I would venture to say that nearly every person reading this article has been to a McDonalds at some point in their life. However, you probaby missed the magic behind each of those Golden Arches.
You see, each McDonald’s has a magical quality that often goes unnoticed by the untrained eye.
But it’s enough to get any entrepreneur’s juices flowing with excitement.
Most people look at McDonald’s and only see hamburgers, fries, cheap food, the rising cause of obesity, happy meals, Ronald McDonald, and Big Macs.
However, they miss the magical quality that has turned McDonald’s into one of the most successful small businesses of our generation.
The true brilliance behind those golden arches are the systems that run like a well-oiled machine inside every McDonalds restaraunt across the country.
It happened in 1954 when Ray Kroc took over the McDonalds franchise, threw out the conventions of the traditional restaurant business and introduced assembly line production at McDonalds.
Ray Kroc found the missing ingredient to a truly successful business… and that’s SYSTEMS.
Everything at McDonalds has a very specific process. Ray Kroc created a 75-page manual detailing the entire “McDonald’s Method” to the letter. Burgers had to be exactly 1.6 ounces, served with a quarter ounce of onion, a teaspoon of mustardand a tablespoon of ketchup. Fries had to be cut at
nine-thirtyseconds of an inch thick.
Everything is produced in an assembly-line fashion that allows customers to receive their meals in less than a minute.
The same should be applied to your online business.
Your time should be focused on high-leverage activities that make you the most money while you outsource all of the day to day tasks of your business.
For example, traffic generation is one of the key parts of any successful online business. But if you want to create a truly successful online business, you need to turn your lead generation into a duplicatable system.
Instead of spending hours of your time syndicating your content, create a video that demonstrates the entire process and hand that off to a traffic assistant.
Instead of spending your time syndicating videos, create a video that explains the entire process in step-by-step detail and hand that off to a traffic assistant.
Instead of driving yourself silly with customer support, create a list of common questions and answers that you receive in your inbox, turn them into templates, and hire a virtual assistant to handle all of your customer
support.
Take a close look at anything you do twice or more in your business, make a note of it, video the process, and then go to http://bestjobs.ph and pay someone in the Phillipines $3 an hour to do that task.
This allows you to refocus your time on GROWING your business rather than working in your business.
Michael Gerber (author of the E-Myth) defines the entrepreneur as someone who “does the work of envisioning the business as something apart from you, the owner.”
As an entrepreneur, you are the visionary keystone in your business.
You are driving the growth of your business, rather than being held hostage by the workload it creates.
The SYSTEMS run the business, allowing you to continually refocus your efforts on higher-leverage activities.
Just like McDonald’s, the magic is in the system.
April 18th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Very Sexy article Kim….. and so true too :) I think you are making a fan out of me and I just came across your content a few days ago. BTW, love ur voice :)
April 18th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Fantastic write-up.
I have watched the McDonald’s story on CNBC & the History Channel several times. What you do here is to continue the story of a great American business Icon.
I have wathced the M
April 18th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Great Stuff, Kim :)
Please keep them coming, we need them very badly.
I should say that there are very few marketers, who really really want to help people succeed online.
Kim, I am glad to say that you are the one, who really want people to succeed :)
Thanks,
Taqi
April 18th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
You are correct, Kim.
Outsourcing many of your activities can give you more time to spend on the vital parts of your business.
I am currently doing this and it has made a huge impact on my monthly income.
Thank you for your valuable insights.
Tony :o)
Dallas, TX
April 18th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Nice article Kim:
I agree should run the business not the other way around.
We get focused on to many items and it does slow the process
Thanks
April 18th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Well said. I enjoyed reading the article. Thanks for sharing specifically where to find outsourcing assistance.
April 18th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
This is a very valid point Kim. I often forget the big picture. I should exclude myself from the companies vision in order to create something that can be duplicated.
Thanks for bringing me back into the game.
April 18th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
I’ve been a big fan of Michael Gerber for many years now. What ALWAYS works is systematized processes that can be done better, faster, cheaper than you. Anyone who is not taking advantage of outsourcing (particularly overseas)is simply missing the boat. Thanks for the reminder.
-Logan
April 19th, 2009 at 12:59 am
Great article Kim, very helpfull. Thank you to for your Google Domination Videos, they are the very best
Regards
Ken
Adelaide
Australia
April 19th, 2009 at 3:18 am
Hey Kim, this is DK. Thanks for confirming that I’m on the right track, and for illuminating me to the fact that my company should be able to run smoothly without me.
“If something were to happen to me and I couldn’t work on my business, how well would it continue to run?”
April 19th, 2009 at 3:29 am
The System,which allows one to take vacations,lay on
the beach and sip through a straw all day long.Very
nicely done Kim.
Thanks!
April 19th, 2009 at 5:24 am
Hi Kim:
“Like all your tips, the information is not only realistic but reflects your truthful approach to marketing your business. As was mentioned above, thank you for your honest insight and experience. You truly have learned along the way that (anything we want to keep in life, we must be willing to give away). I have rapidly come to respect you as a honest source, and a wonderful soul. I can only hope that you remain willing, and honest as you journey forward and of course continue to share with us those things you find along the way.
Many thanks!
April 19th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Valid points Kim. Well done.
Outsourcing is the key to stepping up a level in this business.
Another great place to find people to outsource work to is http://manila.craigslist.com.ph/
regards
Roy Carter
April 19th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Systems help us to keep focused too. It is so easy to become side-tracked and miss the point. Keeping the bigger picture forefront in our minds and outsourcing work that can be done better by others is definitely the way to succeed.
April 19th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Why does everyone always recommend outsourcing overseas?
Just think how good it will feel knowing your helping a neighbor feed their family by setting up a localized system of outsourcing.
Instead of letting someone overseas milk your company for 3 bucks an hour, why not pay a fair wage based on $ per task accomplished?
Has America not already been outsourced to death…literally?
April 19th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
The problem with systems is that no matter how perfect they seem, they are only as good as the people implementing it. With someone on a McWage, do they really care about quality and following rigid procedures? How many orders at McDonald’s have fallen short of quality or quantity with missing items?
April 20th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Thanks for all of the great comments everyone!
@Barry – In regards to outsourcing to the Philippines,
you have to realize that money there goes much further
than it does in the U.S. Plus, they’re excellent workers.
And once they start growing with your company, you’ll
also want to start raising their pay, because they
will become more and more valuable as you train them.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:34 am
Very, very insightful, but we should also remember that when he asked a group of MBA students what his business was? They all thought it was hamburgers but he said it was property, since Mcdonalds is the largest private owner of commercial property in the world. You don’t think the property those frachises are on belongs to the franchisees do you? This is the reason we all should be creating the valuable properties where others can be selling our products from.