How To Get Free Employees

   By the time you have a profitable and time-consuming small/ micro business you may well need employees to help you out. My first port of call would always be family. They are more likely to be trustworthy, there'll be intangible benefits and there is more chance that they will take over the business lock, stock and barrel in the future. You may well find that no-one is available to help you though. Families have a habit of not recognising the prophet in their own Living Room. This means you will have to look outside of the family unit. This is where you need to be extra careful as costs will rocket. Payroll is by far the biggest cost in UK business. Don't fret - I will show you how to get employees for free.

   Contact local secondary schools and Universities for students who are willing to be unpaid interns to gain work experience in your fields. If you are cheeky you could phone in asking for Interns in your Second Hand book business and then get your wife to ring up and ask for interns for your import/ export business. If the Uni says no then just go up and place a typical Uni flyer up on the Notice Boards. You will get a response. If you would rather write to your local Educational    Establishments then template letters are available on the net. Gumtree would be my next port of call with Craigslist and local classifieds following on.

   Keep the Intern to 8 hours or less a week in order to stay under the government radar. They'd have a cheek picking you up though as they are part of the great Intern rip-off themselves. What's good for the Goose is good for the Gander.

   Give credit where credit is due. If the Intern has done a good job then make sure to provide them with a letter of recommendation and quick references when requested. A good Intern becomes a good contact in the future. They may even be able to provide you with fresh eyes in your area.

   Following this little trick the next step could be to use "geo-arbitrage" to your advantage and follow the likes of Tim Ferriss into the world of Outsourcing. Stop off at "Our Man in India" and have a play. You will be amazed by the amount of tasks which can be outsourced for a very, very small fee. If you work out that your time is worth £30 per hour then outsourcing for less than this makes economic sense if it allows you to cash in elsewhere.


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The 4 Hour Work Week - Thumbnail Review

   Ferriss is known for his application of both the Pareto principle and Parkinson's Law to business and personal life. He has also taken the position that technology such as email, instant messaging and internet-enabled PDAs complicate life rather than simplify it. His teachings fit under the umbrella of what he calls "lifestyle design", in which he promotes "mini-retirements" as an alternative to the "deferred-life" career path where one would work a 9 to 5 job until retirement in one's 60s. This involves breaking what he calls "outdated assumptions" and finding ways to be more effective so that work takes up less time.

   On his blog and later in his subsequent books, Ferriss applied this approach to areas other than business. His book on fitness, for example, claims to provide the exercise and diet advice that produces the greatest results with the least amount of effort or time. Ferriss uses the analogy of the "minimum effective dose" to describe this technique. A good example of the idea of Minimal Effective dose can be found if you look up the band “Axis of Awesome”. They could show you how to learn to play 47 well known tunes on the guitar – by only learning 4 cords!

   Another thing Ferriss talks about is how you need to realise that if you “lose everything”, you actually haven’t lost that much. He said that he considered what would happen if the first incarnation of his company had went bust. He wrote that he would have to downsize to a wee flat, he’d sell of his baubles and would get a job in a bar. This would tide him over until he could get back on his feet. This is a good point, well made. The unfortunate thing he doesn’t mention is that most people in Scotland are tied up in such a web of debt that they would be declared bankrupt within a few months of non-payments and therefore would have a doubly hard climb back up the hill of success. From my point of view you need to minimise your direct debit commitments. Recently my wife stopped working full time. Due to this I needed to take over her commitments and I was literally astounded by her level of DD’s (...... not her 38DD’s!). She had council tax, TV License, AA, Weight Watchers, Optical Express, Sky, Mobile Phone, the lot. Every month when her wages came in at least £350 would immediately be siphoned off for these guys. She even had one of those bank accounts you have to pay for, my God. How can you live freely when you have such a millstone around your neck. My advice to youngsters entering the world of work is to trim your direct debit commitments down to an absolute minimum. Sky? Watch via your laptop for free. TV License? Watch on your laptop and you’ll never get caught (and I’m saying that as an Ex TV Detective). Weight Watchers? Take up gardening and eat less junk food. Mobile Phone? Go PAYG; Phone the people you want to speak to but hang up before they answer. They’ll call back to see what you want. Bank Account? Never, ever pay for a Bank Account. You are already paying for it via the terrible interest rate you receive on your savings.