Subcontracting
Creating Operational Leverage
A coach sent me a note:
Part Four mentioned subcontracting low-value work.
Hiring talent for admin duties has been on my mind for a while. And I’m at the point where I can afford it. But I’m stuck on *what* to contract out. I can feel some self-deception happening that is tricking me into thinking everything done in my biz relies on me.
My questions for you are:
Did you subcontract work when you had your coaching biz?
If so, what were the highest ROI tasks you got off your plate?
And if you have a new perspective or something you’d have done different, what’s that?
Admin Work
Let’s start with what I got wrong.
Initially, I followed what I’d done in the past when I worked in finance… I hired a full-time PA. It was great to have someone available M-F but it wasn’t a good deal for either of us. Why?
I didn’t have enough work for the PA, so there was too much down time.
We filled the downtime with low-value added work that wasn’t engaging for her.
My PA moved on to become a paralegal (more work, more engaging) and I sat down to think through my work flow. Where was I spending my time?
So that is a starting point. Make a list with two columns:
Absolutely have to be involved.
Absolutely do not have to be involved.
Don’t think about this from YOUR point of view. It’s not what/where WE want to be involved. Think from the client’s point of view, particularly the clients we like best. What do those people value?
From that thought exercise is was clear I did not need to be involved in billing, collections, waivers, insurance, banking, mail collection and other administrative tasks. These tasks became my first target area.1
Fortunately, one my business partners was married to a woman who’s day job was exactly that. It was ideal, by helping the partnership, she was helping her husband. He was also available if there were questions.
These days we could move the workflow online (Stripe2, DocuSign, Dropbox). Back then we had mail, checks, banking… that needed to be done manually. So we got the business a post office box, that was beside a bank branch, that was on the way to work for our Admin Expert.
Our system for logging/collecting/making payments was visible to both of us (Quickbooks in the cloud) and I could easily see the banking (& cash) online. Getting this right was a huge savings (in time) as well as hassle reducer for all the coaches.
You want quick visibility when someone falls behind with payments. Our business was never our of pocket (we paid out, when the cash was received) but it is much easier to collect a small debt, quickly than let something run up and have to discuss a large bill later.
This entire admin system should be documented so it can be taught to the next person who runs it… because there will be a next person.
Operational Leverage
You are going to have many tasks that repeat over and over.
Someone else can do these tasks at a fraction of your hourly take home from your existing business model.
Many coaches use TrainingPeaks to deliver their training. It is a drag and drop system where workouts are placed into a traditional calendar. Low value add because there isn’t any direct interaction with the client. It’s pure admin. Doesn’t matter if it takes 5 minutes, or 5 hours. There’s no difference from the client’s point of view.
The true value add comes from:
Interacting with clients - teaching, learning, having fun.
Analyzing training to look for patterns, errors and weak spots.
Crafting the progression of training and placing training load wisely.
That’s where I wanted to focus, not dragging boxes.
So… I reached out to TrainingPeaks and asked if they had someone, familiar with their system, who would be interested in extra work. She became another consultant to the business and helped me create templates3, and an outstanding workout library. She also became an admin/accounting back up for us.
What you need to be keeping an eye open for… Tasks that repeat.
I’ve written about “questions that repeat.” Those questions get an article, or a video, that I can share quickly with a single URL. Here we don’t want questions, we focus on tasks… things that are being done (alone) over and over each week. Once you can clearly explain what you are doing then a template can be created.
For example, for the most popular distances/events that I coach, I know…
The key workouts I want to have the athlete perform.
The progressions I like for various fitness modules.
My favorite benchmarking tests to establish training zones.
The equipment and tech required when someone joins.
All of these get turned into templates with workouts written (if needed) in a way that athletes of different abilities can apply. The templates can be sorted by athlete level. Three levels would be enough. With my team, I only needed two levels (standard and advanced).4
Now… instead of spending hours (of misery), dragging boxes… I can get on the phone with the athlete and craft the plan based on their feedback.
We have a planner document (in Google Sheets that shows their schedule) and we have a living document (in Docs) that covers all our notes/questions/topics. Repeating questions/topics in the notes will get their own article.
We keep adding to the top of the living document, nothing is ever lost and we review the key points when we talk. Instead of having to remember random text messages, we have a single location acting as our collective memory.
Systematize as much memory as possible - free the mind to create value, not remember facts/data you can easily look up.
Scale The Value Add
These two tasks, that I’ve taken off my plate, account for 80% of the time spent by a novice coach. Many consultants take pride in their inefficiencies, hand-crafting their plans.
Individually, ask the team what they value.
People value connection and expertise, not admin capacity.
By freeing up time, I was able to think better and interact more with them. I should have focused even more on the direct interaction. That can’t be replaced. Connection is key.
Today, connection is easily scalable:
Team Zoom calls.
Fixed weekly office hours.
Quick Loom videos uploaded to YouTube.
The team being the source of real-world case studies - ideas useful to all athletes, especially those we’d like to join the team… our high value workflow becomes our marketing material.
A Game of Time Reallocation
In your thinking…
Less of the work that drains and is not client facing.
This frees time so we can do…
More of the work that is highly valued by the client.
Know Your True Earnings Per Hour
If you're having trouble justifying paying someone to help…
Figure out what you “earn” per hour. Knowing that calculation, can nudge you to free time by spending money. It does not come naturally to many people.
Of course, we need to manage people and ensure the controls are in place for quality and avoiding fraud. However, there are tasks where quality and fraud risk are low. Those are where we start.
Final thought, I hate being busy and it wrecks my quality of thought. One good idea per decade can pay off handsomely for my family. Being under scheduled, makes me more enjoyable to be around and improves the quality of my thinking.
I linked up Justin Welsh at the start of this series. Here’s his article on Micro-Outsourcing.
It amazes me that people will shy away from Paypal because they don’t want to pay a small percentage to be able to IMMEDIATELY collect money from someone who want to pay them. If someone wants to pay me money… I want to be able to get it in my bank account seamlessly.
I used three ways to build templates.
(1) Treat the template like an athlete and build the plan directly into the template on the TP system. As it is built, it's saved in my library.
(2) Open two plans simultaneously inside the TP system. I run a massive display so I can see everything clearly. Either, copy the weeks/month from an athlete plan to a template, or, copy the template to the athlete’s plan and customize. This is far faster than traditional drag and drop.
(3) Build the plan in excel. Once my custom workouts are built into my TP Library, I could use workout names & durations and build plans quickly in excel. I used this excel sheet for:
Having our TP expert build templates in TP; and
Having a programmer code a semi-custom training plan engine.
If you’re familiar with the TP unsupported training plans then this was a similar idea except we had an athlete forum and could support the plans. We also owned the back end that was delivering the plans. It was a lower price point to the full-service coaching we offered.
When I do financial consulting for families, it is similar. There are questions for the family to consider, and information they need to pull together. Initially, this is the same for every family. No need to recreate the onboarding each time.