48 Laws of Power – Small Business Rules Pt. 7

Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit

This may seem to be dishonorable and ‘low-down’ ! Taking credit for other people’s work has the feel of something that your mother taught you that you shouldn’t do.
Let me shed a new light on this, seemingly, dishonorable practice. You want to make yourself and your business look good and it is perfectly okay to take the credit for someone elses’ work, under certain circumstances.

In business, ‘taking credit for others work’ is called outsourcing. You pay another company or person to perform a job or a portion of a job that is either outside of your scope of expertise or more cost-effective to outsource. When viewed in this light, you are not being dishonorable. The company you outsource to, gets paid, you provide your customer with a quality end-product and ideally, make the job more profitable for you or your company.

The key to outsourcing, is to avoid attempting to be a jack-of-all-trades. I, personally have friends that have various trades and businesses, but I can not advertise that I do flooring when I run a technical services company. Stay focused on your core business and only outsource task that are directly related to your core business. Small business owners can make their companies appear larger by implementing a solid outsourcing plan.

Outsoursing can help:

1. Help you save money by allowing another company perform a task that they are set up to do more effiecently and consequently cheaper.

2. Speed up turn-around time for task, which also speed up payment.

3. Build relationships with related businesses and possibly further reduce production cost.

4. Companies you outsource to, are often good sources for new customer, if your businesses are not too closely related.

5. Allows you to offer some extra services / products that are related to your core business.