard, your kitchen table is probably not an ergonomically correct set up. If you’re bending over to create crafts or scrapbooks, you could be unnecessarily hard on your back.  .

When you set up your work from home space, consider the ergonomics of your particular activities. You don’t want to develop tendinitis or carpal tunnel because of your work. Not only are these conditions painful, they can also keep you from being productive and reaching your goals

Lights, Camera, Action! Or Not…

Good lighting is another consideration when you set up your work from home space. Bright kitchen lights may not be the best choice for you to work under.  Continually working under bad lighting can cause headaches and migraines for some moms. Even if you don’t get headaches, you may tire more easily because of eye strain.

Do some research to determine the best type of lighting for your needs, then plan a space that can accommodate that. If the kitchen table is still your best option, see if you can change the lighting in there.

When you create a home office space that suits your own business needs, you can feel more confident about your business. Creating an effective working space is an important for step for achieving your work from home dreams.

Denise Willms helps busy work at home moms balance successful businesses with happy families. Visit http://www.WAHM-Articles.com to read more articles about how moms can create profitable work at home businesses.