Warning! This will change the way you think and open your mind to things you didn’t think were possible. Once you discover how much you can accomplish by letting go and outsourcing tasks, you will never go back to the way you are currently running your business. You may just find the freedom and time you are so desperately trying to recover.
In your business, there are times when outsourcing is the only option available. This could be because you don’t have any in-house employees who are qualified or available to complete the particular task. However, there are also times when outsourcing is not the only option, but it is also the best option. Here are a few reasons why it can be your best solution:
* Outsourcing saves money
* Outsourcing helps make deadlines
* Outsourcing increases productivity
* Outsourcing increases time
Outsourcing is usually a per hour rate and the company is not required to pay benefits such as social security, Medicare and workers’ compensation to the consultant/virtual employee. In addition to saving costs on benefits, you will not have to provide a computer, internet, electricity or office workspace.
Outsourcing becomes the best solution when it saves the company money without compromising the quality of the work. Companies whose goals are predominately financial in nature often focus on the bottom line to determine whether or not to outsource projects or tasks. Me personally? It is a no brainer. I will almost always outsource if I can.
You will be pleasantly surprised to find that most virtual employees are very highly educated, have experience in their respective field and are well versed in English. Personally, I outsource all of my work to the Philippines.
I have incredibly talented people who work for me for about $3/hr. Hard to believe? It’s true. I have a website designer and programmer who works for about $4/hr and several writers who work for about $2-$2.75/hr. My accounting, billing, bookkeeping, taxes, writing, marketing, blogging, social media, and web design are all outsourced.
Now before you get mad at me, let me explain. $3/hr might sound harsh. It may even look like I am a scrooge. But actually, this is a very good hourly wage in the Philippines. There are literally hundreds of people who would love to work from home for this hourly rate.
It is more money than they will make working a brick and mortar job in their hometown. Plus, I treat my employees very well and they are happy.
Whether schedules are originally set to be aggressive or become accelerated do to problems earlier in your project. Let’s face it, deadlines can become a hassle for many companies. Regardless of why you are late, chances are your clients will not understand if you are unable to meet your required deadlines.
By outsourcing tasks, you are able to free up more of your time to get the project back on track. In fact, you will find that by implementing several reliable virtual employees into your staff it will relieve a lot of your stress. You can implement a system that allows you to offload one or more tasks to each employee (which they can then become the expert in that area) and then you don’t have to worry about it.
You will wake up and find the tasks completed. This is awesome for me. I wake up to e-mails every morning (because of the time difference between the USA and the Philippines) letting me know what my staff accomplished the day before. I know exactly where all my projects are and what I need to do that day.
Also, since it is very inexpensive I shift as much as possible off my plate and onto my staff. Once they are working at capacity… I simply go hire another employee. It is a beautiful thing.
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Let’s quickly chat about productivity. Employees who are required to know everything from bookkeeping to website SEO will suck. This is not their fault… it is yours. You can’t expect someone to be a superman.
This actually makes employees less productive because they can’t focus on just one thing. Without realizing it, you are requiring them to be experts in more than one area. This is inefficient and stressful for any employee. In fact, if you try to get them to do this… they typically will quit. I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to do that either.
When I first started outsourcing, I made this mistake. I mean I was drowning and needed help. After all, that is why I hired them. Didn’t my employees realize this and appreciate that I gave them a job? I needed to offload as much as possible to them and move on to my next fire. Yeah, it took about 2 weeks for him to quit. I figured he was a dud… so I hired someone else.
Same result. It took a friend telling me I was asking for the impossible for me to realize I was the problem. I took a step back and put myself in their shoes. I had given them almost no direction or training. I also had given them a WIDE variety of tasks that were all over the place. Man, no wonder they quit. I felt ashamed. I wouldn’t want to be treated like that… yet here I was doing that to someone else.
I have learned to group tasks into categories. I have someone who handles my e-mail and social media. Someone who handles my websites. Someone who does the bookkeeping and accounting. Someone else who focuses on writing and blogging, etc. You get the idea. I don’t expect one person to fly in and run my business.
I developed systems to train them (aka I created detailed videos to show them exactly what I needed and expected them to do). At first, it was a pain in the butt. However, now I hardly do any training at all. When my business grows and I hire someone new… I simply send them the videos. They know exactly what I need them to do and it takes me about 15 minutes to send the email.
Since I started doing this my productivity has gone through the roof. Everything works like a well-oiled machine and I spend my time on the really important stuff. I no longer spend time fighting fires, because things are falling behind. I have more time now to create and grow. I don’t get bogged down with the details.
When you discover how to correctly group tasks and train your employees, you will find that your time will duplicate exponentially. Every time you train someone (with the videos you created so you are not doing it over and over again), you create a mini-me. I love it.
All I have to do is take the knowledge in my brain… dump it into some videos… hire someone to do that group or category of tasks… and BOOM I have just effectively removed myself from that part of the business.
I am now free to do whatever I want with the time I just created. Each time I do this, I get a little bit more time back. I can effectively do nothing in a day and accomplish more than if I had worked 18hrs straight. Why? I duplicated myself.
Now, if I want to go for a walk at 2 pm by the lake or sit in a hammock and read a book all day I totally can. And guess what? I don’t feel a bit guilty. Want to know why? Because even if I don’t do anything, my business will continue to grow. I am no longer a factor of whether my “daily tasks” get done. This freedom is intoxicating.
I hope this has helped open your mind to the possibilities that outsourcing can do for you. It has changed my life and I hope it can help you as well.
I would recommend the Philippines for outsourcing. Here are just a few things outsourcing can help with:
* Outsourcing saves you money
* Outsourcing helps you make your deadlines
* Outsourcing increases your productivity
* Outsourcing increases your time
I have used onlinejobs.ph to hire all of my employees. If you click on that link and choose to use them, I will get a small commission. However, it is exactly who I use and would send any friend or family member to.
Yep, that’s me biking in the middle of a “workday”
Hopefully, I have provided some really good ideas and value for you. If for some reason you have a problem with me getting a commission, you can go directly to onlinejobs.ph. Either link will take you to the exact same place. There are other options out there, but in my experience onlinejobs has definitely had the best quality of workers. Plus their website is very user friendly. Overall, I feel like it gives you the best value.’
* Disclosure: The link above is an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To find out more about our view on affiliate products, please see this page.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this, so feel free to leave a comment below. You can also get a hold of me by using the contact us form.
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