Month: November 2011

(Continued from Part 1)

* What to Outsource
The first few things to outsource are:
1. Low-level tasks that take up a lot of time
2. Things that take up a lot of your energy
3. Things that you are not very good at, annoy you, or you dislike

By easing the burden on both your time and energy, you will feel less drained and be better able to tackle the really important challenges in your business.

* When to Outsource

The real answer is as soon as you start your business, but you might not have the cash for that. However, do include it as a built-in part of your business plan. Once you have some cash coming in, go to the freelance marketplaces and fiver.com and see who you can find to lend a hand with certain tasks. You can easily get rid of the bad workers and find some reliable good ones to help you. Just remember that outsourcing should actually make you money, not cost you money.

For example, if your work is ultimately worth $50 an hour but you are spending your time on $10-an-hour tasks, you can hire 4 workers at $10 an hour and still be making a profit, but you will have reduced the value of your time. However, if you can boost the value of your time to $100 an hour because you are free to focus on what you do best, then your outsourcing will more than pay for itself and leave you plenty of profits besides.
* Outsource In All Areas of Your Life the Box

Don’t just outsource things inside your business, but in your personal life as well, to help you become more efficient. You might not like the idea of people ‘waiting on you’, but especially in this economy, think of all the people you can help earn money in gainful employment.
If your time is worth $50 an hour, then by all means pay someone $10 an hour to do your laundry, clean your house, shop for your essentials, and so on. Even if you are only paying your child or spouse, remember that there are many acceptable tax deductions once you own a business.

It might seem like an extraneous expense, but again, every extra hour you can put into your business is more money earned. More money earned means more success for you and your loved one, and more ability to help others.
*Outsourcing Online
Outsourcing online can give you access to people all around the world willing to work to earn money. In this case, you might not outsource ongoing tasks, but small projects. Logo creation, website creation, and other one-off projects can all be running in the background simultaneously while you do other work. You can also outsource ongoing tasks like attending to customer service, virtual assistant tasks and more. See how you spend your time every day and what you can safely hand over to others and free up your time to generate more revenue more rapidly thanks to outsourcing.

FURTHER READING
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR PROFITS THROUGH OUTSOURCING

Outsourcing is one of the most powerful tools in any small business owner’s toolkit for increasing their productivity, output and eventual profits.

Most new business owners start out doing everything themselves. This allows them to keep control of all aspects of their business during the critical start-up phase and to keep costs down. Unfortunately, this control over the work and the costs can actually start to hamper them and prevent the business from growing to its full potential.

Here are some top tips on how to use outsourcing effectively for your small business.

* The Boss Does Not Need to Sweep the Floor

Most business owners get into the mindset that if they want the job done well, they have to do it themselves. This might be true, but as your business grows, you will have to decide which jobs you NEED to do for the sake of the business, and which will need to be outsourced because there will never be enough hours in the day to do everything.

It is easy to find someone to sweep the floor for minimum wage. That same person would not be likely to be the best choice to send to a high-powered meeting with potential investors. Therefore, why are you doing THEIR job, when you should be doing YOURS?

Your job as the head of the business is to grow your company to a healthy and sustainable level financially through activities which generate income. No matter what your business, there are administrative tasks that can be handed over to others. The critical thinking and real value creation is where you as the owner should be focusing your attention.

By all means start people off in the process, for example, by creating sample customer service emails that your outsourced worker can edit as needed. And do ask them to let you know of any major problems that might arise, since customer service is an important part of keeping customers loyal and establishing a good reputation for your business. But it would not be a productive use of your time to answer every CS email yourself.

(Continued in Part 2)