One of the biggest changes that we made in our businesses that had a positive impact was outsourcing our work. When we first began in the business world, we did everything ourselves and soon became bogged down with tasks, had less time and scale slowed. Ultimately, outsourcing work helped us to free our time, to work on the business and as a consequence we increased our profit ten fold.
Outsourcing can seem pretty intimidating if you’ve never tried it, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming or scary.
In this article we want to take a look at some tips that can help you to get started with outsourcing.
Systematic Outsourcing
It’s tempting to send your virtual assistants (VA) a long list of tasks to complete, asking them to report back at the end of the week for the next chapter in a project. While this strategy can work well on long-term VAs and those experienced in a specialist role, it’s unlikely to continue on a positive note.
Mistakes become more apparent without direction and clear processes for a VA to follow. If these are not in place right from the start, it’s much harder to eliminate errors and refine the type of work you need completed.
Identify the core processes the VA will be responsible for and utilise a platform like Asana to assign tasks which indicate the process, tutorials, steps, deliverables and control measures. Always ensure you provide feedback on a consistent basis and allow your VA to provide feedback to you on tasks/processes that may need further refinement.
By taking a systematic approach and chunking down processes into smaller action-related tasks, you’ll be able to focus on efficiency and eliminate mistakes before they become a liability. Start by requesting a daily progress report from your VA.
Recruitment Options
For most people, one full-time VA is enough to complete basic tasks and manage extra work. Regardless, it’s important to keep a backup planned, especially if your work is subject to deadlines and urgent.
VA’s are known for disappearing at the worst possible times, particularly when they’re contacted through a semi-anonymous contract bidding website. Decide whether you require a project based VA, or one that needs to work on a part time or full time for your business, but have a clear vision for the future, as you may need more hours from your VA as your business grows.
There are many Do It Yourself platforms available to choose from and if you are equipped with the right skills and tools to conduct the recruitment, training and onboarding yourself, we recommend using OnlineJobs.ph.
If however you are new to the world of recruitment or you do not have the time and wish to use a recruitment agency that guarantees to find you the very best VA for your business, then get in contact with the team at Global VA Solutions to discuss your needs.
Communication Is Key
The employer/virtual assistant relationship is extremely important and is built over time through effective communication from both parties. Whether you opt for a long-term hire or simply choose to outsource on a project basis, the remote relationship means that communication may be a little harder. You won't be able to catch the non-verbal indicators that occur in a face to face conversation. So it is important to understand those with whom you are communicating with and speak their “language”.
Don’t make the assumption that your VA will hear you in the same way. It is your responsibility as a leader to ensure that your VA has clearly understood the message and welcome any questions or feedback to ensure the message is fully understood.
Evaluate Your Approach
If you’re working with freelancers on an on-going basis it’s a good idea to evaluate your process and your approach every now and then to make sure that it is still working well for you.
For example, if you’re outsourcing content creation for your social media accounts, you should evaluate your metrics frequently and ensure your freelancer is delivering. At the end of the day, you hired them because they are skilled in this area and should have no issue in delivering for you, if you have communicated these metrics effectively with them.
If your communication or perhaps your ROI is poor, you can try a different approach (perhaps using other freelancers) or find an alternative recruitment solution with experience and who delivers results.
Summary
Outsourcing is a great way to free up your time so you can focus more on what matters – growing your business.
Consider developing a process for each task you outsource, and be sure to incorporate the advice you’ve learned from this article.
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Here Are Some Additional Resources
Get Expert Virtual Assistants: Want to build your team of transformational VAs and free your time? Learn more here.
Ready to Outsource? Book a Free Consultation Call to learn how we can help you scale your business through Virtual Assistants.
Need to Understand The Benefits of Outsourcing? Download our FREE guide to get all your questions answered.
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