Outsource Your Online Business Tasks That You Don’t Want To Do
When you first start your own online business, you might think you can do everything on your own. However, you’ll soon realize that this certainly isn’t the case. Sooner or later the time comes when you’ll look to outsource your online business.
Outsourcing is one of the best ways to free up your own time for important tasks that require your full attention. Also, it enables you to get people who are more skilled and knowledgeable than you to complete tasks that take you too long to complete.
When you outsource your online business, you save yourself time and money. But before you start using other people to do tasks for you, keep in mind these 5 outsourcing tips.
FREE Checklist: Outsourcing For Online Entrepreneurs
How To Start Outsourcing Business To Other PeopleÂ
1. Get RecommendationsÂ
When you’re on tight deadlines and you need to get things done properly, outsourcing your online business to the wrong people can push everything back and give your business a bad reputation. If you’re delivering items or services to a client and the person you’re outsourcing the work to lets you down, it’s you that gets the bad reputation. Get recommendations from people you know and you’ll be able to narrow the search down a lot.
It’s not necessarily the cheapest price you want to find, but rather the best deal. If you go with the first person you find, you may end up in a disastrous situation. Not only might their work be of poor quality, but they might be overcharging you too.
2. Start Off Small
Don’t start off by outsourcing everything you have, since it can quite easily go wrong. The temptation can be strong when you consider how much money you could save and how much extra time you’d get if you passed the work along to another person. You’ve worked hard to get your business to the stage that it is now. You want to ensure that the people you use when you outsource your online business will respect that. Start off by outsourcing small tasks with each new person you use in order to discover how well they work and if they’re suitable for you.
If you’re on a budget, you might need to prioritise things right now and think about which task 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. Communicate Properly
Choose people who can communicate well and also make sure you’re communicating well with them. They need to know exactly what you need and how you like things to be done, and you need to know where they’re up to and if there are any important updates. Discuss terms of working before you start giving them tasks.
Sometimes, it’s 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 at the moment.
4. Protect Your Money
If you’re dealing with people online, there’s always the risk of losing money or being scammed if things aren’t properly in order. While invoices and agreements over email can only go so far, if you’re handing over lots of work or lots of money is at stake, you should take the time to get an agreement which is legally binding in order to protect both parties.
When somebody gives you their prices, don’t feel like you can’t negotiate. 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.
5. Remember You’re Not An Employer
When you outsource your online business to people, you’re not employing them. You’re using their services and they usually work on a freelance or self-employed basis. This means that while you can request certain things and tell them how you’d like things to be done, you don’t have a right to order them on how to run their own business. This is also a positive aspect of outsourcing to freelancers, since you don’t have to pay them sick pay, holiday pay or sort out their taxes either!
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. This will take a weight off you and allow you to spend your time doing the things you find more pleasurable.
Free Checklist: Outsource Your Online Business Tasks
Outsourcing can save your business time and money. Rather than doing everything yourself, you can outsource the work to somebody else. 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.
No matter what tasks you choose to outsource, you’re going to free yourself up to do the tasks that matter most to you. To learn more about starting to outsource your online business and where to find reliable freelancers, download my free checklist, How To Start Outsourcing Work.