So. Outsourcing. It would be great, right? To take a look at all of the many things you do in a day/week/month for your business and have the ability to delegate some of it. Think of the time you’ll free up! But it’s not always as easy as that.
Stop being so negative!
Outsourcing can be a scary word for emerging designers and independent brands. You don’t necessarily have the resources you need to make outsourcing a possibility. But you know what, I’m not so sure that it’s as out of the realm of possibility as a lot of new businesses think.
Here are 3 common hesitations about outsourcing and what you can do about them:
- I can’t afford it- Yeah, I get it, we’re all emerging independent businesses with the funds that go along with that. The thing is, while yes, outsourcing large projects or entire aspects of your business can be costly, you have another option. You can break down projects into smaller increments and find a way to more cost effectively outsource.
- I don’t know where to find good people– No one likes to get burned on projects. While there are very few guarantees in life and work, there are some reputable resources out there for sourcing freelancers. They include, among others: Elance, Task Rabbit, and Guru.
- I can just do that stuff myself; it’ll be fine – Wrong. Yes, you could do it yourself but is that really the best use of your time? Remember that your job as the founder/CEO/Superstar of your business is to strategically drive your company in the direction of growth. You cannot effectively do that if you’re spending 3 hours in a day inputting data and other such things. Honestly, really think about that.
How to Outsource:
Here’s a little exercise for ya:
- Make a list of as many of your regular tasks or responsibility as you can. I know, you do everything! But just try.
- Then cross out everything that is absolutely something you need to handle yourself. Don’t think about this in terms of cost, think about what you love, and what you’re good at. Like designing, that’s not something you’ll outsource.
- Then look at what’s left. Often it’s stuff like accounting, marketing, PR, etc.
Now, rather than trying to outsource entire sectors like marketing, consider what aspects of each sector you can outsource in order to keep cost down. So, if you decide marketing and accounting are two areas, make a list of smaller things like…
- Graphic design- Maybe you pay someone for three graphic templates that you can easily switch up on your own and make new for each upcoming promotions/announcements.
- Quickbooks- Maybe you pay someone with experience to set up everything in the program and teach you how to create reports and then you generate those reports and hire an accountant for year-end work.
See where I’m going with this??
Still not convinced?
Here’s the thing about outsourcing, there are things that you are just not an expert in and if you keep spending large chunks of your time doing them, you’re wasting your time!
Plus, you’re probably going to hate what you did in the end anyway. It’ s like when I spend 2 hours trying desperately to create a killer graphic for an upcoming announcement and after all that time all I have is an ugly gray box with oddly placed text using obnoxious fonts and ridiculous amounts of “accent colors”.
I stopped doing that. Now I outsource.
Remember that time management and organization are the keys to getting it all done.