Over the past couple years I’ve been very privileged to participate in Yaro Starak’s coaching programs and learn from his teachings. Recently I’ve been listening to his audio Mindset series in the car quite a number of times, not because I don’t have anything to listen to, it’s because I want to. What I have noticed every time I listen to this series is a new idea will come to mind and it keeps me grounded in how I should be approaching my Internet business.

A specific topic Yaro talked about is batch processing and it’s an important system for any Internet business. This topic wasn’t directed to outsourcing, though I wanted to share with you how relevant it can be.

What is Batch Processing?

Let’s take a look at an example in relation to emails. Emails are probably one of the biggest distractions in modern society (sorry guys, in my opinion it is), though they are necessary because it is considered a main form of communication between a client and a business. Now you can have the option of checking your email every hour of the day and replying to people answering their questions or you can batch process them at most once a day or twice a week (ultimately this is what you should strive to achieve). What batch processing does is it allows you to process all your tasks at one time rather than processing them as they come.

Rather than answer an email straight away, which takes 5 minutes to complete and interrupt your current task, you can process all your emails once at the end of the day, that allows you to have a focused effort. So you get the emails replied to in 30 minutes compared to the 50 minutes it would have taken you if spread these over the day.

In my Dragonboat business I let customers know that I personally check my email twice a week on Tuesday or Thursday and if the matter is urgent, they need to send the request to my support team who checks the ticket system twice a day on my behalf.

What Are Tasks You Can Batch Process To Be More Productive?

I’m a firm believer of the 80/20 rule, where 80% of your output comes from 20% of your input. Batch processing is a system that helps accomplish this. Here’s a few tasks I batch process in my business and the rest are outsourced:

• Writing 6 blog posts in one day and schedule them to be posted automatically over a two week period
• Creating 3 videos in one day and schedule them to be sent out over a two week period.
• Checking and replying to email twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday at 4pm
• Completing interviews back to back with a 30 minute break in one day

As you can imagine by completing these tasks within one week, I can take the next week off and my Internet business will still be generating income without further input from me. This is power of batch processing.

How Can Your Outsourced Work Be Batch Processed?

The same process can be applied to your virtual staff and I highly recommend you do this. You receive greater value from your money because they complete your tasks faster and in less time, allowing them to take on more work for the same monthly rate. Here are examples of batch processing I have trained my virtual staff to apply:

• To process orders and dispatch from the dragonboat business only twice a week.
• To return all phone calls on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon
• Process any transactions or refunds once a week
• Setting up social media accounts and submitting articles twice a week

As you can see above these are some of the tasks they complete and only do it once in the time set for them. Otherwise they continue on with their tasks and be as efficient as possible in having their work completed to meet set requirements.

One thing to mention as well, in order for batch processing to work effectively with your virtual staff you need to have a defined system in place so they can follow and continue to repeat these tasks without your intervention. This is how a successful Internet business will run smoothly and generate more income.

Tyrone Shum
Batch Processing