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Mini-Outsourcing your Small or Home Based Business By:
John Trout
When you hear the word outsourcing you might get a mental image of
large companies laying off thousands of workers and then giving their
high paying jobs to someone overseas who will work for pennies on the
dollar.
While this is indeed one example of outsourcing, I want to talk about
using outsourcing on a much smaller scale that may actually create
local jobs rather than eliminate them. I call it Mini-Outsourcing.
Lets say you own a small company or home based business and you find
yourself swamped with various small tasks. These tasks are important to
your business, but getting them done every month just seem to bog you
down and take you away from other equally important tasks. These tasks
continue to pile up on your desk every month as you constantly find
yourself struggling to prioritize and still get them done.
Perhaps you've considered looking for some good, affordable, reliable
help but don't really want, or can't afford, to take on a new part-time
or full-time employee.
A good solution may be mini-outsourcing. Learn
how to get out of debt by joining the Financial Freedom Society
Here are the basics of mini-outsourcing:
When you mini-outsource, you hire an experienced person to do specific
tasks without actually putting them on the payroll as an employee. You
pay them an agreed upon price to complete a specific task while giving
them the freedom to choose when, where and how they are going to use
their creative skills to get the job done.
If the task requires more than one person such as a team of people or a
professional company, then it falls into the traditional realm of
outsourcing as opposed to mini-outsourcing. This is not to say that you
should not consider outsourcing bigger tasks, just that it falls
outside the topic of mini-outsourcing which usually involves hiring one
person to do a specific task.
The main difference between hiring a part-time employee and
mini-outsourcing is that when you hire someone as a mini-outsourcer,
they are always an independent contractor. That means you pay no
benefits other than the agreed upon price to complete the task. You
don't have to deal with their payroll taxes or social security
deductions and are only required to send them a 1099 tax form if you
pay them over $600 a year. (Check with your tax consultant to make sure)
However, when mini-outsourcing you must relinquish some of the control
over your new helper that you might normally exercise over an employee.
You must do this in the interest of preserving the status of your new
helper as that of a valid independent contractor.
For example, with an employee you can dictate when and where they are
to work, what time they should start and finish, as well as what you
expect them to accomplish. When mini-outsourcing you can only tell your
independent contractor 'what' you want them to accomplish and 'when'
the project must be completed. However you can't tell them what hours
to work or exactly 'where' you expect the work to be accomplished. If
the work must be done at your place of business then it can not be
mini-outsourced. Learn
how to get out of debt by joining the Financial Freedom Society
The ideal tasks to
mini-outsource:
The ideal type of tasks for mini-outsourcing are tasks that need to be
done on a monthly or weekly basis; however they are tasks that you
consistently struggle to make time for or that are taking more time
than they should. They should be a tasks that can be done off-site and
then delivered to you upon completion. And they should be tasks that
can be done independently, that do not require the use of tools,
materials or machines that must be provided by the you, the business
owner.
For this reason these tasks should not be 'daily' tasks, but rather
tasks that can be given to someone where you might say to them, "OK, I
need A,B & C done by this date; Let me know as soon as you finish so I
can review the work". Then you cut your mini-outsourcer loose to get
the job done at their leisure and you are free to focus on the most
important daily nuts & bolts tasks of running your business.
Making the decision to
mini-outsource:
So how do you decide what tasks you should consider for
mini-outsourcing?
First, look at your monthly 'To Do' list and figure out which tasks,
other than daily tasks, seem to pile up the most. Then ask yourself how
many of these tasks could you group into one 'job description' to be
mini-outsourced.
For example, maybe you struggle to find time to update your website
each month or you have trouble putting together enough content to
update your monthly newsletter. These may be good candidates for
mini-outsourcing.
Maybe your direct mail campaign keeps getting pushed back because you
struggle to find time to write new ad copy every month. Again,
mini-outsourcing may be the way to go.
Once you have decide which tasks you would like to mini-outsource, then
it is time to take action. Learn
how to get out of debt by joining the Financial Freedom Society
Finding the right person for the
task:
Once you have decide which tasks are to be mini-outsourced, you should
write out a one-page task description for each one, focusing on exactly
WHAT you want done and WHEN you expect to see the task completed.
Once that is complete, it is time to find someone to do the task.
Depending on the task, there are several ways to go about
mini-outsourcing. You could look for a local professional, a former
employee, use an online outsourcing provider or a local temp. agency.
You could even use a current employee and pay them a flat rate to do
the task at home "on their own time".
For example, using one of the sample tasks above, lets say you want to
provide fresh articles related to your business for your monthly
newsletter subscribers. You know providing this service has the
potential to boost your companies image thereby boosting your bottom
line, but your not a professional writer and find yourself spending way
too much time trying to hammer out the newsletter. One solution would
be to simply type in "freelance writers" into a search engine online
and see what you come up with. When I did this , I found several
websites that connect writers with interested clients. For $10 to $15
dollars per article you could have a professional writer creating fresh
newsletter content for you every month. All you would have to do is
email them the 'job description' and let them do the research and write
the articles while you do more productive things with your time.
In the example above, it would probably be wise to set up trial periods
and test a couple different writers. Remember, the first person you
find might not be the right fit. See which person has the knowledge
they claim to have and who you can communicate with easily as well as
who’s flexible to work with as a team player. Check out the quality
(and quantity) of their work. Consider giving two or more candidates
the same task for the first month and then choose the best candidate to
give future work too. Remember, this decision is not carved in stone.
and you can always hire the other person as a back up or a second
helper down the road. There are less strings attached with
mini-outsourcing than with traditional hiring making it easier to move
on to the next person if necessary.
Some tasks may not be suited for mini-outsourcing over the internet. In
these cases you may want to use more traditional resources to find your
new helper. Resources such as the local yellow pages, bulleting boards
or asking business associates and other small & home based business
owners for ideas. Ask current employees if they are interested or know
someone. Run a classifieds ad seeking an independent contractor or
freelance worker.
ROI - The Benefits of Mini-Outsourcing:
Your ROI or Return on Investment is perhaps the biggest reason to
consider mini-outsourcing. When you get bogged down doing necessary
tasks that you have trouble finding time to do, you are most likely
losing money. By mini-outsourcing these type of tasks you are freeing
up your creative talents to focus on other tasks where you excel or
that have a more direct impact on your companies bottom line. In this
case, your not just outsourcing a task, your freeing up your valuable
time.
Another benefit of mini-outsourcing is that the worker you hire may be
more up to date on the latest information and technology in a specific
field than you are. This can prove to be an added assets to your
business while offering improved quality service to your clients.
Mini-Outsourcing is about freeing up more time for you to focus on the
aspects of your business that you most enjoy doing or at least the
aspects that are the most productive. Outsourcing is also a great way
to help small businesses grow larger without hiring new employees and
can help home based businesses grow larger while still remaining at
home.
So reach out and give mini-outsourcing a try! Learn
how to get out of debt by joining the Financial Freedom Society
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