If you’re reading this article, you probably already know that you need to delegate and outsource anything you do not wish to do yourself and things you are not good at.  

Anything that is not core to your business needs to be handed over to someone who is better than you at it and loves it more than you do.  You know your business is at the point where outsourcing will significantly improve the work you do and the ability of the business to scale up, however knowing how to outsource is holding you back.

The benefits of outsourcing are vast, however many entrepreneurs never fully reap the benefits of outsourcing because they do it the wrong way. To help you avoid their mistakes, we’ve put together some key pointers on how to outsource (the right way).

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  Don’t just head to PeoplePerHour

We’re not saying that there’s anything wrong with people per hour – quite the opposite. It’s a great resource for finding professionals who you can potentially outsource to for a good price. However, if you head to sites like PeoplePerHour, Fiverr and UpWork without a strategy or without assessing where the gaps in your knowledge are then you will end up wasting money without a clear vision.

Instead, opt to create a plan that identifies where your inefficiencies are and tries to rectify them using the team you already have or software that could automate it for you for less. Once you’re identified that neither people in your team or software are a viable option then you are ready to outsource.

• Define what you are good at and what what you are not.

Make a list of activities that you do as an entrepreneur everyday.  Better yet maintain an activity log what you do all the time.  End of the week mark against the different activities:

• (P = Passionate) if you are really great at something, you totally love doing and no one can do better than you, or 
• (D = Delegate) something you’re not really good at and do not really enjoy doing and someone can do same or better than at it, or 
• (O = Outsource) something really shouldn’t be doing, you aren’t really expert at it and you are only doing it because you just have to. 

Once you have this list you would know what to keep, delegate or outsource pretty quickly.  Repeat this exercise every quarter or six monthly.

• Make a plan for outsourcing

This sounds so obvious, but many people don’t do this. Before jumping into an outsourcing commitment, make an action plan and look at how you will use outsourcing to increase your bottom line and make improvements to how your business runs. Examine your workload and look at where you can outsource in a way that adds value to your business – this is the key.

If you feel like this is too time consuming a job for you, and you want someone to deal with the strategy and project management for you, then you can get an agency to hire the team for you and get the wheels in motion. 

• Once you’ve identified the holes, trust people to fill them

One of the main issues that people have is that they don’t trust their outsourced team enough and therefore they don’t reap all of the rewards. When you give your outsourced team the agency to make decisions, show their worth and get fully involved in your business, you enable them to become part of the team and fill your skills gaps.

Sure, you don’t know that they won’t make mistakes. They are only human after all. But hey, so are you, and if you’re overworked and overtired because you haven’t outsourced then you’re likely to be the one making the mistakes, not them. Trust is key to how to outsource the right way.

• Invest time to on-boarding

An objection to outsourcing is often that people feel that they can do the work themselves, in less time and for cheaper. However, this is very rarely the case and people confuse the onboarding process to the stream of work that follows afterwards.

• Set the expectations and success criteria up front

All the more we have seen that people do not share clear expectations and success factors up front, leave too much to imagination to the people who are serving you.  This sets you and them up for failure.  Jot down the purpose of the initiative, what success feels like to you, what criteria need to be met if it is properly done, what would be the outcome if it is done to your satisfaction and what worse would happen if it is not done as expected.  This will ensure that not only you but also the  people supporting will know the whole picture.  They will be given the necessary guardrails to help you succeed.

Yes – the initial explaining, delegating and set up process of building an outsourced team can take a moment, but this isn’t reflective of what it’s actually like when you have an outsourcing strategy that is up and running long term.

When you embark on the outsourcing journey, be prepared to dedicate some time at the start to set up a process and then set it free into the world. Dedicating some time to on-boarding and process defining will save you time in the long run.

Want to learn more? Get in touch today to discuss your outsourcing strategy with us. We’d love to hear your plans and see where we can help!