When you know it's time to outsource

Outsourcing is a fantastic tool that allows for exponential improvements in productivity for small businesses and entrepreneurs.  It is truly THE Productivity Hack of the 21st Century.

Between sites that help you manage these freelancers, dedicated specialists in many more fields, and unlimited resources on how to to optimize these workflows, outsourcing should be an integral part of any company’s growth plan.

The question is, when should a company start to outsource a project? Unfortunately I don’t have all of the answers, but do have a few questions you can ask yourself that should bring out the best path for your business:

• What else would you do with your time?
• Can someone else technically do the job better than you?  Big example of this is usually graphic or audio work
• Do you know how much your time is worth?
• Is the task repeatable and able to be well defined via screencast or one page description?
• Can a variety of people do this task, or is it unique to you or people intimately involved with your business?
• Does it directly impact the top line growth of your business?

Do you see the spirit of these questions?  There should be a consistent theme here that guides all of your outsourcing decisions. If it doesn’t directly impact top like sales to your company, can repeatably and easily be done by someone else for less than you value your time at, then it should be outsourced.

In my ideal company I would do just one thing:  sales and marketing.  The day to day operations of everything else should, and in my current business in fact IS, done by people with more skill, more dedication, and more capacity to do the work than I have.

Take Action

So take a hard look at your business and think of the things you can take off your plate.  Save an extra 3 hours a week to work on marketing?  Where could your business be in 3 months if you do that?

Leave me a comment below with some of the best business decisions you’ve made around outsourcing.  I always love hearing creative ways people are using this powerful tool in their businesses.