How to find the time to develop and create products?

QUESTION: How to find the time to develop and create products when I have existing customers to look after?

There are 2 ways of looking at this.

1. Automation and outsourcing, leaving you with time enough to work on your business.

If you run an information business online, most components can be fully automated to run without your intervention (like most of my business is). The few components that need ‘human’ attention can be outsourced to a virtual assistant or a team of them, giving you the time and energy to work on business growth and new product creation.

Alternatively, you may outsource the product development process to helpers.

2. Involving your clients/customers in the product creation process itself.

Survey them about what they want from you. Ask for suggestions, get feedback on your planned solutions. If it is appropriate, get them to contribute sections of your new product - e.g. Mark Victor Hansen’s ‘Chicken Soup’ series of books are written BY his readers… and Mark markets them!

In a sense, that’s what the Web 2.0 environment is about - involvement and engagement of your customers, leading to participation in all aspects of your business, including product development.

Got an infopreneur question of your own? Ask me here… and I’ll try and answer it.