On the show today is Nathan Hirsch of FreeeUp.com to talk about how to outsource Amazon.
If you are running around and there aren’t enough hours in the day to run your business and your life, this is a sorely needed interview. It is all about how to outsource Amazon tasks. Nathan shares with us his story of going from a broke college student to Amazon drop shipper, to creating FreeeUp. He did it all with an attitude of strategic trial and error. He explains why it’s important to know whether you are hiring somebody to do something you do know how to do but is repetitive, or hiring somebody for something you don’t know how to do and that isn’t worth your time to learn. The first person to hire in Nathan’s business model is an outside expert to help you move forward. Then start with outsourcing to one assistant at a time.
Nathan’s Story
Nathan was a college student looking for extra beer money when he started buying and selling textbooks. He felt that the bookstore was ripping everyone off. Soon enough he had lines out the door of people selling their textbooks to him. That soon led him to Amazon because, as he says, “you don’t sell books for very long without learning about Amazon.”
Thinking books were soon going to be a thing of the past, Nathan began experimenting with other products and drop shipping. He ended up running a million dollar business out of his college dorm room. He hired friends, making good and bad business decisions and learning along the way.
Once Nathan graduated, he did his Amazon business full time and it was growing and doing very well. But he realised he was spending too much time on HR activities. He was using UpWork at the time and had a great remote team, but wanted a more efficient way to hire, and so FreeeUp was born.
FreeeUP - Outsource Amazon Tasks
FreeeUp is different from other outsourcing platforms because it isn’t a job board where you have to post the job and then sift through all the applicants. Instead, FreeeUp does the vetting for you and they introduce you to one worker they have pre-vetted who meets your requirements. They only let in the top 1% into their network so you get that experience of being able to hire top talent quickly, which is so important as a business owner.
Getting Started and Outsource Amazon Tasks
Nathan recommends starting with outsourcing pretty early, but waiting until you have some sort of revenue stream. If you’re still in the idea phase, don’t hire yet.
He does believe in bootstrapping at the start—he even wrote a book on bootstrapping called Free Up Your Business: 50 secrets to bootstrap million dollar companies—but advises once you start having a little bit of revenue you should start investing it back into the company. The best way to do that is with good people.
There are two main ways to do that. Either hire someone to take something off your plate or hire an expert to do something that you don’t know how to do. If you have tasks that you do repeatedly and you have systems and processes in place, and your time isn’t focused on the right thing, because you’re doing these tasks instead of focusing on the company, then you should hire lower-level workers and put them in place to free up your time.
If you are approaching something that you don’t know how to do (e.g. marketing or creating a video) then you should hire the mid-level or expert-level workers. They are more expensive but you don’t have to train them and there’s an opportunity cost if you learn how to do it yourself because it usually isn’t worth your time as a business owner. The best business owners have a hybrid of both.
Don’t Be Afraid to Invest in Your Business
Many people are too obsessed with trying to find the cheapest way to do stuff and are very afraid of spending money. The problem is that they are not taking the opportunity cost of that attitude seriously enough. Cheap becomes expensive. Trying to save money in the short term can cost a lot in th...
If you are running around and there aren’t enough hours in the day to run your business and your life, this is a sorely needed interview. It is all about how to outsource Amazon tasks. Nathan shares with us his story of going from a broke college student to Amazon drop shipper, to creating FreeeUp. He did it all with an attitude of strategic trial and error. He explains why it’s important to know whether you are hiring somebody to do something you do know how to do but is repetitive, or hiring somebody for something you don’t know how to do and that isn’t worth your time to learn. The first person to hire in Nathan’s business model is an outside expert to help you move forward. Then start with outsourcing to one assistant at a time.
Nathan’s Story
Nathan was a college student looking for extra beer money when he started buying and selling textbooks. He felt that the bookstore was ripping everyone off. Soon enough he had lines out the door of people selling their textbooks to him. That soon led him to Amazon because, as he says, “you don’t sell books for very long without learning about Amazon.”
Thinking books were soon going to be a thing of the past, Nathan began experimenting with other products and drop shipping. He ended up running a million dollar business out of his college dorm room. He hired friends, making good and bad business decisions and learning along the way.
Once Nathan graduated, he did his Amazon business full time and it was growing and doing very well. But he realised he was spending too much time on HR activities. He was using UpWork at the time and had a great remote team, but wanted a more efficient way to hire, and so FreeeUp was born.
FreeeUP - Outsource Amazon Tasks
FreeeUp is different from other outsourcing platforms because it isn’t a job board where you have to post the job and then sift through all the applicants. Instead, FreeeUp does the vetting for you and they introduce you to one worker they have pre-vetted who meets your requirements. They only let in the top 1% into their network so you get that experience of being able to hire top talent quickly, which is so important as a business owner.
Getting Started and Outsource Amazon Tasks
Nathan recommends starting with outsourcing pretty early, but waiting until you have some sort of revenue stream. If you’re still in the idea phase, don’t hire yet.
He does believe in bootstrapping at the start—he even wrote a book on bootstrapping called Free Up Your Business: 50 secrets to bootstrap million dollar companies—but advises once you start having a little bit of revenue you should start investing it back into the company. The best way to do that is with good people.
There are two main ways to do that. Either hire someone to take something off your plate or hire an expert to do something that you don’t know how to do. If you have tasks that you do repeatedly and you have systems and processes in place, and your time isn’t focused on the right thing, because you’re doing these tasks instead of focusing on the company, then you should hire lower-level workers and put them in place to free up your time.
If you are approaching something that you don’t know how to do (e.g. marketing or creating a video) then you should hire the mid-level or expert-level workers. They are more expensive but you don’t have to train them and there’s an opportunity cost if you learn how to do it yourself because it usually isn’t worth your time as a business owner. The best business owners have a hybrid of both.
Don’t Be Afraid to Invest in Your Business
Many people are too obsessed with trying to find the cheapest way to do stuff and are very afraid of spending money. The problem is that they are not taking the opportunity cost of that attitude seriously enough. Cheap becomes expensive. Trying to save money in the short term can cost a lot in th...
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