Like this:

When I first heard Bernadette Doyle describe herself as a “recovering loan ranger”, she really hit a nerve with me! Whilst I’ve been outsourcing throughout the last 12 years I’ve been in business, I know I still don’t do it often enough.

My VA (Virtual Assistant) often asks what more can she do to support me and when we go through my list of tasks, we are always able to move some of them from my list onto hers, which does feel great! I just should do it far more often!

Whenever I work with clients I always get them to focus on what they do really well and put in places processes with them to delegate the tasks they dislike doing or aren’t particularly good at. In fact these aren’t the sole reasons for delegating or outsourcing. When you consider the cost/benefit ratio to you and your business, the rewards in saving both time and money considerably outweigh the cost.

Here are a few of my tips for successful outsourcing:

Set A Time Budget

Whenever I have a special project that needs completing (like pulling together a training manual) I give my VA a guide to the amount of time I expect it to take. This way there is no confusion. She’s always clear about my expectations and something like pulling together training material could take as little as 30 minutes to 3 hours. It just depends how many bells and whistles you want! By giving clear instructions and setting a time budget, you manage the project far more effectively.

Set A Financial Budget

This applies to both an overall monthly cost as well as for individual projects. To give you an example, I recently wanted some audios that I had created from running a teleseminar transcribed. I knew colleagues of mine were able to source this kind of work for as little as £25 per hour of audio and some were paying as much as £80. When I was able to set my budget appropriately.

Outsource The Right Project To The Right Person!

Another recent example of mine was that I needed some IT training (nothing too technical but I needed someone to show me some of the bells and whistles on a few programmes). My IT guy is fantastic and I know he would have willingly spent a couple of hours with me on this but his hourly rate is £55 and as I knew that the tuition I needed wasn’t really all that advanced so I decided to source a student from, www.studentgems.com who was able to come to my house, train me up for a couple of hours, all for the princely sum of £20.

So think outside the box too when it comes to outsourcing!

I would love to hear some of your tips or resources on how to outsource effectively so please do get in touch.

Thank you!

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