When to Begin Outsourcing

You may be considering outsourcing certain tasks of your business and need to decide when the right time is to begin, and also determine how you go about hiring your first outsource provider.

You Must Have the Money

First, your business needs to be profitable and have spare revenue to hire outsources. If you’re just starting out, it’s generally better to do most tasks in house, which gives you the opportunity to learn the ropes around a system that really works and makes money before tasking it out.

Your Time/Employee Time is Being Undervalued

When you are paying a full-time employee $30 an hour, part of their time is being spent performing tasks that could be outsourced overseas for $3 an hour. While many sensitive tasks cannot be outsourced without a decrease in quality, there are also many tasks which are more manual in nature that can be outsourced. The same is true for your own time. As a business owner, you may not be putting a dollar value on your time, but if you’re doing $3 an hour work, you should seriously consider outsourcing.

Getting Started Slowly

Don’t rush into outsourcing. It’s not about finding the first person you can for the job. It’s about finding the right person. First, come up with a budget and how much you can pay for the project.  Then you need to ask yourself how you will know when a good job has been accomplished.

Post your job requirements and description of a job well done on various outsourcing boards. These can be sites like Guru.com, eLance and Freelancer.com – or it can be on internet business boards such as Digital Point and the Warrior Forum. Wait until you find a candidate you really like, and then, give them a test project. If the result isn’t up to your standards, then don’t give them additional work.

Keep testing until you find an outsourcee that you believe you can work with. Then be sure to pay them on time and keep lines of communication open.

Determining When the Time is Right

Take an objective look at your business. Are there tasks that someone else can take over? Are you spending your own time or your employee’s time performing tasks that can be outsourced for less? Can you outsource these tasks without a decrease in quality?

If you believe the answer is yes, then start looking for an outsourcee today. A great outsourcee will help you decrease your costs while improving your efficiency.

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Author: jm

Joan Mullally has been doing business online for more than 20 years and is a pioneer in the fields of online publishing, marketing, and ecommerce. She is the author of more than 200 guides and courses designed to help beginner and intermediate marketers make the most of the opportunities the Internet offers for running a successful business. A student and later teacher trainee of Frank McCourt’s, she has always appreciated the power of the word, and has used her knowledge for successful SEO and PPC campaigns, and powerful marketing copy. One computer science class at NYU was enough to spark her fascination with all things digital. In her spare time, she works with adult literacy, animal fostering and rescue, and teaching computer skills to women.