There are tons of benefits to be had for your business when outsourcing your tasks. Not only are you able to free up more of your time, but you can also do it at a very affordable rate. These are just some of the strategic advantages that outsourcing can help you with when running your business.
Now, although that sounds enticing and the concept of outsourcing seems to be a very simple one, not many know that there’s more to it than simply paying someone from OOC to do your work.
Depending on what you do and how you do it, outsourcing can prove to be very damaging for your business as well. You can end up working with a scammer, or worse, someone who’ll downright steal data or sensitive information from you.
To avoid this from happening (and trust me there’s a plethora of ways that outsourcing can ruin your business), allow us to share with you the 5 critical things that you need to consider when outsourcing your tasks. With these tips in place, chances are you’ll hire the right person and greatly benefit from outsourcing your tasks.
Don’t be lazy. Interview the heck out of the guy!
If for some twist of fate you’re one of those who think that seeing the prospect’s profile and the previous feedbacks of the clients are good enough, this can prove to be VERY COSTLY for you!
You can never really gauge the person’s capability unless you interview them and see what they have to offer. It’s during these interviews that you can see how confident the person is and know whether he or she has enough know how to get things done.
If you don’t like what you see (or hear for that matter), then don’t think twice about moving on to the next prospect. It’s better to do this than spend a couple hundred of dollars for an output that’s worthless.
Is the task REALLY worth outsourcing?
Most business owners make the wrong decision of outsourcing their tasks when the truth is, the task is SO EASY TO DO!
Creating a website, for example. A lot of business owners outsource these tasks because they have the notion that creating one requires them to be a scientist.
They can never be further from the truth! Creating a website is easy as pie! They can easily get one from 1&1 USA and they’re good to go. They can do it in minutes and have their professional looking website working for them like clockwork!
Do a test run
Now when I say test run, I didn’t really mean a free one.
Know that freelancers that are worth their salt won’t work for free. Simply because they know what they’re worth and they’re time definitely isn’t for free.
So you ought to do a test run for a small project where you can gauge the prospect’s skill, character, and see whether this person is a perfect fit for your business’s culture.
Ask for a character reference
This may sound a bit old school, but the truth is… IT WORKS!
Talking to the person whom they’ve referred to will give you an idea of how genuine the person is. Though other freelancers might be faking even their character reference, you’ll be able to sense that (I know I don’t have a problem sensing that) giving you an idea that the prospect freelancer might be hiding something. That right there can be a huge RED FLAG so be wary of that!
Rather than just hiring the cheapest freelancers, go for the ones whom you can work with for the long haul. Someone who values quality!
I don’t have anything against freelancers who are working at a very affordable rate, it’s just that most of them who do are usually the ones giving poor results. And that’s a big no no as that affects your company’s reputation.
That said, you’ll be in a much better place if you’ll choose someone who may be bidding at a comparatively higher rate but has a proven track record of doing quality work.
The more quality output they produce, the lesser fire fighting you’ll have to deal with giving you the opportunity to focus on improvement and growth.
Do these suggestions and chances are, your outsourcing tasks will be successful. Disregard these, and you might find yourself dealing with problems that are VERY COSTLY let alone frustrating.
Let me know what you think!
Do you have any tips or suggestions to get better results from outsourcing? If you do, then please share it in the comments section below so we can all discuss and learn from each other. Cheers!