We recently did a case study to figure out which are our most profitable clients using our products and what are they doing to get there.
It’s very interesting what we discovered. Most of them have must have commonalities (consistency, patience, problem-solving abilities), but all of them are outsourcing tedious tasks in order to scale their business as much as possible.
You might be tempted to think that outsourcing work that you can do yourself will lower the profit margin, but that’s not true in most cases…
Outsourcing repetitive tasks to qualified hands will allow you to focus on other ventures that you won’t normally have time to cover. Learning how to outsource is a skill that you absolutely need to master if you want to take your business to the next level.
Because we know that many of you are struggling to understand the concept of outsourcing, we created a helpful guide that will explain the whole concept in an easy-to-read manner.
We’ll tell you what to outsource, when to outsource and why to do it.
Outsourcing is the process of hiring another individual or company (domestic or international) to handle one (or more) business chores for you.
The practice first became popular among medium-to-large corporations, but now it’s successfully used by most marketers and a wide array of small businesses.
Outsourcing has become popular among small businesses because business owners can get access to services and skill s that would normally be hard to develop in house. Financial or manpower restrictions (or a combination of both) are the main reasons why business owners decide to outsource.
Essentially, outsourcing allows you to grow your business as and when you need to, without any major investment.
On-demand scaling!
If you really think about it, outsourcing repetitive tasks if you’re a one-man the company makes a lot of sense. But let me put things into perspective:
Outsourcing can be a hard concept to understand at first, but I can guarantee that it will change your business for the better. It will enable you to get away from repetitive tasks (that can be completed without your full attention) and focus your time on setting new goals and finding ways to achieve them.
And even better Outsourcing is one of the few practices that will still allow you to grow your business without letting it take over your entire life.
But let’s say that you manage to outsource most of the manual labor to a freelancer from an emerging country. There are a lot of freelancers that do this for a living, and if you’re targeting US businesses, you can easily maintain a 60% profit margin by essentially acting as an intermediary.
The key takeaway here is to follow a process that allows you to outsource without losing quality. The good news is we already have one that most of our top-tier clients are using (with impressive results).
In what follows, we are going to discuss and break down this system into 5 distinct steps.
Read each step carefully and figure out the best way to adapt it to your own business establishment.
Step 1: Determining which Tasks to Outsource
Here’s the most important lesson here: You should only outsource in those instances where you can make more money by outsourcing than by not outsourcing. Does that make sense?
Outsourcing is pointless if it doesn’t make financial sense. With this in mind, you need to look at outsourcing as a tool that will ultimately help you drive more sales and revenue.
Ask yourself the following questions for each task that is part of your everyday working schedule:
- 1. Is this a repetitive task that I have to do constantly?
- 2. Can I outsource this task to a helping hand without putting my business at risk ?
- 3. If I become free of this task, can I generate growth by devoting my resources elsewhere?
- 4. Can I find a freelancer that does this task just as/better than me?
- 5. Can I still turn a profit if I pay a freelancer to do this task for me? If the answer is Yes to all five questions, then it makes sense to outsource that particular task.
Example
Let’s say you earn your keep by helping local businesses gain visibility in the Local Search results. In this case, one of the most frequent tasks that you’d have to get busy with local citation creation, right?
In this particular example, outsourcing is a no-brainer since you can find premium local citation creation services at a very low price point.
A lot of freelancers are offering citation creation services for incredibly low fees.
It’s not absurd to say that you can average a 70% profit if you target the US market (or another developed market).
Another major reason for outsourcing is convenience. Are you losing a lot of time with tasks that you’re not that good at? I can almost guarantee that you can find someone else that you can do better at a fair price.
Let’s consider the scenario where you’re not a very technical person but you’d like to offer SSL certification services. Why spend hours & hours getting to the bottom of the issue when you can pay a professional to do the job in minutes?
Now you see the AMAZING benefits of outsourcing?
Step 2: Scout for outsourcing partners
When you get this far, you should have a clear idea of the tasks that can be successfully outsourced.
The next part is scouting for individuals/teams capable of taking the task off your hands. This part is fairly easy.
There’s no need to scout for local talent when you have the whole wide web at your fingertip.
There are a lot of online marketplaces where you can scout outsourcing partners at acceptable prices. Here’s a list of the best freelance online directories accompanied by a short description, so you’ll know where to focus your attention On:
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Fiverr - Fiver is the best freelance services if you’re looking to outsource marketing-based tasks for a penny on a dollar. You can find great quality SEO sellers, citation sellers, SSL-certificate sellers, graphic sellers and a whole lot more.
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SEO Clerks - An ideal marketplace for backlinks, website traffic, web design, SEO, citation creation and website based services in general. The prices they are comparable to Fiverr, but the selection of sellers is better here.
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Upwork - Here is the crème de la crème when it comes to freelancers. The prices here are higher, but the platform is very good at establishing a hierarchy with the best sellers. You’ll be able to find the most cost-effective freelance for the outsourcing task that you have in mind.
- Freelancer - This is the largest directory from this bunch, but not necessarily the best one. You can outsource local citations creation, web development, data entry, website traffic services, and more for very advantageous prices. But be very careful, as you’ll find a fair number of underqualified sellers that can create you additional problems.
Research each of the freelance directories above and make a list of individuals that you would like to work with. Then, decrease that list to 5 names and contact them in the order of your preferences.
Step 3: Start outsourcing small tasks
Regardless of the seller that you go with, don’t start outsourcing the tasks that can be messed out easily. But if you have to, start by outsourcing small tasks at first.
I mean, think about it – You’ve just got in contact with a potential outsourcing partner. The safest bet is to start with a relatively smart task and let your working relationships develop organically.
This method will allow you to see the quality of their work without taking on too much risk. If you are satisfied with his level of performance, you can begin to gradually unload more tasks until you are finally free to focus on growing your business.
And it works the other way around too. If you’re not too fond of the services you’re provided with, look for an alternative immediately. That’s the beauty of outsourcing work to freelancers. You can keep looking (no strings attached) until you find the best person for the job.
And when you find it (you will eventually), consider paving the way for a long term commitment in which you’ll get a lower price for adding on the Volume.
Step 4: Outsourcing specialized tasks (optional)
If you reach this step, most of the repetitive tasks should already be taken care of.
You should be already comfortable with outsourcing work to freelancers before you attempt this step.
If you picked up the skills of scouting and selecting the best freelancer for your task, why not try to automate the more advanced tasks ?
Or better yet, why not look for a freelancer that could complement your current service list.
You should not limit yourself from business opportunities just because you do not poses the equipment or the skill sets to get the job done. Specialized tasks that can be outsourced quite easily include:
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Customer support services
- Web design services
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Video marketing services
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App development services
- Ad creation services
- Content Creation services
Example
Let’s say that you offer local SEO services but you noticed that a lot of your clients can use a website redesign and are willing to pay for it.
Do put your business on hold to start learning web design or you try to find an individual capable of doing the job for you?
From a financial point of view, the latter option is a quick method of adding to your services without affecting your workflow.
Outsourcing specialized tasks make a lot of sense if you need to automate a task that you don’t do that frequently. Of course, before you contact a freelancer, you need to do the math and figure out if you can still turn a profit.
Step 5: Automate the system & focus on key business processes
You should now have a clear idea on how to outsource the tasks that take the most of your time. Each consultancy business has its own perks, but you should be able to adapt the system above to your own needs.
We’re not saying that outsourcing is not without risks, but this practice has helped a lot of business owners immensely (including us).
Outsourcing can be a hard concept to understand at first, but I can guarantee that it will change your business for the better. It will enable you to get away from repetitive tasks (that can be completed without your full-attention) and focus your time on setting new goals and finding ways to achieve them.
And even better Outsourcing is one of the few practices that will still allow you to grow your business without letting it take over your entire life.
If you don’t have the time to manage your own campaigns, but are interested in Complete Outsourcing CheatSheet for LOCAL to further your business’s goals, don’t hesitate to contact us! Our dedicated team of Internet marketers is more than happy to assist you to achieve your business growth, as well as all other aspects of your digital marketing efforts.