5 Simple Steps to Outsource Anything in Your Business
Connor Gillivan — April 22, 2019 — April 22, 2019
Are you a business owner with too much on your plate? If you are, then you’re not alone. Many other business owners and their businesses are suffering as you and yours are. And you don’t have to continue plugging away all by your lonesome. You can outsource anything in your business to get that much needed help.
Here’s a tried and tested simple 5-step process that you can use to outsource any task that’s got you bogged down:
(1) Identify What’s Holding You Back
Make a List
List out all the tasks that you’re currently handling. Then add in the other tasks that you’ve pushed back because you just can’t take on any more.
Identify the tasks that you are least qualified for. Then order them from the most to the least time-consuming. Finally, mark them so you can see which ones will require bigger or smaller budgets to complete.
Choose a Task
Once that’s done, go through the list once more to identify the simpler tasks. You can outsource anything, but you’ll want to start with one of these for a few reasons:
Especially if it’s your first time hiring for your business, and because you’re outsourcing, you want something that will be easier to handle. You are already overwhelmed, so you want to ease into outsourcing. You may be tempted to get a big project off your plate, but don’t jump the gun. Start simple until you’ve got the hang of it, otherwise you may find yourself even more overwhelmed.
Create a Description
Clearly describe the task that you’ve chosen to outsource. This will help you get organized so that you’re prepared to find, vet and hire in the next step.
You may know how to do the task because you’ve been doing it, but it’s different when you’re preparing to pass it off to someone else. Get it all down on paper so you can think through each aspect of it. It will help you see what the basic skills for the task are, your personal preferences for how it’s done, your expectations as to the outcome, and the special tools needed to get it done, for starters.
A well-thought-out task description will also help you attract the right candidates so you don’t get hundreds of applications.
You do not want to have to spend more time and effort wading through resumes and proposals. And you definitely don’t want to miss the perfect match for you, your business and the task itself because they got buried under the others. You want a few, quality applicants, so you need to be as detailed as possible to get them to apply while dissuading the less qualified.
(2) Identify the Right Freelancer
Now it’s time to identify the perfect person for this task. If you’ve given your description enough thought, this step should be easy work. You’ll want to pull out qualities here that identify the best fit for not just the task, but for you and your business. Some of these might be:
Task
- verified skill
- adequate experience
Owner
- working time
- language proficiency
- communication style
Business
- niche experience
- passion for the product or service offered
(3) Find the Right Platform
The easiest and safest way to find and hire the right freelancer is to use a hiring platform. There are a lot of freelance websites out there, so you want to find one that has built a good reputation for taking care of clients and pooling the best freelancers. Here are a few examples:
FreeeUp
- pre-vetted freelancers
- fast hire experience
- no turnover guarantee
- secure payment options
- free top-level assistance
Upwork
- biggest pool of freelancers
- freelancer rating system
- premium service options
- payment escrow
TopTal
- top-rated freelancers
- no-risk guarantee
- specializes in software development, design, finance, product management, project management
You want to use the platform that makes the most sense for you and your business. Think about what your hiring priorities are then search for the platform that gives you the best value where it matters most. Then post your task description and wait for freelancers to apply.
(4) Interview
Once you’ve been matched with one or a few candidates, it’s time to do an interview to make sure that they are the best fit. You don’t want to rush through this, but it doesn’t have to be a long interview if you’ve done the previous steps carefully.
Schedule a good time to do a video call with the freelancer. This is important so you can check visual cues and body language. Then prepare questions and topics for discussion around their experience, work habits, and the like.
Your focus during the interview should be to:
1. Establish Rapport
It’s important to be personable because you want the freelancer to speak openly with you. If you get straight down to business, they may feel uncomfortable and limit their responses. If that happens, then you may not be able to identify red flags that tell you they’re not the right person to work with you.
2. Gather Information
Once you’ve gotten to know the freelancer a bit, start asking them questions that target anything that that you weren’t able to gather from their profiles, portfolios, etc. Remember to remain personable so the freelancer doesn’t put their guard up and skew the results.
A Few More Tips
Take notes on all their responses so you can carefully review them later. It’s easy to miss things while you’re in the middle of a conversation. When all the interviews are done, go through your notes again so you can find the best freelancer.
Don’t just decide to hire whichever one comes out on top, though. You are looking for the perfect match, and none of the above may qualify.
If you haven’t found the perfect freelancer for the task, don’t settle. You may be tired and even frustrated. You have a lot to do. But settling will just mean problems down the road. Take it slow because you want to find that person who will be easy to work with and produce great results.
(5) Hire and Onboard
Once you’re satisfied that you’ve found the right fit, it’s time to make it official. Hiring the freelancer should be a piece of cake if you’re on a great platform. The next step is onboarding them.
Using your task description as a guide, prepare a document that lists out your expectations. You want to have this ready before onboarding begins so that you and the freelancer can get on the same page right away. Be very clear about everything that’s important to you regarding the task and how it’s done, including how you want to get updates.
Final Thoughts
It’s hard to believe that you can outsource anything in your business, but my partner and I have done it – we have run two completely remote businesses. This 5-step process is the very same one that we’ve created and honed over the years and still use today to hire rockstar freelancers from all over the world.
To make the task sorting process simpler, here’s a template of the TATM Sheet that you can use to list out and filter your business tasks.
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