As an entrepreneur for a long time now, I’ve learned that trying to handle everything yourself isn’t a smart business practice.
The question to ask is, “How do you bring others onboard when you’re on a tight budget?”
Just recently I went through this process. Since I hadn’t did this in a long time, I had to start from the beginning. One part to the answer was to find a few summer interns and maybe ones for the fall as well. I wanted to focus on this process, not just because of the financial savings, but because I find interns bright, eager, have less fear of voicing their ideas and opinions, and come up with creative solutions. Plus their energy is catchy if harnessed correctly. This goal also matched my strength of being an excellent mentor and teacher. And handles my weakness – not enough time to accomplished all that I want to do.
Let me share my strategy.
Step 1. I named my goal. To attract three interns for the summer. One for strategic development and planning. Another for marketing campaign development. And a third to support me with editing and info product development.
Step 2: Next I created task list. Afterward I place in priority order.
Example of my list.
- Contact my client who already does this and ask for advice.
- Search on Google for any helpful advice, read, take notes, and add/modify to do list.
- Make a list of projects I want them to work on. Answer what type of intern would best fulfill this.
- Write a job listing piece for each type of intern and project and what my offer.
- Make a list of schools to contact.
- Make a list of additional online places I can post the listings.
- Research the schools on line for the “how-to” information. Track this in OneNote.
- Submit information to the schools.
- Submit listings to places other than schools online.
- Review resumes received.
- Interview and offer.
- Work with new intern and utilize their full potential.
- Increase productivity and enjoy the results!
Step 3: After completing the list, I added the estimated time I thought it would take to accomplish the task. From this I was able to create a start date and end date for the project. I wasn’t happy with how much time it was requiring so I made adjustments and looked for tasks that could be delegated to my virtual assistant. I was able to cut my time requirements in half and the completion date move up almost a week.
Step 3: Next, I shared my goal and list with my VA in an overview email. Then set up the delegated tasks in OneNote with connections to task assignments in Outlook and forwarded them to my VA. Then I began my tasks.
Continue the attraction . . .
Maybe you have used interns in the past, please share your experience, or things you’ve learned in the comment section.
