There is an endless list of ongoing tasks that you need to be completing to be satisfying the needs of your customers in order to develop your business.

But how do you make time for these regular tasks and allow enough time for you to do the promotional things that will get more eyeballs on your business?

With Outsourcing you can find the right people at an affordable price and get skilled talent to help you complete your marketing.

In a recent episode of The Marketing Strategy Show I was joined by Angela Beale, Founder of BMG Outsourcing, to discuss the do’s and don’ts to ensure outsourcing success.

Where to begin with Outsourcing

To outsource successfully you need to have processes in place or people that you can work with to put these processes in place. 

It is a smart idea to gently ease into outsourcing rather than assigning a majority of your regular tasks to outsourcing companies all at once. Try outsourcing a few smaller projects first to see if you are happy with the results and the service you are using.

The first steps towards outsourcing begin with you identifying “what are the jobs that you shouldn’t be doing” whether it be trying to update your website all by yourself, trying to do all the marketing by yourself, trying to manage your database all by yourself, if you are doing this all by yourself. If you are doing this which parts of it are really helping to grow your business.  Here’s a link to a free resource on what tasks you could potentially outsource – http://bit.ly/2qlhPNn

Try and think about who could do these tasks better and carefully consider why it is you are doing that task. If you aren’t getting all the necessary jobs completed for your business start to look at what you need to think about so you don’t get outsourcing wrong.

As Angela and I discussed in the podcast interview setting yourself up for outsourcing success is first and foremost about having the right mindset to success and then start to look at what you could be outsourcing.

Three Different Models of Outsourcing

1) Outsourcing Platform

The first model is using outsourcing companies such as Upwork or Freelancer. This model is fine for one-off tasks, be it a graphic design job or a small promo email but doesn’t really work in the long term as the next time you want to use the same freelancer they may not be available. 

Another issue you may face when using this model is having a freelancer with a poor internet connection meaning it will take forever to complete the task and any correspondence back and forth between you and the freelancer could take days.

You also face the problem of not knowing if the person you hired to do the work is the one who is actually completing the task and how do you contact them if there are any issues or changes that need to be made on the fly.

2) Serviced Office Company

This is a newly emerging sector where companies are providing outsourcing services to clients in Australia.

This one is also sometimes called a ‘bums-on-seats’ approach which is where you pay a company to recruit a VA (virtual assistant) for you, and they find the person that matches the skills you need through their recruitment process.

Often this model falls short because there is a frustration from the business owner that its all too hard to delegate, train and converse with the VA. 

The frustration from the business may stem from the fact that they are unsure of what training the VA needs or they might not have the necessary sales and marketing knowledge to complete the task.

So the VA over in the Phillipines start to sense the frustration and begin to feel inadequate as they haven’t been given the tools to manage that client and they haven’t really been trained well enough to complete the task.

This model exploded when Outsourcing was still an emerging concept with some companies going from 1 employee to 200 then all the way up to 400 and subsequently falling back down to 60 because they didn’t fulfil the promise, they were quite good at selling the model but they didn’t deliver the result that was promised.

3) Managed Service with VA (Virtual Assistant)

This is a model that was created by BMG Outsourcing which is a managed service for your virtual assistant. Over the years BMG Outsourcing has developed a series of templates that cover many aspects of the different roles.

Where BMG Outsourcing separates themselves from other outsourcing companies and outsourcing models is through their extensive training of their virtual assistants.

Where most other outsourcing companies will provide their contractors/freelancers with some templates to work with, BMG Outsourcing takes the time to make sure all of their virtual assistants are extremely well trained and understand the goals and values of the company they are working for.

What this model involves is BMG Outsourcing sitting down with someone from the company and discussing what tasks you do regularly that can be automated, what do you need help with as well as what goals do you want to achieve then developing a plan that will help best achieve these goals.

Then BMG Outsourcing will train up your VA on how to do the specifics for your business, they are given templates of what makes a great blog post, what keywords to use etc. and then they are given feedback on what they did both right and wrong.

Common mistakes made when Outsourcing

One of the most common mistakes people make in regards to outsourcing is just finding the cheapest contractor and assuming that this is the best option.

When in reality the cheapest contractor on a website like Upwork, Fiverr or Freelancer probably has poor internet meaning it will take them twice as long as anyone else to complete the task and in this case is it really worth saving a few dollars for a poorly completed final product that takes ages to receive.

Another mistake many businesses make when it comes to outsourcing is providing irrelevant information or too much information when the best process is to keep the instructions simple, fairly straight forward and wherever possible include video examples or explanations so there is no room for confusion on the contractors end.

Besides providing irrelevant information one of the most common mistakes companies make is not providing appropriate feedback. Everyone likes to know when they are doing something well and the freelancers won’t know what they are doing wrong unless it is explained to them.

Businesses will often get angry at their outsourced staff for completing a task the wrong way but you need to talk to the contractor and clearly explain what they did wrong and what you expect of them next time, remember to be firm but calm, as yelling at the contractor could have adverse negative effects.

In addition to not providing appropriate feedback many businesses struggle as they haven’t allowed enough time to properly train the contractor, often they are just thrown tasks without the proper training or resources to complete the assigned task.

When outsourcing you need to ensure that your contractors are paid on time.  It is simply a matter of respect.  You wouldn’t be paying your local office staff late, so don’t treat the contractors any differently.

A big mistake that is also frequently made by employers is not having enough work for your contractor to do, that’s why a model like the managed service model offered by BMG Outsourcing is so attractive as there is always a small group of tasks waiting for them if they have completed all their regular assigned tasks.

Tools for Outsourcing

If you are Outsourcing tasks you need to be using all the available outsourcing tools so you can accurately and consistently communicate with the contractors so there is no confusion on what is expected from either party.

Websites like Upwork, Freelancer and Fiverr are all different global freelancing platforms where you can find a variety of trained professionals to complete tasks in everything from graphic design to recording voice-overs and writing transcripts to doing SEO or competitor research.

Screencast-O-Matic is a video recording program which allows you to create clear and concise video tutorials which you can give to your contractors or freelancers as an explanation as to what you want from them during a task. 

Teamviewer is a computer software program that allows users to remote access another persons computer. This is an endlessly valuable tool for people who outsource as it gives you the ability to guide your freelancers through a task with them physically seeing what it is you want to do.

Skype, Google Hangout and GoToMeeting are all different video and audio communication programs where you can regularly talk with your contractors, get progress updates, provide help to anyone who is stuck with something and most importantly allows you to actually see your freelancers and build a connection/relationship through that.

Connect with Us

If you need any help with understanding the benefits of outsourcing or what tasks you could be outsourcing feel free to give us a call on (02) 9125 0520 or visit themarketingstrategy.co to book in an obligation free consultation.