Here's a Strategy for
Outsourcing Success – That Works!
Are you skeptical about outsourcing?
Have you tried outsourcing in the past and found it didn't work as well as you wanted it to?
Are you saying to
yourself, "I can't afford it," or "I'm not sure what I'd have
someone do for me," or maybe "I don't have the time to find
someone, much less get them up to speed"?
If you are, I totally understand.
I've been neck-deep in outsourcing for over 15 years – I've been
on both sides of the equation – as someone who does a lot of
outsourcing and who is outsourced to. I've read all the books, taken
countless courses and followed all the gurus. I've listened to all
the "secrets," I've tried all the "tricks," I've envisioned the
4-hour workweek, and I tried for years to get outsourcing to work the
way everyone said it could.
I knew it was possible. After all, I was doing outsourcing. Companies would outsource their marketing to us and I managed a team of partners, to whom I outsourced projects. I knew outsourcing worked.
But it didn't work as well as I wanted it to.
The problem is that everybody says to outsource – but nobody really tells you
how.
And, quite frankly, most of the people who talk about outsourcing have a
business that's not structured like mine, and not like most
of the businesses I know either.
That makes it hard to copy what they are doing.
The reality is that if it's not done right, outsourcing
can take 4-5 times longer than just doing it yourself. And it can cost more too.
One of the big problems is that projects aren't done right.
You tell the person what you want done.
Then when they give it back it's not what you asked for.
That's frustrating!
Sometimes that's because the project you are outsourcing
requires a lot of background knowledge
about your business, your products and your customers if it is going to be done right.
And someone who is only working on one project for you doesn't have time to get fully up to speed on your business.
That's not surprising...
Most
corporate businesses figure it takes full-time employees at least 6
months to become fully ramped-up. That means they're
physically in the office, 40+ hours a week, and it still
takes them half a year.
But how are you supposed to get someone ramped up when they are not in your office and are never going to be in your office and are only working for you for part-time?
Another problem is being able to afford to hire someone.
Most small business owners don't have lots of extra cash wandering around.
You need someone who is affordable.
But the people who charge low rates tend not to have a lot of experience.
And regardless of how much they charge, you need to be sure they're going to help you grow the business before you're willing to invest in hiring them.
But the money is not the biggest problem...
If you're like me and most business owners, your biggest shortage is time.
If you had tons of free time, you wouldn't be reading this page about how to get outsourcing to work.
You've got a business to run.
You need to get someone on board and fully productive fast.
You don't have hours or days to spend on training.
And if you truly enjoyed managing people, you'd probably have a corporate job rather than running your own business.
Anyone you hire needs to be able to do the work right, without you having to spend a ton of time sitting on top of them.
Those are some big problems!
But after having worked on it for 15 years...
We figured it out!
And here's what works...
Let me start by saying that most people try to outsource
the wrong projects.
They try and "get something off their
plate," and they outsource one-time projects.
That doesn't
work well.
It takes you longer to explain what you want done
and teach them what they need to know about your business to
do a good job than it would to just do the work yourself.
Don't do that.
Instead, here's what you do...
When you first start outsourcing, use your virtual
assistant to
create and automate systems for your business.
The best systems for them to automate are marketing
systems –
- Telling people about your business,
- Bringing
them to your website,
- Converting them to leads, and
- Moving
them through the sales cycle.
When you create marketing systems, you are able to bring
in more business and increase revenue.
Making more money
lets you pay for your virtual assistant, among other things.
That means you can justify having them on board while they
are learning about your business.
And through the process of creating these systems for
you, your assistant learns enough about your business that
you can turn over more complex projects.
Then you are
getting the help you really need in your business.
That's what we all want, right?
So how does ProResource help?
One of the things you can find in our Help Without Hiring
Toolkit is instructions for these types of marketing
projects.
Most small business owners aren't marketing
experts and it's hard to give instructions for
marketing projects to your virtual assistant when it's
not your area of core expertise.
But marketing happens to be what we do (see www.j-m-r.com).
So we've written the instructions for you.
We call them Easy Projects.
These are projects that are
designed to be easy to outsource – in other words, you can
give them to someone who does not know a lot about your
business and has only a general administrative background.
And they work for just about any kind of business.
This is by far the easiest way to get started with
outsourcing.
When you outsource like this, you are following a proven
system that works.
So get a virtual assistant, get them started on one or
more of these projects, and you'll be on your way to making
outsourcing work in your business.
Judy Schramm
CEO,
ProResource
