If you’re feeling overwhelmed and have to be two places at once most of the time, why not try letting someone else do all the hard work? Outsourcing can save time, money and effort without sacrificing quality (if done right).
Good Outsourcing Means No Micro-Managing
The first step to moving towards a better more easy-to-manage schedule is to learn to let go. Many upstart entrepreneurs find this the hardest as it means they have to relinquish some control. The question you have to ask yourself is would a president be able to run a country if he spent the whole time sweeping the streets? Could an actor hold the camera, direct himself and play beside himself? No. People need roles and businesses need more than one person in order to grow.
It very easy for someone who has built something from the ground up to find it hard to step back. I know because I have been there more than once! A good way to get to this stage mentally is by over doing it. Work on every little aspect until you go blue in the face and outsourcing seems like the only way out. Everyone can get there.
Find The Best Outsourcing Method For Your Needs
Everyone and therefore every business, blog or project will be different and require different skills and resources. That is why the most important factor in getting this right the first time is choosing the best place to find you new resource. By these what I mean is, if for example you make websites or blog you can use Freelancer.com to find the talent you need or if you need an online or telePA (just coined that term!) service you can use Money-Penny. The trick is researching your field and looking thoroughly through what is out there in terms of outsourcing you tasks.
Some Useful Outsourcing Resources
www.guru.com – Online marketplace for freelance talent.
www.elance.com – Matches people who want to work remotely with employers.
www.freelancer.com – At a small commission, programmers can bid on projects and buyers can post their projects.
www.odesk.com – odesk is a global service marketplace for small and medium sized business to hire, manage, and pay remote freelancers or teams. A great outsourcing resource.
Really good post, i do a ton of outsourcing. It really comes down to figuring out what your valuable at and what your not valuable at. I personally am really good at marketing and SEO. I’m also ok at writing content. However, i outsource a ton of content writing because i figure my ROI is the biggest when i spend time doing seo/marketing work. Therefore, if i can get someone to do content production whilst i do the important stuff, it allows me to focus at what im best at.
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Twitter: ddshosting
says:
Thanks, yes that is most definately the way to do it. No one person can be an expert in everything. Its best to aknowledge your strengths and let other people take care of the rest.
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The online industry is huge at the moment, and it’s expanding every day. The opportunities are endless online, soon the market will be oversaturated and things will start to change.
Mark recently posted..Panasonic DMP-BDT110 3D Blu-Ray Player Review
Twitter: ddshosting
says:
It is expanding for sure. Change for sure, although I think there will always be opportunities out there.
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Twitter: esther96
says:
I joined both guru and elance. I felt like I was putting so much time into ‘applying’ for the jobs. The thing is, no matter how much you put into vying for the jobs, you have no assurance you’ll get the position.
I’ve wasted a lot of time on those sites and have now given up. I think they should make it easier for new talent to get a foot in.
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Twitter: ddshosting
says:
It is hard to find well paid and well respected jobs on there but they do exist. These sites are far better at the moment for employers rather than employees. Try getting the work in and then creating a team of freelancers from these sites. This will build your feedback to and can help you get work in the future.
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Twitter: selfishyayun
says:
I have an account at elance.com
I hope to work with them but unfortunately I can not speak english very well. Looks like I have to ask for help translators to change my writing.
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Twitter: ddshosting
says:
Freelancer.com is really good. We use that site a lot and hire people from around the world. Try that one and as your English improves i’m sure you’ll get more work.
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Just make sure the people you outsource to are pros and in it for the long haul, I’ve had some bad experiences in the past with missed deadlines and poor quality content. Granted, I’ve chosen a cheaper alternative
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Twitter: ddshosting
says:
Agreed. Buy it cheap buy it twice.
Always worth hiring high quality and communicative freelancers.
greenhosting recently posted..Making The Right WordPress Hosting Decision
If you don’t outsource, then you’ll end up wasting a lot of opportunities for your business. Sometimes i find people who are way better then me in some tasks and work for a very reasonable rates. I recommend oDesk as it’s the one that i had the best experience with.
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So far many looks for previous ratings and they even dont show up for newbies those who offer for less money.I was tired of applying jobs in odesk
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Twitter: Ileane
says:
I have a freelancer that I work with quite often. She and I met on Twitter and after I saw some examples of her work, that was all I needed.
I’ve heard a few complaints from writers about not making enough money on elance, so I don’t recommend using them.
Thanks for all the advice.
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Twitter: Sticky_Business
says:
I sometimes wonder how North American/Native English speaking freelancers can make a living wage when it the pay is often so low.
Hmmm, North American/Native English speaking freelancers have more opportunities in finding writing jobs. There are a lot of websites which offer higher rates, but they only accept U.S. citizens. Demand Studios and their websites (e.g.: eHow) is an example of this.
Outsourcing is a good practice, it allows us to focus on what’s needed to build our online businesses. We just have to take care when selecting people to outsource to. I don’t think a particular website/service guarantees good work. I think they just provide a quick screening process that we may benefit from. But it all boils down to your judgement. When selecting a person to outsource to, make sure you run them through some tests of your own, so you can establish their proficiency. Believe me, this may save you a lot of headaches in the long run. Hmm, this is a good topic, and I think I’ll tackle it a bit more in my site.
Thank you for your post greenhosting.
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Twitter: ddshosting
says:
Hmmm… thanks! I agree. It is very important to try a supplier / resource out with a small project before you give them a big workload and high responsibility levels.
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Twitter: ninjasagaalpha
says:
I haven’t tried outsourcing because I have no bucks to pay =(
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Twitter: ddshosting
says:
Well ninja, it sounds like your not charging enough. If you include the cost of outsourcing in your overall quote for a project then your admin fee you will be able to.
greenhosting recently posted..Observer Ethical Awards Highlight New Green Energy Technologies
Outsourcing really helps in getting things done effectively and on time. You really need to leverage if you are swamped with things that needs to be done. I guess I will try to practice outsourcing once I earned big bucks in internet marketing.
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Twitter: ddshosting
says:
You should try earlier than that. You may find it helps you get big bucks quicker!
greenhosting recently posted..SEO Newbies Helped By Periodic Table For SEO
Outsourcing is lifestyle, to have good results you should be crazy with all modern IT streams
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Twitter: ddshosting
says:
True, you also have to be able to let got an not micro-manage. Very important!
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Twitter: coreyrab
says:
Have you ever came across a way to decipher the good outsourcing talent from the bad? I have had some great experiences with outsourcing but have heard some horror stories from others. You never really know what your going to get.
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Twitter: ddshosting
says:
I tend to look at the feedback of the people bidding for work. Also I never put new workers on high risk jobs. Instead I start them off with low responsibility jobs which they can prove themselves on.
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So far my experiments with outsourcing writers haven’t worked out particularly well. I just get much better product when I do my writing in-house. But I use outside programmers a LOT and as a rule they do excellent work.
Twitter: ddshosting
says:
Hey I agree, writing is always a hard one to get a good resource for. Programming is definitely easier to outsource. Depending on your budget though, there are a few native English firms our there which do a good job.
greenhosting recently posted..Sony Suffers More Hacking Attacks
Twitter: bonusmap
says:
If you do not wish outsourcing writers, than you can host a competition on your blog where the winner will get a cash prize. You can run the competition for a few month and writers would be submitting their articles to you blog. The articles should be unique and pass the copyscape. As a result everyone would be happy: google would have the unique content for digestion, your blog would have even more traffic as the news about the cash competition would spread quickly. The winner would enjoy the cash prize. The money for the cash prize would cover expenditures for the outsourcing writers.
Regards. Arthur
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Twitter: ddshosting
says:
Sounds good. Are you looking to guest blog at all?
greenhosting recently posted..SEO Newbies Helped By Periodic Table For SEO
Twitter: bonusmap
says:
Hi greenhosting,
thanks for repying,
“-Are you looking to guest blog at all?” Yes, I do, I have a few blogs and tons of similar ideas, but no time to start properly.
Regards. Arthur
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