10 Steps To Successfully Outsourcing Your Online Business

10 Steps To Successful Outsourcing

Just kidding… sorta. Now to the serious stuff!

Below I define my precise outsourcing formula for you step by step.

Like Tim Ferriss’s DEAL in The Four Hour Work Week, it starts with Definition and ends in Liberation!

1. Define

The first step is actually figuring out what it is what you do, what you want to do, what you don’t want to do, and ultimately what you can and should delegate.

Take a bit of paper (or a spreadsheet) and break it into four columns: What I Do, What I Do That I Don’t Like or Am Not Great At,

What I Want To Do, and What I Can Delegate.

Start from the left and move to the right. Before filling out the delegate column, eliminate.

Cross stuff faraway from the second column if you'll.

This can be an excellent exercise to prevent doing all your least productive and reserve activities… particularly before you go and pay some other person to try to to them!

Here is a snippet (not the whole thing) of my own list when I started this process several months ago to give you some direction in your own list:

What I Do What I Do or Need Done

That I’m NOT Great At

(or I dislike doing)

What I WANT To Do More Of What To Delegate

WordPress work Coding

Design (Photoshop)

Personal Email

Company Email

Reply to all clients

Project Management

Training (once I hired)

Networking

Travel

Cleaning

Personal Social Media

Company Social Media

Clients’ Social Media

Working ON the biz

Client communication

Client acquisition

Writing (blogging)

Technical Research

Contact Management

Accounting

Bookkeeping

So much more…

Coding

Design (Photoshop)

Sometimes WordPress

Company Social Media

Some training

Accounting

Bookkeeping

Employee Recruiting

Sales (bad at quoting/pricing)

Managing Twitter, etc

(I Like Facebook)

Technical Research

Organize Contacts

Cleaning

Hosting Management

Proposals

Public Speaking Training

Content Creation

Blogging/Writing

Product Creation

Networking

Start New Businesses

Work ON the Business

Strategic Planning

Marketing Consulting

Travel (personal & business)

New Ideas

Coding

WordPress work

Technical Research

Design

Cleaning

Contact Management

Personal Twitter

Company Social Media

Client Communication

Project Management

Most Company Email

Writing Research

Proofreading

Sales (to a pro)

Proposals

Hosting stuff

More…

As you can see when I started there was a huge disconnect between what I was currently doing and what I WANTED to be doing.

Since then things have modified considerably, and are still changing in the right direction.

This takes time, but this first step is absolutely necessary to understand where you are, where you want to be, and what’s holding you back.

I’m still working on outsourcing some of these, but in the last couple of months I’ve been able to boost my revenue and do a lot by outsourcing, while also freeing up my mind to focus on bigger and better things.

In a few months, this list can evolve, and so should yours.

The more you go through this process, the easier outsourcing gets, and the more freedom you experience.

Don’t be conservative on the “delegate” list. If you think you might be able to delegate, put in on there, regardless of how much you might think “but this requires my knowledge/skills/access to do properly.” Just put it on there and figure out the details later.

2. Decide What’s First

Take your “delegate” list from above and determine the top 2 or 3 items that you need done most, at least one of which you feel pretty comfortable delegating immediately.

Write out precisely what it's that you simply do or want done on this stuff.

Outline it within the action steps that you simply would follow to try to to it.

Then break down these action steps to be super easy that a talented technician will follow.

However, if you have a technical task that you want to outsource from your “Things I Am Not Great At or Don’t Like Doing” List then don’t spend too much time on your outline. Just determine what you need and write out scenarios in which you might need it.

I did this with a lot of tasks that I was really incompetent in…

For example, because I run a web design agency, most of my outsourcing needs relate to web design and development.

I 1st sought for a computer user, because that was something I didn’t really do well myself.

Then as my business scaled up, I hired more people to do the stuff I knew how to do well in WordPress and Photoshop, but having these employees at

such nice rates permits to focus additional of my time on building relationships, doing the consulting, and working directly with clients… not to mention all the other things that I

actually like to neutralize personal and entrepreneurial career.

I outlined what I required done 1st, and what kind of work was needed for what client sites.

In this particular case, I didn’t outline all the steps since the people I’m hiring know them better than I do, but I defined my needs very clearly, down

to the extent expertise needed with every programing language and code.

3. Identify

The next step is to profile your ideal worker.

The more specific you are here, the more qualified applicants you get, and the easier the next steps will be.

Being clear concerning what you would like is additional like to… well, get you what you want.

Also, the higher you determine your ideal candidate, the easier the interview (step 7) will be.

You should decide:

What skill areas you need

What level of skill you need in those areas (on a scale of 1 – 10)

Approximately how many hours per week you need done (better to overestimate than under) and which working hours you prefer

Level of English speaking skills

Level of qualities like independence, drawback resolution, power, communication, etc.