"It's common for business owners to want to manage everything," said Fabio Rosati, who is the CEO of Elance, which is a web-based system to help businesses find, hire, and manage professionals. "But it's now getting easier to outsource no-core functions, which is what larger companies are doing."
Basically, outsourcing can be cheaper and mean higher quality (do you really need to understand payroll?). More importantly, you will have more time to focus on the things you do best, which should help to grow your business.
So what are some of the things you can do?
Time audit: As a result, it's a good idea to do a "time audit." That is, where is most of your time being spent? And can some of these activities be offloaded -- leaving you more time to make money?
Find qualified people: No doubt, there are many people who want your business -- but, of course, they have varying levels of quality.
To deal with this, you might want to seek out prospects from your own network, such as by sending out an email to trusted friends or perhaps use your LinkedIn network.
Another approach is to use online platforms, such as eLance or RentaCoder.com (to hire programmers). These sites usually have community rankings of the service providers.
Baby Steps: Outsourcing can be tricky so be careful. "I recommend starting small," said Rosati. "Also, make sure you spend time defining the scope of the project. And since the communication is likely not to be face-to-face, make sure the communication is clear."
Think out-of-the-box: Just about anything can be outsourced.
Look at Jonathan Fleming, who is a real estate agent. He outsources: sales letters, his blog, and his customer database. "The ability to have a corporation of people working for me without people on my day payroll is amazing," he said. "You have your army when you need them."
Interestingly, Timothy Ferris wrote a book on this topic, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook. He also operates DealProfiles.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-14-2008 @ 5:57PM
Dana Suazo said...
You make several good points. With regard to business owners doing a time audit to determine which items they can offload, in doing this, they should assess what activities drain their energy (even though they can do them well), and the ones that give them energy. They obviously should delegate the items that drain their energy, giving them more time to do the activities they enjoy.