Online Outsourcing - A Resource of Growth

Hello! Thank you for visiting our website. This post is the first two chapters to one of our introductory books, Online Outsourcing - A Resource of Business Growth, please enjoy.

The basic aim of outsourcing is to get other skilled people to take care of cumbersome business tasks so that you can do more of what you do best – provide an excellent product to your customers and grow your business.

There may be better definitions available on the Internet and this book will eventually discuss a more precise meaning of outsourcing, however, we want you to get past that and into the fundamentals, so you can take action and start doing it for your own business.

At Outsource That we have a two-fold philosophy:

Introduction

“Outsourcing involves employing the services of an individual or company outside of your regular staff to handle aspects of your work.”​​​​​​

Today’s trend is to target freelancers or service providers who work from home and contract services online. Outsourcing may be temporary (for example, short term for a logo design, or long-term for an office assistant) and should not be confused with the ever-expanding practice of moving jobs to overseas facilities. Outsourcing in its purest form enables a business to bring in the best person or company for a particular job without the added expense of a full-time employee. Outsourcing opens up a world of possibilities for business owners who would otherwise have been disadvantaged by financial and other limitations.

While outsourcing is used by all sizes of companies, the small business owners are the ones who benefit the most. Large companies can afford to have a person for every job, but small to medium business owners often lack the resources for such extensive hiring. For these business owners, outsourcing is key and is by no means a new concept. For centuries, small business owners have been hiring people outside their own staff to ease the workload. Any time a business owner hired someone to fix the plumbing or cater a function, they were outsourcing jobs.

The opportunities for outsourcing are almost endless. Due to the availability of online freelance sites, more and more aspects of business can be outsourced. Through these sites, employers can outsource almost any type of work from copy writing to logo design to website building. Other tasks easily handled by freelancers include ghostwriting, software development, indexing and link building, and IT management. Just take a quick glance at one of the popular freelance sites, such as Upwork, Guru and Freelancer.com, and you will see the long lists of services offered by professionals online.

Now, you may be wondering why outsourcing is a better solution than hiring a new staff member. In some situations, hiring new staff is the better answer; however, the benefits of outsourcing are unmistakable. Outsourcing can save you money and make you money. Outsourcing is a dynamic process in which you can have the exact right person for each specific need. This will leave you free to focus on other tasks, and you won’t be held back by a single person’s limited skill set. For these reasons and more, outsourcing truly does give you the ability to do anything.

Chapter 1 | Virtual Man Power

Turn the impossible into the possible.
Save time, money, and aggravation.
Make your life easier and your business more successful.
Do Anything!

Like any other endeavor, running a business has unique challenges that require focus, determination, and resourcefulness. While most entrepreneurs have ample amounts of focus and determination, especially in the stages in which they are starting or expanding their own businesses, resources often pose the greatest challenge.

One of the most important resources is manpower. In today’s highly competitive market, finding the right people to perform critical tasks has become paramount. However, this can be difficult and also very expensive. For small business owners in particular, finding and hiring additional staff is not always feasible.

This section introduces a great option that business owners should consider when they require manpower. Whether on a part-time or full-time basis, hiring through outsourcing is sure to help any company achieve its goals through providing countless benefits that far outweigh any perceived risks.

A Resource for Growth

Using outsourcing as a resource for growth is a benefit many business owners are now realizing. For a small business owner, particularly, it is an invaluable way to expand business without the expenses and hassles associated with hiring extra staff. With online access to thousands of freelancers worldwide, finding the right person has become simpler, faster, and more reliable than ever. To some owners, however, outsourcing to a freelancer online may seem the riskier and more intimidating option.

With so many people to choose from, narrowing the field can be a daunting proposition. Plus, trusting your work to a stranger on the other end of an Internet connection does seem risky; how can you really know your money is not just disappearing into an account somewhere on the other side of the world, never to be seen again? You may even be thinking that your Internet skills are not up to the challenge.

These concerns are exactly why there are now professional freelance sites operating to ensure that not only do you get the work completed, but that the whole process is as easy as it can be, even for the least Internet savvy user. Keep in mind that these freelance sites’ very survival depends upon positive experiences for both owners and freelancers. Keeping the process user-friendly for all is paramount to each site’s success. Consequently, outsourcing work to freelancers online is becoming the new answer to the age-old question, “How can I work smarter, not harder?”

Research Supported Benefits

Working smarter, not harder, is the reason many people enter into business ownership – the dream of something outside of a nine-to-five job that promises the potential to grow capital faster than any pay increase could. To further this goal, more and more business owners are turning to outsourcing.

Due to this growing popularity, outsourcing has attracted the attention of researchers wanting to test its benefits. Following is a sample of these studies’ results:

Risk is inherent in any business endeavor and is something that one must be ready to address in today’s business environment; while the perceived risks that come with outsourcing may appear daunting to most business owners, research proves that the benefits far outweigh these risks. The above results show that outsourcing is a key element to achieving business success. Outsourcing enables owners to achieve more efficient operations and highly positive outcomes without the need to invest a large portion of capital. In the long-term, companies enjoy greater profit for minimal expenditures.

Outsourcing for Online and Small Business

The adage “work smarter, not harder” challenges even the most organized of business owners, especially those with limited resources. Working smarter is particularly important for online and small businesses, many of which have as few as one employee (the owner!). In these situations, business owners and their meagre staff members frequently find themselves juggling multiple aspects of the workload. The day-to-day operation of the business takes precedence and leaves no time for focusing on expansion. Being busy is great, to be sure, but being busy while growing is far better.

Take an inventory of how your time and energy are being spent. If you’re not happy with the results, you are likely in need of an extra person or two to help carry the load. Imagine what you could do with your newfound time if you could delegate some of your duties to someone else. The thought of hiring full-time employees makes many small business owners break out in a cold sweat. If you’re one of them, consider instead whether you would be better off working with freelancers. After all, outsourcing can be an option for even the most unlikely tasks.

One of the most time-consuming aspects of operating a business is completing paperwork. Believe it or not, even this chore can be outsourced due to our virtually paperless business world. Accountants, personal assistants, bookkeepers, and project managers make up only a small percentage of the numerous administrative and business freelancers offering their services. Outsourcing opportunities in sales and marketing also abound, from advertising to public relations to market research. Outsourcing these highly demanding necessities frees up a great deal of your time and means the work will get done more effectively and efficiently.

Weigh the differences. Doing everything yourself exhausts you mentally and physically, thus severely limiting your effectiveness. Hiring full-time employees brings complicated payroll, taxes, equipment expenses, benefits including sick pay, and more. Outsourcing ensures that work gets done by matching the right person to each task, keeping costs down and easing the considerable burdens that come along with entrepreneurship.

Work Done When You Need It

Business needs and demands continuously change and evolve. Yesterday you needed a marketing plan, today you need a website created, and tomorrow you will need your books balanced. Few people have the time, or the skills needed to handle all of these demands on their own. When it comes to temporary needs and seldom recurring tasks, outsourcing surpasses hiring regular staff for two very important reasons:

Quality Can Be Better Monitored

Not only does outsourcing get you started out on the right foot with a truly qualified person, it also makes “shopping around” much easier. If one freelancer doesn’t work out, you just hire someone new the next time. This, by the way, is also a tremendous advantage when working in creative fields like writing and design because hiring someone new from time to time will help keep your information and graphics fresh.

More Money in Your Pocket

In outsourcing, payment amount is determined up front and agreed upon by both parties. While you may choose to reward an exceptional job with a bonus of some kind, no costs outside of the contracted amount are required or even expected. Additionally, freelancers provide their own equipment, software, and Internet connections – all significant costs that will stay far away from your bottom line.

Wider Range of Skilled People to Choose From

Perhaps the most exciting benefit of outsourcing is the ability to select the best person for each separate task. You get access online to people with a variety of skills for the various tasks you need completed. One freelancer may be particularly skilled in brochure design, another in quickly typing error-free Word documents, and yet another in web design tasks. Your time and resources can be put to much better use, and these savings can be directed straight back into the expansion of your business.

Outsourcing for National or International Client Bases

If your clients tend to be outside of your local area and mainly contacted via phone and email, then it simply makes sense to outsource.

If your business covers a large geographic area, then utilize the people with the knowledge and expertise of that wider area. A freelance graphic designer, for example, can develop effective media and advertising strategies on a national or international scale.

Even the need for an actual branch office could be eliminated since freelancers provide more than just their own equipment; they provide their own location as well (i.e., most work from home).

Alternatively, if clients do occasionally need to drop in to the office, a much smaller site and full-time staff base would be required.

Read Chapter 2 and more when you download the book from our free members level...