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If you are in a small business, at some point you will need to outsource tasks. This may start small such as outsourcing your book-keeping, your graphic design, your printing, your web design and of course your copywriting.

As you grow, your business will get to a point where you can’t serve your existing clients effectively with the resources you have, let alone the new ones coming into your business.

This is where you look at other options. You can hire people onto your payroll or you can look at extending the outsourcing options.

I have a brilliant new VA (Virtual Assistant) – Charmaine who is helping me to stay on top of my admin. VA’s are the admin assistant you have who just happens to work off site. With technology it doesn’t matter how far off site they are – the work can still get done. But I still need more assistance!

Over the weekend I attended an Outsourcing online conference (same as a normal conference except you don’t have to leave home or get out of your PJs).  John Jonas was one of the speakers and really got me thinking. His focus is outsourcing tasks to the Philippines and gave some strong arguments in support of his case, as well as a whole pile of practical how-to’s to make this happen.

A lot of his tips were great for managing any off-site employee or telecommuting employee. Here were a few of my favourites

1. Require a daily email of progress (it helps accountability and keeps managers in the loop)
2. Start the person with a hard task first (it helps you work out who has the initiative to work independently)
3. If they are great – then ask them who they know is like them that could do a similar job (great recruitment strategy)
4. Give bonuses for good work
5. Let them figure stuff out
6. Use Jing (it is a software tool similar to Camtasia so you can record bits of your screen while you explain what you want them to do)
7. Record MP3s of your project brief – don’t just type. You can say a lot more in an MP3. Use Audacity to record your MP3s
8. Give them access to your system (trust them in other words)
9. Give them access to software & ebooks you buy (in other words share knowledge with them)
10. Give them decision making powers
11. Retain and respect local customs
12. Expect there will be internet problems at times and plan for it
13. Use a task management system such as ActiveCollab or RTM (Remember the Milk) to keep on top of projects
14. Document what you teach them (so you can train others)
15. Be the expert

He also gave a lot of great tips in relation to paying overseas outsourced workers.

The way I look at it, outsourcing and telecommuting have a lot in common. If you treat your outsourced workers in the same way you would treat a telecommuting employee, then a lot of issues can be avoided.

Of course there is the question of whether or not a service is suitable to be outsourced in the first place … which I think could be left for a whole other post.

However, this You Tube clip highlights some of the problems of not considering the implications of outsourcing a service.

What do you think about outsourcing?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Web Copywriting