Do You Need To Start Outsourcing?
When you first start a business, it might seem possible and even sensible to do everything yourself. However, as your business starts to grow, your workload will become more than one person, and regardless of how hard you want to work, you just won’t be able to manage every single thing on your own.
If you’ve been thinking of outsourcing, you should absolutely do it. But if you’ve been afraid to start outsourcing, the problem may be that you don’t know whether you’re ready for outsourcing or not.
7 Clear Indications You Need To Start Outsourcing
1. You Can’t Get All Your Work Done
If you’re finding it hard to meet your goals each day (due to all the busy work you need to do) that you can’t get the money-making tasks done, then that is a clear indication that you need to consider outsourcing. If you can’t do the money-making tasks, your business will suffer.
The financial benefit to hiring a freelancer is that you only pay them when they work, and they only work when you have business, and therefore profits. If you lose a client or have less work to go around, you can simply stop using a freelancer.
2. You’re Maxed Out on Income and Time
This is very true if you’re a product developer or service provider. But, it can happen in many types of businesses where you just simply can’t keep working 16-hour days (or more) and your income growth is still stagnant. This happens to almost all growing businesses and doesn’t indicate anything bad about you. It simply shows that you can’t do it all yourself. Every good CEO has people who work with them to get things done. No one can do everything.
3. You Don’t Have Time To Add More Products or Services
A growing business always needs to keep its eye out for products or services that their audience will use. Sometimes it means replacing a product or service you offer because technology has changed so much that the former one is now out of date. But, if you’re out of time and can’t create new products or develop new services, you’re going to miss out on the change in the industry and end up left behind. Outsourcing also adds a degree of flexibility to your business. If you decide to head in a different direction with your work, you can look at outsourcing business ideas to new freelancers who specialize in that area. This lets you be adaptable and makes you much more likely to survive and turn a profit.
4. You Hire Last-Minute Help to Meet Deadlines
If you often find yourself in a fix and need to beg for help at the last minute, often paying higher rates to do so, it’s likely you need to outsource more regularly. When you outsource regularly instead of last-minute you’ll receive higher quality work. Plus, you won’t be as stressed out about it. If you do suffer from stress, anxiety, or other issues related to being stressed out, then outsourcing will probably help you. Outsourcing can reduce these problems by taking some of the extra work off your hands.
5. You Procrastinate on Certain Tasks
If there are tasks that you hate doing, that you find yourself doing all the time, and it’s getting worse, that is also a sign that you need to outsource. There is no reason you should be spending any amount of time working on these types of tasks because you can find people to do it for you who will do it faster and better.
6. You Have No Work-Life Balance
Are you taking more time away from your family, your friends, and yourself? Are you finding that you don’t have time to sit down for dinner, see a movie, or sit with your family for night-time TV? Take a shower? If you have no work-life balance, then you need to outsource.
7. Your Service to Your Customers Is Suffering
If you find that you’re having issues meeting your obligations and deadlines, it could be due to being overworked. If you’re working all the time but you still can’t meet your deadlines, or you’re not serving your customers in the way that you want to, it can be due to needing to outsource. Remember that outsourcing also helps you reduce your business risk. Since you’re not obligated to hire anyone when you don’t have sufficient business, you can protect yourself in case of hard times. It’s easy to lean down your business and survive until work picks up again.
Free Checklist: How To Start Outsourcing Your Business
Outsourcing is a way to duplicate yourself so that you can get all those tasks done that help your business but do not define it. The busy work, the paperwork, the work you dislike… all are good things to outsource because it will free up your time to do what it is that you do best.
The list above provides some clear indications that you need to start outsourcing. But remember, you don’t have to wait for these things to happen. You can start outsourcing right away. Download my free checklist, Getting Started With Outsourcing to learn more about how to start outsourcing and where to find reliable freelancers.