Last week I wrote an email saying that I’m hiring an assistant. I got a buncha replies to that, some encouraging, others frustrating.
I wrote back to everyone to say I’m working my way through the replies, and that I will be in touch if I think there’s a possible fit there.
I’ve had a few people proactively follow up with me since. “Do you have an update regarding my application?”
The update is that on Friday I hired somebody. I’m also interviewing a second person to hire on Monday. I figure, now that I’ve decided on hiring, why not go big?
The guy I hired yesterday, marketer and computer programmer GC Tsalamagkakis, is somebody I’ve known for a good while.
He has been active in my Daily Email House community for over a year. He was one of the top bidders in my “I endorse YOU” auction. We’ve talked on multiple occasions previously. I know he’s worked with and gotten results for other people I know and respect.
GC wrote me flat out saying that he’s not applying to be my assistant, but that maybe he can help me automate some of the stuff I’m doing or want to do?
We talked and defined an easy test project.
GC wanted to do it for free.
I told him I appreciate the sentiment but I insist on paying him, both for his sake and for mine.
He quoted me a price.
I thought it was too low. So I decided to pay him 4x what he had asked me.
Do you think that makes me a good guy? Or a creep who’s trying to virtue signal by writing about it here?
You can think what you like, but I can tell you I’m neither very good nor am I trying to signal whatever goodness I have here.
This is simply me working myself mentally into this hiring game.
A couple days ago, I mentioned a discussion I’d listened to between Frank Kern and Dean Jackson, about sticking to what you’re irreplaceable at, and hiring out for everything else. Said Frank:
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There’s three ways to get rich. You can invent something. You can inherit something. Or you could invest. And I think all business people are ultimately investors.
That’s all we do. So if you think about that, and you think about the hiring of a “who,” it’s not an expense, but a means to multiply capital.
I pay my “who” that does the automation stuff close to 300 grand a year.
And people are like, “My God, you could get it so much cheaper.”
And I say, “Well I might-could, but assuming I’m getting about a 20% annual return on my investment in a ‘who,’ would I rather get 20% of 50 grand, or 300?”
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That 20% return is pretty much how the math will work out for the test task that GC did for me.
He’s automated some stuff for me that was previously spread out across a couple software subscriptions.
As a result, I will be able to shut those subscriptions down, and save enough over the coming year to make back what I paid GC, and make about a 20% return on top of that.
There is a bigger point here, and it applies to you also. I’ve heard it stated in different ways:
“Turn costs into a profit center.”
“Find a way to make it work for you.”
Or, like Frank Kern says above, “Think of it like an investment.”
This applies if you’re hiring, yes. But it also applies if you’re buying courses, paying for subscriptions, running ads, or simply spending your money and time. All these could simply be costs. Or, with a change of perspective and bit of determination, they could be opportunities to multiply capital. It’s your call.