If you’re like me you’re probably struggling to get things done on time.
It feels like a ton of work for just one person.
At the same time, you’re still not sure if you should outsource work or not.
What if I told you how to outsource work, in a quick and easy fashion…
So you can actually try it today and see if it is for you?
And you don’t even need to spend that much money either!
In this post, I’ll be reviewing the benefits of taking the outsourcing path; I’ll show you when to outsource work, why outsource it and what to hand over to someone else to do for you.
A 24-hour Day Isn’t Enough
If you’re just starting your online business career, you’ll soon begin to realize there’s only so much you can do.
No matter how hard you try or how productive you become, the 24 hours a day has won’t ever be enough.
Whether something unexpected happens (like a computer problem or a family issue) or whether your business plans need urgent replaning or even if you spend more time than you thought on a particular task…
Life will ALWAYS get in the way.
Even if you would locked yourself down in a bunker… it’s impossible to run from it.
Reasons to Outsource
Imagine that instead of a single website or online business, you grow and launch a second one.
Your time will only become more limited.
You may want to try to do everything by yourself at the same time, but it will burn you out eventually.
There’s more to it too:
It will end up affecting all your businesses negatively.
This is where outsourcing comes in.
There Are Several Reasons to Outsource Work:
If you want to take your website / online business to the next level, you really need to take care of the required amount of work in a more consistent and effective way; here is why to outsource it:
- It will provide you with more time to focus on the more important tasks.
- You can have someone else more suitable to do the tasks you really don’t know how to do (like web design, web development, image editing and even writing).
- You can scale your business even further just by ordering stuff from several contractors and getting it delivered in time.
- You can finally have the time to breathe and rest for a while, which is of absolute importance for your life and business.
When and What to Outsource
I can pretty much guess what your next question is:
«How do I know when and what to outsource?»
Chris Ducker, author of the “Virtual Freedom” book, has a great exercise that can help you figure it out.
The Three Listings of Freedom
This is what Chris Tucker calls the three listings of freedom.
Pick up a piece of paper and divide it into three different columns:
- On the first column, you need to write all the things that you can’t do or that you struggle really hard to to do.
- On the second column, write down all the things that you simply don’t like or hate doing in your business.
- On the third and most important column, list the things you can and like doing but that you think you really shouldn’t be doing.
Get very detailed and be honest when listing out all these different things.
If you take a look at your piece of paper now, you’ll be able to better understand what you need to start outsourcing and why.
That’s not all:
You may even discover which of the tasks can be processed in batches or done with a software program.
«Why am I still doing this?!» — you’ll probably ask yourself…
This simple yet effective exercise will help you better organize your work, see which tasks you can delegate and make your life easier.
It will allow you to visualize where you’re losing your valuable time that you could be using for more crucial parts of your business.
Give It a Try
You really can’t know for sure until you try it.
You can do it quickly and easily too:
Just head over to one of the many freelancing websites and give it a try.
See it as an experiment, something you’re just trying to see if it works for you.
Sign up, post a job offering and wait for the applicants to start responding to it. In very little time, you’ll have a bunch of responses and you can pick someone to complete a task for you.
You don’t need to spend much money.
Ordering the creation of a logo for your website on Fiverr is only $5 USD.
You can outsource the writing of a 500-word article on UpWork for the same amount too.
Best Freelancing Websites
Here are some freelancing websites you can use to outsource work.
- UpWork (from the merge of oDesk and Elance): Best resource for finding great writers at affordable prices.
- Fiverr: Great for logo creation, image editing, web design.
- 99designs: An online design marketplace which is great for hiring skilled designers.
- iWriter: The name says it all.
- Freelancer: Hire freelancers to do any kind of online work.
- Constant Content: Hire from over 100,000 expert writers to fuel your site with fresh and unique content at awesome fees.
- Textbroker: One of the most well-known services to buy content and order article writing.
How to Find the Best Freelancers
If you do decide to outsource, you need to pay attention and carefully choose who you will be hiring.
For content writing, I prefer to use UpWork.
There you can find really good help for nice prices too.
Here’s how to Outsource work and test your applicants at the same time to tell the good from the bad:
- I post a new job offering and ask for new writers looking to improve their rankings and profiles on the UpWork platform. (They’ll naturally be available to work for lower rates due to their particular situation.)
- Still on my job description and to act as an incentive, I promise them that if they prove their skills and do a good job I might bring them to my team of writers where they’ll get more job opportunities and get paid at higher fees.
- Continuing on my job offer, I make them answer 2-3 questions to check their writing skills and if / how accurately they follow my instructions.
- I pick only the ones who have already had some good ratings and / or have answered to my questions satisfactorily and have followed my instructions with great detail without requiring any additional help from me.
- Finally, I order the finalists a sample task (a not-so-important piece of content, in this case) with precise instructions and a SOP (standard operating procedure) of I want my article researched, structured, written and completed to see how they handle it to know if they’re really good.
This method has been working for me quite remarkably.
If even find someone who is a writer for the Huffington Post.
Benefits of Outsourcing Work
If you’ve followed my advice above and gave outsourcing work a try or if you already know how it works, you’ll begin to realize many of its benefits.
- The quality of the outsourced work is better than what you’ve imagined before you ordered it. (You should pick the right freelancers first, read their bio info and check the reviews on their profile, interview them, check the latest jobs and work they’ve done in the past.)
- You spent less money than you initially thought.
- You saved yourself a lot of time ordering tasks that would be extremely time-consuming for you.
- You can now use that spare time to outsource more work and speed up the growth of your online business, niche site or authority website.
- It was a more enjoyable experience than what you expected in the beginning.
- You found valuable resources you can use in the future to help you build your website.
Conclusion
By now, you should have already understood that time is your most valuable asset.
Regardless of how well-organized, focused, driven and productive you can be or become, your day (like everyone else’s) lasts only for 24 hours. And life does get in the way, in one way or another to change your schedule and plans.
You’re not Superman or Superwoman to try and do everything yourself, especially if you plan to grow your website or online business.
Give a better use to your time by focusing on the more important tasks in your business (like picking the right niche, doing keyword research right and figuring out your next steps) and hire freelancers and / or virtual assistants to help you out.
You’ll soon find all the great benefits of outsourcing work and it will change your mindset and your business forever.
Success will arrive faster and will be much more sustainable now that you’ve found the best resources online.
Outsourcing may very well be the turning point in your online business career.
[bctt tweet=”#Outsourcing may very well be the turning point in your online business career.”]
So give it a try TODAY.