Recently, I reached a point in my business where I felt that I needed to start outsourcing if I really wanted my business to grow. I’ve heard the term outsourcing so much that I wasn’t sure what it meant exactly and how it could apply to me, so I decided to do a little research.
What is Outsourcing?
Entrepreneur Magazine defines Outsourcing as:
” The practice of having certain job functions done outside a company instead of having an in-house department or employee handle them; functions can be outsourced to either a company or an individual”
So for instance, if you spend a lot of time social bookmarking your websites, you can easily contract that task out to a third party. While outsourcing is similar to subcontracting, the term generally refers to hiring an international company as opposed to a domestic company. If you want to hire a telemarketing service or appointment setting services to build your book-of-business and lead generation lists, it is important to understand the benefits of outsourcing as opposed to hiring in-house employees. While you will have to pay for the services, the costs for outsourcing are much lower than the costs of hiring and training employees.
Benefits of Outsourcing
One of the main benefits of outsourcing is the fact that you can save a lot of money, this is especially true if you outsource to overseas companies or individuals. I outsource some of my article writing to a woman in the Philippines and the cost savings I have achieved by hiring someone overseas as opposed to here in the U.S. has been staggering. Saving money, though, is not the only benefit of outsourcing. Outsourcing can help a business to increase their profits as well as their productivity. When you outsource repetitive and time consuming tasks, you can spend more time focusing on ways to expand your core business model . When you are able to spend more time on your business as opposed to wasting time on inconsequential tasks, you can really brainstorm and grow your business.
“When small and mid-size businesses outsource work, it allows them to focus more on their core competencies. In many cases, this approach to outsourcing is a smart way for businesses to add value to their operations.”
~ Nancy Pechloff
What do I Outsource
Currently, I outsource the following tasks:
Website Creation/Maintenance – I’m not that fond of WordPress because I always seem to “break” something while I tinker around with it. Whenever this happens, It used to take me hours to figure out how to fix it. So now I pay someone to maintain my WordPress blogs (setups, periodic backups, etc..)
Content Creation – I write a lot of article for the purpose of obtaining back links. This takes up a lot of my time and is also boring as hell. I now outsource most of this work. The Filipino woman I hired can bang out hundreds of articles every week.
Video Creation – When I need a high quality video, I outsource this task to a guy I know who makes great videos.
Link building – In the past I have hired people to do link wheels for me. Most recently, I hired someone to do a backlinking campaign for a few of my niche sites.
Graphics – I suck at creating good graphics, so I have hired people to do them for me.
More on outsourcing in a later post. 
Do you outsource? What type of tasks do you outsource?
Looking at outsourcing from the different view points of the three bloggers in shows just how diverse each bloggers outsource needs are..In this guest post Nicole Dean The Mostly Sane Marketer shares some of her secrets for success. .By .One of my favorite topics to discuss is outsourcing..You d be amazed how thinking about outsourcing and where to begin outsourcing flummoxes everyone from the newest newbies to the seasoned gurus and everyone in between..Buy why?
The best thing about outsourcing is you can save on expenses without compromising your company’s reputation. Hence, gaining more income.
Good advice and well said yes there are major benefits of outsourcing. Please allow me to ad just a few more,
1.No need to purchase computer equipment and software.
2.No need to train and retrain staff.
3.No need to pay work cover, superannuation, sick and annual leave, public holidays.
4.Your work is completed on time, ensuring no late penalties from the ATO.
5.Allow the business owner the time to manage current clients and source new ones
Is there any chance that you would share the person that you use for content creation?
I am a writer but find that it takes up so much time and would really love to outsource it now.
Thanks
Karen
Thanks for sharing. They are very helpful to me.
Outsourcing has grown in importance today because economic and competitive pressures have made it imperative for organizations of all sizes to focus on their core competencies and turn to third-parties to assume responsibility for other secondary corporate functions. Leveraging third-party alternatives can reduce costs and improve operating efficiencies.
[...] Nassy in her article about outsourcing, says, “I reached a point in my business where I felt that I needed to start outsourcing if I [...]
Outsourcing is definitely very beneficial for the companies. As by doing it it can save extra cost of hiring the employee and plus the current employees can concentrate on more important work. It obviously maximize the time and also the freelancer employer get the opportunities which obviously is very beneficial for them in terms of money and experience
A lot of good points here. ‘Philippines Outsourcing’ I agree with your comment to a certain extent. If the outsourcing service is in direct contact with your customers/clients constant communication between you and them is of absolute importance to make sure they are delivering the same high standard and quality service that your business would provide.
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The best thing I like about outsourcing is I can save on expenses, salary while earning a lot from it. Also, you will not be paying for the computer and other resources to be used.
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Outsourcing is definitely a viable way to get tasks done that you may not have time to do yourself, plus it helps to stimulate the economy a bit by providing work opportunities.
Nice post!
Nothing is wrong with hiring a help. If your business gets larger, outsourcing is the best way to go.
One good tip is always being open on hiring anyone, anywhere. There are lots of applicants who are willing to work for you and are every bit suited for the position that can be found half way around the world. It doesn’t necessary mean that if it costs less; it’s got a poor quality.
“Just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you should.”
I am into outsourcing any service. However most people think of it as a bad thing. One reason is because It causes unemployment to some countries.
But there are lots of benefits of outsourcing. One huge reason why companies enter this world is to cut costs. Most services are better outsourced rather than hiring an in-house employee, especially on IT operations. It is a smart move and it just makes perfect sense to spend a little money, in order to save a lot.
But if you have no idea on how to do it the right way, you might as well do your country and business a favor and don’t outsource. Because it’s risky and you might just waste more money than you intend to.