To Outsource or Not Outsource? That is the Question

When you’re running your own business from home, how do you know when it’s time to begin outsourcing, if ever? When you get more work than you can handle, when you’re spending all your time doing menial jobs and not enough doing those you’re really skilled at, or when you’ve just had enough of working seven days a week.

The reason will be different for each person. For me, the change in how I operate my business have generally come about as a result of a situation that arises where I have to think outside the square to overcome it, and for me outsourcing was the result of one of those situations.

I had heard about the various methods of outsourcing for many years before I actually put it into practice. I had explored the possible avenues but really wasn’t keen on handing over any aspect of my day to day business activities to anyone, especially a complete stranger. Being the control freak that I am… I of course didn’t think anyone could do a better job than I.

But, a situation occurred this year that left me with no choice. On one of my food websites, a site with over 3000 pages of content of which 2000 have images, the sponsoring website who allowed me to use their images in exchange for advertising and promotion, had a change of heart and said that if I didn’t pay a licensing fee for the 2000+ images on the site Iíd have to replace them and they gave me three months to do it.

At the same time, I was also working on relaunching the site under a new brand name and new focus and also working with two clients to launch their websites. Overall, I was already working 16 hour days seven days a week. Unless I didnít sleep, there was absolutely no way I could source, resize and optimise over 2000 images in three months and replace the ones on the site with them, I needed help.

Although I knew of some outsourcing websites, I did some asking around with colleagues and friends as to which ones they’d heard of or used. With the results of my research, I chose a site and posted my first job. Within minutes I had applications for the position, and after sifting through I actually found not one, but 4 people whose skills I could see I could use straight away, so I decided to give them all a trial task to see how they performed.

Being the control freak that I am and having the almost ridiculous expectations I have of others based on my own work ethic, I knew I had to go about this in a way that wouldnít scare the bejesus out of my possible new contractors, so I employed my teaching ethos instead and this is how I briefed and have continued to brief my now incredibly loyal, trustworthy and efficient team of outsourced contractors.

• I broke all the work I had to get done into individual tasks that once put together was a job spec in itself.
• For each task I created a basic written guideline but then also recorded a screen capture Camtastia video showing my contractor EXACTLY how and what I wanted them to do. I also recorded and uploaded the video in actually recording dimensions (I didnít resize it for the web or use zoom and pan key frames). The reason I did this was twofold:

It’s much easier for the viewers to see exactly what youíre doing so therefore no room for misunderstanding and mistakes and,

There’s virtually no editing required of the video. Because youíve selected to produce the video in recording dimensions, there are no automatic key frames added and it’s just a matter of clicking produce and saving the file. This saved me enormous amounts of time and I could literally record and produce an instruction video in a matter of minutes.

• I then uploaded the video to my website and sent the written instructions along with the video link to the contractor.
• They would then review the video and do just one hour of work and send me back what theyíd done. I would review and make sure they understood my brief and visual instructions, then give them the go ahead to continue the task.
• Once they’d mastered that part of the project, I do the same for the next piece of it.

The number of tasks I outlined would depend on the complexity of the projects I needed doing. But regardless of that, all my contractors have delivered outstanding accurate work in record time and I estimate in the 10 weeks or so I have been using them, they have done what I couldnít have achieved in six months.

Since I started using contractors however I have also refined my job posting method, based on some advice form a mastermind colleague and it has proven very successful.

When I post a job, I make it extremely detailed, outlining exactly what tasks will be required, what skills the applicant will need to have and because all the work I get outsourced is computer and internet based, what software they would need to have to do the work.

I will often give them a sample of what I need done and ask them to supply the completed sample with their application, along with a code I put in the brief that they have to quote. This serves two purposes:

• If I receive an application without the completed task or quoted code, I know that the applicant has not read my job description and therefore their application is auto generated based on keyword criteria they’ve set up from their end and
• If they didn’t follow these instructions in the job brief, chances are they won’t follow subsequent instructions when hired. It’s a good way to sort the wheat from the chaff.

I always set a deadline for applications to be submitted and donít contact any applicants until the deadline has passed. Then I sort through each applicant and read their profiles and select the ones I want to interview.

Interview is always a verbal chat via Skype. Why is this important? Many of the applicants on these outsourcing websites may not be from native English speaking countries, and although say they can speak and understand English, many cannot. If they cannot understand your instructions, the room for error in work and thus wasted time and money is high. I learned this the hard way and so requesting a voice chat via Skype will also sort wheat from chaff because those that cannot speak English well will shy away from this type of interview.

One I’ve interviewed them and decided to give them a try, I then set up the trial where they have to complete 1 hour of the task (I pay them for this) and from there I can see whether theyíre going to be able to do what I need doing.

So far, I’ve only had two out of eight contractors who didn’t work out and they were two of the first I engaged. I’ve learnt a lot since then.

I now have five ongoing contractors who do all my repetitive and administrative work every week, they are based in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and the US. I communicate with them via email, Skype and video and at the end of every day, they report in and show me what theyíve achieved that day. I can monitor their work while they’re online doing it via the website platform that I book them through and I also have an iPhone app so I can do same when Iím on the road. I can also message them directly via both.

It has saved me an unbelievable amount of time and energy and allowed me to focus on the skills I actually get paid for rather than the day to day grind stuff that just has to be done in every business big and small.

I would never have outsourced had I a situation not arisen where I had no choice and now Iím wondering how I managed on my own for so long. No wonder I went grey overnight.

Just a few extra things however I would stress you keep in mind before you consider outsourcing:

• Make sure you actually know how to do the task you want to outsourced. If not, there is enormous room for error and undue expense. You really must know back to front how to do the task yourself so you can firstly ascertain if the person your hiring has the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to do it and whether or not the hourly rate youíre paying is justified and the time they take to do it.
• Don’t outsource sensitive content. Leave that to people you know and trust.
• Only give access to your accounts (twitter, facebook other social media platforms if your using people for social media management or research) for the length of the task after then, change your passwords. If youíre giving access to facebook, have the contractor LIKE your business page then make them an admin, rather than give them your login details, you can always remove the admin privilege when the task is over.
• For contractors that do a great job, reward them every now and then with a little bonus. Usually send them a money gift via Paypal just to say thank you, youíd be surprised how much loyalty it generates.

If you’re thinking of outsourcing and would like any further information or advice, you can contact me via my website.

Victoria Hansen as a Multimedia Presenter, Producer and Consultant and is contactable via her website http://www.victoriahansen.com