Switching Your Internet Business Onto Autopilot

Setting your Internet business on autopilot requires you to determine which systems can be automated using technology and which systems can be outsourced to people. Focus on eliminating unnecessary costs by using technology first. Then hire staff to handle the rest of the systems. For example if you had to enter in all your transactions from your website into your accounting software, could this have been eliminated if a script was written to do this automatically? It may cost you $10,000 a year to have a staff doing data entry, when it would have only cost you $1,000 to get someone to write the script that will last forever. Here is a three step process to switch on autopilot:

1. Outsource your customer support
2. Find a good webmaster to manage your website
3. Have a business manager to handle day to day tasks

Customer Support

The first step any Internet business owner needs to take is to outsource or hire staff to manage their customer support. In my case, I hired virtual assistants who didn’t need to be in the office and could answer all customer support issues anywhere for me. I provided them with a list of commonly asked questions, which is the website’s FAQ page and also a manual that outlined some procedures of the business. For the better part of it, it doesn’t cost as much as what people think. Most virtual assistants can start as low as $3 per hour and they can be found online. To date my best virtual assistant costs me $2 per hour. Here is a list of leading virtual assistant sites where I have found my best virtual assistants to date:

• Va4u
• Bestjobs.ph
• Jobs 4 Philippines

Webmaster Support

Having a webmaster working on your team helps to maintain and fix any issues that you may have with your website. Your webmaster will help you to do any upgrades, install new modules, write customised scripts and also attend to domain and hosting issues. There are other things you can assign to your webmaster such as maintaining the database and doing search engine optimisation. It depends if your webmaster is working for you on a full time basis or per project. In my own business I hire my webmaster to develop and improve my websites on a monthly basis by paying a set fee. Ideally you will want them to be on your team on a full time basis if you can afford it. Here are some websites I recommend visiting to find good webmasters and web developers:

• Elance.com – Elance says it offers entrepreneurs a flexible way for to get work done by tapping into expertise whenever they need it, and offers access to more than 80,000 registered freelancers providing a wide range of services.
• Scriptlance – allows you to post your project and place a bid to work with professional programmers or webmasters for your business.
• Rent a Coder – offers access to software and Web developers.
• Odesk – Offers a range of freelance programmers and web developers in India, Russia, the U.S., and other locations.

Business / Project Manager

Hiring a business manager to run your day to day operations allows you to find someone else to replace you. Searching for a competent and capable business manager is not an easy task. Though, once you have the right person in place you can free up your time to start new projects. If you want to have someone to replace you, you must write down what the person will be required to do. It’s not as simple as saying, “please take over my day to day tasks”. Clearly list the tasks they need to perform every day, from following up with orders from suppliers to making sure that the customer support team is keeping up with their load. Your goal is to train the business manager to take over the tasks you have been doing and allow them to take responsibility. If you do this successfully, you own an e-commerce business rather than being in one. Here are some places to find good quality business managers:

• Elance.com
• Brickwork – Get some of the best business managers in India and tap into a huge network of great resources.

Removing Yourself

Completing these steps will keep you quite busy in the early stages. Ultimately, your goal is to remove yourself altogether from the business. Whatever you do with your life after you create a successful Internet business is up to you.

Tyrone Shum
Living life on autopilot