Tasks You Should and Should Not Outsource

There comes a time in your business when you just can’t do it all by yourself anymore. You feel as if you’re burned out working every single day and weekends just to keep up with everyday tasks in your business, especially tedious tasks that you hate, or you’re tired of, or that’s a time suck, and you just need to get those off your plate.

You can be so consumed, working all the time that you can’t take on any new clients, any new speaking engagements, or scale your business because you’re just so busy, trying to keep up with the things that you have to do every single day. Lt’s talk about tasks you should and should not outsource.

Before you take on the responsibility of bringing in someone to help you in your business, you need to have systems in place before you outsource. Now, as a business owner, you need to have a written, systematized way of performing a task before you hand it off to someone.  You know how to do the task because you do it everyday and it’s natural to you. But when you’re hiring and outsourcing the task, you can’t expect them to come into your business and figure out how to do things the way you want them to do it. Right. That’s just not that’s not going to happen.

The best way to hand over and hire out a task is to write it down step by step. Have SOP’S for all your tasks in your business written down. And when I say SOP’s for those who don’t know what an SOP stands for, it stands for Standard Operating procedures. In other words, a handbook for all your tasks in your business. If the person you hired to do the task comes up with a better, easier, more efficient way to do the task than have them write that information down in the SOP and update it. Since they’re doing the tasks, they can always come up with a faster, easier, more effecient way than you did. Because after all, they are the ones handling the tasks now, and you should trust them to let them do it the new way.  It’s a great way that benefits your business.

So what are the some of the tasks that you SHOULD outsource?

Taxes – That should be left up to a professional who understands the tax laws and helps keep up with the annual changes because as we know, taxes change every single year.

Administrative Tasks –  data entry, calendar, scheduling, blog, post writing, article writing, emails, CRM, returning calls and scheduling calls, website maintenance, etc.

Customer Service –  talking to your clients and customers, onboarding clients, solving any disputes between your clients, or any billing issues, late payments, irate clients, setting appointments for you, cart abandoment

Graphic Design – making graphics using Canva or Photoshop. Especially if you are spending hours doing it.

Social Media Marketing – marketing your business on social media using Facebook Ads, Facebook groups

 

These are some of the things that you should NOT outsource:

Termination – There comes a time in your business, when you have to let a team member go. . This needs to be done face to face and do it in the most tactful way. This can only be done by you.

Discovery calls – this is something that you have to do. And you need to do it over some type of streaming device like Zoom or Skype where you can record the meeting and meet that person face to face. You need to see if you both are a good fit for one another.

Marketing –  this is a task that you can do yourself or you can hire it out. Some people are very good at marketing  their business and they don’t need help. If you feel that your marketing is not getting you the results that you want, then you need to outsource it.

You Need To Have Systems In Place Before You Outsource

 As the business owner you need to have a written systemized way of performing a task before you hand it off to someone. You can’t expect someone to come into your business and figure out how things should go. You are doing that task everyday so it’s natural for you to do. The best way to hand over or hire out a task is to write it down step by step. Have SOP’s for all of your tasks in your business. Now if the person that you hired to do the task comes up with a better, easier more efficient way to do the task have them write that information down in the SOP and update it.

 You Need to Know How To Do The Task Before Outsourcing It 

If you, the business owner, don’t know how to perform the tasks that you are outsourcing how do you know that is being done the correct way? How do you know how long it should take to do this task before you outsource it? Never hire someone to do something for you, that you don’t know how to do yourself. That could turn into a real disaster in the end.

Find and Hire And Interview Qualified Candidates For Your Job

I would think twice before I put a request  on social media looking for a candidate. If you do, you’re most likely going to get hammered with 375 applicants vying for this one position. Do you have time to go through all of those requests? How many of those applicants even followed your directions on how to apply for the job? Ask for some  recommendations from friends, or other business people who have outsourced before. And make sure that when you interview your candidate, make sure that you do it on Zoom. You want to see their facial expressions and body language. That’s a good way  to know their communication style.

Make Sure That Your Candidates Have The Ability To Meet Your Deadlines

It’s important that the person that you hired is able to meet deadlines in your business. Say you have a team member and one person on your site is always late with a project. That could cause a lot of problems for you and your clients. It can cause a bottleneck effect and in the end make you lose clients. It’s shows a matter of respect to you. And it could cancel out any cost saving benefits that you anticipated when you outsource this task.

Candidates Must Need Minimal Supervision

No matter how talented or experience an outsouced person is, you have to take some time to train them. They need to be trained in the way you want your business to run and work. Plus, you need to go over your SOP’s with them. Once they are trained, and you feel comfortable letting them do the job by themselves, breath and let go.