Posted by: Troy White
December 24, 2009
Issue #827

Outsourcing to grow
your business quickly

In this issue:

• Five invaluable websites you can use to find all the help you could ever want …

• Three key areas to look to and trust when making your decision to hire employees and contractors (including two background checks that can guarantee you a star worker) …

• BIG MISTAKE #1 with new employees and contractors.  What it is – and how to fix it …

• And Much More!

Fellow Business-Builder,

Not long ago, I posted a challenge to everyone here to post some of your biggest concerns and business issues that hold you back.

This week I want to address one area that seems prevalent across the board – and it is one area that is impacting my business as well …

People … we need more people …

And not just anyone. 

We need highly-qualified people to help us grow our businesses. 

We don’t have a lot of extra time or bandwidth to search them out, train them or manage them.  And we want them to help us out for as little money as possible.

Sound familiar?

The type of person we are looking for
almost sounds like a mythical creature …

Honestly, where do you go out and find highly-qualified people that are experienced in your field (or close to it), will work for little money, will be focused on your business, and won’t require a lot of management?

It’s the type of job requirement that any one of us would run from!  The old entrepreneurial thought process would take over and we would much rather do all of that – for ourselves – no one else.

But, and this is the best part, 
WE ARE NOT LIKE MOST PEOPLE.

Not at all. 

No, most entrepreneurs, I know and work with, are a rather unusual bunch.  We love working hard, we love doing things few others have the guts to do, and we are always looking for ways to aim higher and achieve bigger things. 

Most people are content doing their thing and just doing whatever it takes to “get by.”  I saw it this a while back at a cousin’s wedding.  With a hundred people there, I was one of two people there who ran their own business.  Everyone else, cousins included, whined about their crappy life, their lack of a “lucky break,” and how nice it must be to run your own show, like I do.

They are the last ones that would ever have the brass ones to take the plunge and do what it takes to start and run a business …

… But they may have the right attitude
to help us in our business.

Not MY relatives - you couldn’t pay ME enough to hire them.

What I mean is that the large majority of people across this great planet do not work for themselves – and many of them ARE for hire.

If you have read The 4 Hour Workweek, you know about the power of outsourcing part of your work load. 

Have you done it yet?

I have – and it rocks! 

We have a number of people that are outsourced freelancers, along with a couple full-timers that help us accomplish what we need.

Right now I am looking for more help … so I did some research here that should be helpful to you as well.

Before we get to where to find the people,
 we need to look at how you find the RIGHT people …

• First things first: select people who specialize in the type of work you need done. Don’t start with the assumption you can find a good Web programmer and make them become a good online marketer.  Or finding a personal assistant that you fully intend on turning into a telemarketer.
• If possible, check their references immediately.  If no references are available, proceed with extreme caution.
• Don’t go in with the attitude that cheaper is your only option.  Many times, paying more will actually save you a lot of hassle, headache, and ultimately money.  Find the right person for the job, with the right experience, and find a way to make their financial requirements fit your budget.
• Negotiate.  Work hard at getting flexible hourly rates, payment schedules, even deliverables for the money.
• Hire slowly.  Don’t go into this process if you are in panic mode and need someone that same afternoon (not that any entrepreneurs I know would have this type of situation to deal with).  Plan forward and give yourself some leeway to hire properly.  I love the saying “hire slow – fire fast” – I wish I had listened to it in the past with some now ex-employees!

When you hire your first outsourcer or employee.

The majority of their concern should be to help you get systematized in your business. 

Each area of your business needs to be fully documented and step-by-step procedures put onto paper so that future employees and outsourcers are easier to integrate into your business.

They should be documenting every single step of your business processes.  This will require some of your time up front – but the payoff is huge.  Once you have this documented, they can then train others how to do what they just learned to do.  You immediately pull yourself out of the chain for firing and training new people – they can now do it for you. 

It really is an enlightening feeling to have someone else hiring your people, training them, and managing them. 

You can now focus on the areas you should be focusing on: Marketing and sustainable business growth.

Communication with your key people.

This is an area I constantly struggle with. 

I am one of those types with lots of great ideas inside my skull, and fully expect those around me to have telepathic powers and be able to pull my thoughts and explanations out of thin air, saving me the time and effort required to explain it all. 

It has taken time, but I am getting much better at it.  It now consists of regular scheduled meetings to go through major action items, campaigns, or to-do lists. 

Amazing how a little half-hour meeting can get your team working with you and keeping them in touch with where the company is going and growing. 

Have a single person that takes charge of the others.  An accountability person helps everyone stay on track, stay focused, and gives them the feedback they need to continually deliver to expectations.  Leave this up to the typical business owner and it soon is a complete mess.  This same person should be responsible to measure progress, reward others for a job well done, and follow through on the task list to make sure it is getting done.

So, this is all fine and dandy,
but where do you find the people?

You can go the obvious route and advertise in your local paper. 

But, if you live in a place like my city (where wages are extremely high, and there are three times as many jobs as potential employees), it may not be your best bet.

They are giving SIGNING BONUSES to $11-an-hour employees in Calgary. 

So probably not a good place to hire – not unless you want someone who expects the world, and knows they can walk down the block this afternoon and get a better paying job.

If there is any way possible you can have virtual employees – it may be your best bet (by far) to get started down this path.

Things to look for:

• Background – where have they worked and who have they worked for?  Look for people who are used to working with small businesses (if they contracted to an entrepreneur and he or she is happy with their work, a very good sign of times to come).  Look for people who grew up in an entrepreneurial family (they are fully used to long hours and hard work).  Look for people who grew up on a farm (hard workers and used to building things from the ground up).
• Education.  A college or university degree does not buy you anything in an employee.  Look for the ability to learn and the ability to follow through. 
• Your intuition.  Always a good measuring stick with people.  Does everything feel right to you?  Is there something nagging you about the credentials or their background?  Dig deeper, trust your intuition, but understand that gut feelings are sometimes wrong.

Where do you look for virtual employees?

1. www.elance.com – anything and everything for outsourcing.
2. www.odesk.com – a great range of outsourcers – worldwide base to draw from – hourly rates from $4 - $50.  Great review section.
3. www.asksunday.com – more for finding odd jobs to be done over the phone or e-mail.
4. www.rentacoder.com – excellent source for technical help (but also covers some non-tech help).
5. www.agentsofvalue.com – Web developers, entry level article writers, assistants.

These five sites are ones I have used, researched and like. I realize there are probably 300 other sites I have not linked to here.  If you have some to contribute to the list – please add them at the end of this article.

What do you do to get started down the outsourcing path?

1. Make sure you have documented your to-do items first.  Better to do it in advance than to hire someone then try and figure out what you will have them work on.
2. Set a trial period of a month or two.  This gives you and them time to get to know each other, get used to your areas of strength and weakness, and make sure you are a good fit to continue working together.
3. Set pre-determined meeting times for you to discuss to-do items.  Weekly, daily, whatever you feel is needed (budget out more time up front to get them up to speed).
4. Think through what you will do to reward them for meeting big deadlines.  Money is not always a good reward – find other ways to reward them so that money is not always expected.
5. Create a template project management document.  Show them a way to stay organized and in sync with all your different to-do items and projects.

If you are in serious need of help – get cracking on this.  The firms mentioned above give you access to qualified, hard working employees and contractors for very little money. 

Use your smarts – hire to the job required – hire slow – and fire fast.

To your success,

Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.

Looking for more of Troy’s articles? Check these out.

Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.

A Final Note:

If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please submit a comment below and I will see how I can help.

"Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”

–Napoleon Hill

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6 Comments »

1. Comment by Charles Waugh — December 24, 2009 @ 10:59 am

   I am learning this slowly - and I LOVE it!

   As a portrait artist, I found that the best investment I have made is in an assistant who runs the phones for me. She does all the calling and scheduling, which has freed me from the daily emotional drain of calling people. Not that I don’t like people - au contraire! I love ‘em! It’s the putting myself out there in the face of possible rejection that used to drain me.

   Now I get to reserve that emotional energy for the set appointments with my clients.

   I also began really documenting my business processes about 6 months ago (I use Google docs for the ability to link from one to another doc easily as well as it’s on-line-anywhere abilities). And, just as you say: my training and startup is WAY easier!

   I tip: I also use video for training. Both by using Camtasia to do screen-grab videos as I work on something, as well as a hand-held video cam for hands-on tasks. After the video is done, I have the newest hire write a step-by-step outline which I then review for accuracy.

   I am now building a library of these video-and-written-outline training modules. Wonderful for ease of training!

   Quick tip: do these in short pieces: a maximum of 5 minutes each. That way, if you make a mistake in recording (or change a process later) you are not tempted to leave it broken because it’s quick to fix.

   Cheers!

2. Comment by Howard "OutSourcerer" Tiano — December 24, 2009 @ 3:49 pm

   Great advice Troy!

   As someone who teaches outsourcing, these issues are very common stumbling blocks to the beginning outsourcer. (And us “veterans” as well!)

   Your resources are very good, though I have not had very good experience with agents of value. The workers don’t seem to be very well-trained, despite college degrees, and they constantly have Internet connection issues.

   One point you made I want to underscore, is being prepared with your business tasks laid out as clearly as possible to begin with, to be tweaked as you go.

   Many beginning outsourcers (people who are the employers) make the mistake of not being clear with their task instructions, causing delays and miscommunications which can make the outsourcing process very frustrating .

   Charles’ comment (above) has got the right idea of building a library of training videos to give to your outsourcers. You can find a large number of surprisingly good quality training videos on YouTube, as well as using “how to” Internet marketing product videos to help build your library quickly.

   For some more resources on where to find outsourced workers, (here comes my shameless plug), check out:
   http://UltimateOutsourceDirectory.com/

   I will be sure to TrackBack to this post for my subscribers!

   Thanks,
   Howard

   P.S. Merry Christmas!

3. Comment by mark — December 25, 2009 @ 11:25 am

   Always look forward to your posts…you make a lot of sense…keep up the good work.

4. Comment by Hooer — December 25, 2009 @ 12:17 pm

   You forgot guru.com

5. Comment by Jay — December 25, 2009 @ 2:44 pm

   Troy - Enjoyed your post as I do most [All actually]! Happy Christmas and I hope Calvary is White with Snow… Raleigh NC is … raining.

   Great tips on hiring and outsourcing. I’m with you. Clients often hear me say, “If you don’t HAVE TO hire someone, don’t.” So outsourcing is great.

   Also, when hiring, gather as much INFO about the hire in question as possible. Didn’t see anything about assessments so thought I’d add… “Profiles” have been around for over 50 years and haven’t quite proven themselves effective… for hiring. So people don’t trust them [for good reason.]

   There are some great hiring tools that will give you amazing detail and information - tested and proven - that actually work.

   You and I actually discussed this at a marketing conference in ‘07. Ring a bell? You mentioned adding links to the list and I hope it not poor etiquette to add my own but my service WORKS. http://www.RealTalentHiring.com

   Happy Hiring and HUGE success to all!

   Jay

   PS - Probably goes without saying but it’s likely an apology to all you amazing copywriters for posting on this site with MY writing is in order. Hope it wasn’t too painful to read… but valuable.

6. Comment by Karen Sielski — December 25, 2009 @ 4:51 pm

   Happy Holidays! Loved this post. I am a huge advocate of outsourcing, even though my job in the high tech industry got outsourced 3 times. The 3rd time I was given lemons I made lemonade and became an online entrepreneur and have never looked back.

   If you are looking for specific tasks you can outsource, check out this list of 25 tasks you can outsource.

   Enjoy!
   Karen