How to Increase Your Business by Outsourcing or Delegating
As small business owners, solo-professionals, or entrepreneurs we may feel that we have to do everything for ourselves, and admittedly it may be hard to relinquish control to someone else, especially to persons we do not know personally, like a Virtual Assistant.  We may resist the idea of outsourcing or delegating work to others.
Approximately 10 years ago in the early stages of one of my self-employed businesses I was advised that to experience tremendous growth it was essential to delegate certain tasks to others so I could focus on the areas of my business that only I could do and would bring me the most results. Initially I did not believe it and felt that would be just spending money I did not need to. When I finally applied the advice, I immediately saw the positive impact it made on my business.
Are there tasks in your current business you struggle with? What are your weakest areas? How much time do you spend trying to do things yourself that others could do at a much faster rate?
Like me, you’ve probably heard that outsourcing can be a valuable time-saver but you see it as an expense. Remember you are your own manager, and Management 101 teaches that a sign of a good manager is one who knows how to delegate in order to meet the goals of the organization. Your business is your organization, and to increase your business you must be prepared to delegate or outsource.
By outsourcing certain tasks you’ll be freeing up yourself to focus on more important tasks. Let’s look at an example: Jan needs to create her first optin or landing page, but she has no clue how to do this. She spends an hour searching through Google and finds some videos on You Tube. She then spends another hour or more watching the videos and making notes. She ready! After several hours she has the basic page completed and even managed to upload and insert her photo. But she realizes that she’s not created the optin box yet, and is not quite sure how to do that in Aweber so she has to log in to her Aweber account and watch the videos.
Up to this point Jan may have spent five or six hours on the project and it’s still not complete. Let’s say that Jan places a value of $15 per hour on her time since she’s just getting started. She would have wasted approximately $100 of her time so far. On the other hand, Jan could have outsourced the job for about $50 and her time could have been spent in more productive ways.
When you’re thinking of whether or not to outsource, locally or otherwise, focus on the cost-per-hour to you. Would outsourcing ultimately mean you could be more productive and move your business forward?
Please share your thoughts on the topic. We learn from each other.
Yvonne:
1Great points! And, one of the best reasons to delegate is not to extend your time, but because you MUST me organized and prepared so that you can delegate.
Outsourcing for me would be cool – but for many people I think the affording is the hard one. Outsourcing means taking on commitment and that not only means organising yourself but planning for tomorrow
2There’s not a day goes by I’m not thinking about how wonderful it’s going to be when I can delegate some business-building tasks!
I actually have no problem giving projects over to others (despite my perfectionism). Just one extra pair of helping hands would be a welcomed blessing. And I revel in the thought of getting things accomplished and knocked off my high priority list a whole lot faster. Really exciting to think about.
My only roadblock at the moment is something Roberta mentioned here — no budget for outsourcing. I envision myself having an entire of team of people some day but for now it’s just the three of us – me, myself, and I. 🙂
“Time” and “Money” are the two basic resources needed to build a business. If you’re short on funds, your only option is spend more time on your business.
Great topic!
3Melanie
Outsourcing is no doubt a tremendous way to give you time to work your business and let others take care of other things that might be more technical or time consuming.
I enjoy using Fiverr, ConstanContent, Scriptlance and VA’s. Yes a budget is necessary, as it is a cost of doing business. For instance, I have paid $50 for 3 articles. I then take those articles and reduce them down to blog posts. It cuts my time in half and is allowing me to concentrate on building my business.
You can also find local college students willing to take on projects that help them with their grades and credits. I had two wonderful marketing students that were a huge part of my success in marketing my charm jewelry biz when I was first starting out. Without their help I probably would not be telling you about how successful this business became.
Enjoyed your post Yvonne as this is a good topic for discussion.
4I loved your calculation, Yvonne! I think it’s easy to forget that time is money and that we’re often better off hiring specialists who are more efficient at the task. With your example, I also think it makes a difference if we have a personal interest in doing so. If I wanted to and enjoyed learning all those quirks about creating a landing page, it might be worth my time. I would know the ins and outs of my landing page more and would be able to customize or optimize it myself in the future. =) Just a thought!
5Roberta and Melanie, I know you won’t mind if I reply to both of you together. I understand how you feel about being able to afford outsourcing because I felt the same way; not only many years ago in my Mary Kay business, but less than a year ago in my online business when I set up my first landing page. I went to YouTube and watched videos on videos, I purchased software for a small amount that created landing pages, but while it created the basic information, it did not explain how to FTP it to my website and at the time I did not know how to FTP. I was so frustrated and wasted several hours. I eventually got a very professional landing page made for $40.00. The time I wasted cost me much more than than. I say all that because while, like you, I do not have a large budget for outsourcing, sometimes even one task can save you lots of time.
Lynn of learnit2earnitwithlynn.com mentions several sources and one of these I’ve used three times recently, that’s fiverr.com. I got 2 book covers, a logo and a header done for $5.00 each. I’m not a techie, but if I can ever help, please let me know.
6Right on point as usual, Roy. About two years ago I heard one Internet Marketer whom I respect highly say that you must have systems in your business when you plan to outsource or delegate so you don’t wast time having to explain to each person so it really puts the obligation on us to be organized.
7I’ve found fiverr.com to be very helpful. Many of us have colleges within a few miles and a number of those students would be grateful to have even occasional assignments, but I’m so glad you included the fact that these projects can often help them with their credits as I never though of that side. Thank you for highlighting these resources, Lynn.
8Thanks, Yvonne, for your reply.
I wouldn’t hesitate to outsource inexpensive projects/tasks. It’s actually foolish not to. A $5 fee paid to a vendor on Fiverr and all the time and frustration saved is well worth it!!
I should have clarified my last comment. My apologies.
The kind of outsourcing I was referring to is “ongoing” — people you delegate assignments to on a regular basis who have a vested interest in your success. For example, a social media manager, a content manager, a VA, or a PR expert.
Hope that clears things up!
9Melanie
I totally understand, Melanie. You are too much of a savvy businesswoman not to. I just clarify and expand so that the brand new person who may happen to read the post and comments will understand the whole picture, and avoid thinking as I did that I must do everything myself until I start making “real” money. Thank you for adding those points.
10And that’s a good thought, Samantha. I’m working on the draft for a landing page at the moment, which I plan to install myself. I think that it’s great that there are now WordPress themes that allow you to create minisites with a Landing Page, Thank You Page, Download Page and Sales Page. I will still outsource the setting up of Sales Page at this stage. If someone is technically inclined and has the time to learn, then “Go for it” keeping in mind which is going to be a more productive use of time. Thanks for sharing those points, Samantha.
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