Can You Afford The Cost Of Outsourcing?
When your business is on a tight budget the cost of outsourcing tasks to a third party may not sound like a good idea. After all, why pay somebody to do something that you can do yourself for free. But is it really free if you do it? There may not be a monetary cost, but what’s your time actually worth?
Rather than struggling to do everything yourself, you can hire somebody else to do it for you. If your client pays you $100, you can pay somebody $50, making a 50% profit and saving yourself probably 90% of the time you would spend doing it yourself.
If you’re on a tight budget, here are 6 ways you can control the cost of outsourcing so that it’s a benefit to your business, not a burden.
FREE Checklist: Outsourcing For Online Entrepreneurs
6 Tips To Control The Cost Of Outsourcing
A fast way to grow and expand your business is to simply get more clients. Of course, if you’re only a one person business you might need to outsource more work to others to ensure that you can accommodate more customers and clients. This is why outsourcing is good for your business. You get access to people that have a lot more time and experience invested in performing certain activities. As a result, you become more productive and efficient.
1. Shop Around
One of the problems with outsourcing is that when you’re on a tight budget, the temptation can be to go for the cheapest price. But if you go with the cheapest person you find to do a job, you may end up in a disastrous situation. Not only might their work be of poor quality, but they might be overcharging you too. You want to go for the best deal, rather than the cheapest price.
For example, to hire a talented writer to produce content for your website and blog doesn’t mean you’re going to have to pay a professional copywriter thousands of dollars to do the job for you. You can hire good quality, cost effective writers in a number of ways.
College students can have a great command of the written word and are often willing to write for low rates as they get started. The Philippines is also a source of incredibly high-quality writers, many of whom have English as their first language. These writers can live a very good a lifestyle earning just $50 to $100 a day. You can often find writers like this who produce incredibly good content, who understand how to write for the web, who specialize in exactly your niche or marketplace, and are happy to earn $5 to $10 for a blog post or article.
2. Outsource The Most Time Consuming Task
Don’t outsource everything if you don’t have the money to do so. If you’re on a budget, you might need to prioritize things right now and think about which task or tasks should be outsourced. Choose the one which requires the most time or a bunch of time-consuming smaller tasks which are simple to outsource.
3. Outsource Things You Don’t Like Doing
Outsourcing helps you to make your day more enjoyable. If you only have the money to outsource one or two things, choose the things you don’t like. By outsourcing tasks you either don’t enjoy doing or ones that consume too much of your time, you’re free to work on other parts of your business you do enjoy doing. You’ll also have the time to explore other online business opportunities.
4. Negotiate The Price
If somebody gives you their prices, don’t feel like you can’t negotiate on the cost of outsourcing. The worst-case scenario is that they say no, whereas they could compromise and knock a percentage off the final price. While some people might consider it rude, many freelancers are happy to negotiate with their potential clients and hopefully come to some sort of agreement.
Don’t expect million-dollar results for $5 per hour. You can save a substantial amount of money by outsourcing, but if you don’t pay someone what they are worth, they won’t be around for long.
5. Decide Whether It’s Cost-effective
Sometimes, it can be more cost-effective to do the work yourself rather than outsource it. You can still outsource parts of it, but it might be that you need to do some of it yourself in order to save some money on the full cost of outsourcing.
The people you hire will have more understanding and knowledge in certain areas, so it only
makes sense to pay them to do the work. Outsourcing allows you to access some of the best and brightest freelancers and virtual assistants at an attractively affordable rate, streamlining your business and making it more productive. Handled properly, this also improves the quality of your blog or online business.
6. List Your Own Price
If you’re advertising for people to use when outsourcing, name your price and wait for people to contact you. This could take a little bit longer, but only people who are happy with your fixed price will contact you. Once the job is completed pay what you owe, and pay it quickly. Once you find a diamond in the outsourcing rough, it would be a shame to lose that valuable and virtual team member because you are slow with payment.
Free Checklist: Getting Started With Outsourcing
No matter what tasks you choose to outsource, you’re going to free yourself up to do the tasks that matter most to you. Take your time when choosing what to outsource, especially if your budget is tight and you’re concerned about the financial cost of outsourcing.
To learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing and where you can find reliable and trusted freelancers, download my free checklist, Getting Started With Outsourcing. Remember, regardless of the type of business you run, and whether it is large or small, offline or online, outsourcing is one of the most cost-efficient ways to grow your
business.