Don’t Make These Mistakes In Outsourcing. Part 1 of 5

Outsourcing Mistake #1

This Job Cannot Be Outsourced

 

So you’ve ventured out on your own and built your internet business from the ground up and every detail is currently stored inside your head. On any given day you deal with 100 different tasks and jobs, from responding to email, managing projects and making plans for future growth. Initially it can seem impossible or complicated to imagine taking all the information inside your head and communicating it to someone else.

 

Because of this, most entrepreneurs never move past just thinking about outsourcing. But the truth is, if you can outline the process and if similar skill sets exist in someone else, anything can be outsourced.  Therefore it’s important to identify the skills being employed for any project you want to delegate.

 

Sometimes what holds us back from passing on certain sets of tasks is that we enjoy doing the work. It will take some getting used to, but the sooner you can detach yourself from the day to day running of your business, the sooner you’ll enjoy the freedom to focus on what you enjoy most in business, pursue personal interests or spend more time with your family.

 

Outsourcing Mistake # 2

Relying On Availability of Knowledge

 

If you tie up all your knowledge in a person, or if you’re doing all the work yourself you won’t be able to have your freedom. Similarly if the work is being done by only one other person and they decide to quit, you can quickly end up back at square one.

 

Here is an example: Say you’re an internet marketer with a busy web based business and on top of the everyday tasks required to keep the business running smoothly there is a large amount of customer service involved.

 

As the business grows you realize you need additional help, you decide to employ a virtual assistant possessing the required skill sets, and spend the next month teaching them everything they need to know to take over customer service and manage some ongoing projects.

 

Everything is going great and you are able to turn your attention to the good ideas you are normally too busy to pursue. And so as your business grows your income grows with it.

 

Then one morning you receive an email from your virtual assistant giving two weeks notice, only half as long as it had taken you to train them and now that your business is much bigger you know you are in big trouble.

 

So this time you decide to break the work down into two different positions and train each assistant to be able to do the others work. By taking the time to cross-train your team, you ensure that no one area of your business is vulnerable to staff availability and will feel more secure about the future.

 

When expanding your business, decide how to break work down within your team, to build robustness into your system so that in the long run your business will be safer.