Once you’re ready to dive completely into the “work less, earn more” lifestyle, you need to get budget savvy.

I’m not going to bore you with the procedures of outsourcing here, because I’m sure you’ve heard it all before, so I’m going to focus on the money aspect of it. After all, that seems to be the number one roadblock to outsourcing for most people.

You say, “I can’t afford it” and I say, “Yes, you can!”

In order to create a budget, you have to decide what kind of assistance you need:

- Virtual assistant
- Writers
- Graphic designer
- Technical support

Then you have to determine what you need from each person, and what you consider to be a fair wage. For instance I work with two virtual assistants, each handling a different set of tasks in my business, each getting paid a different amount. Why?

Because one of my assistants fits the role of executive assistant, meaning her job requires her to make decisions without me, and the overall tasks she handles are more complex. She is advanced in her experience and the training she has received over the years in business is very valuable. Therefore, the initial training required for her to work in my business was very minimal, and because of her knowledge, I can pretty much tell her what I need and it gets done without a lot of input from me.

I understand that no matter what a VA does, her time is her time and she should be paid for it. However, I also think that certain tasks should be priced differently. I don’t think simple research and customer support are on the same level, because customer support requires a lot of decision making, one-on-one with customers, understanding of the business and systems, etc., whereas research is just finding information. So I personally feel that the hourly rate should be set according to the task (which I think a lot of VA’s could benefit from doing).

Anyway, to get back on track, when I’m looking to hire someone, I approach them with the exact tasks I need done. If I think the hourly rate they’re asking is suitable, I have no qualms about paying it, otherwise I negotiate. I outline the tasks, explain the timeline (in most cases it’s a monthly job), and ask if they can do the work for this X amount per hour. I also tell them that I understand if they can’t meet my needs, and if they’re unable to accept the job could they recommend someone who may be able to help me.

From my experience, if you can offer steady work month after month, most people are willing to negotiate a price that will fit within your budget in exchange for secure work. Now I’m not trying to undervalue any VA’s out there, because they have the right to say no, I just believe in matching pay to the type of tasks performed.

Once you know exactly what tasks you need taken care of, what prices you’re going to have to pay, then you can work out an actual budget.

For instance, let’s say that you want to hire someone to take care of your support desk for you, and you’ve found an experienced VA who is familiar with the systems you use, so you’ll be paying her $25/hr.

Sounds expensive I know, but it’s really not. Start out small and hire her on retainer for 5 hours a month for a total cost of $125. Okay, so where are you going to get that $125?

Do a clean sweep. And by that I mean go through all your memberships and cancel the ones you’re not using, get rid of any monthly services that you don’t really need. For example, are you using a shopping cart and separate autoresponder service? If so, move your subscribers over to your shopping cart service and cancel the autoresponder service. In most cases, it’s a lot cheaper, and more convenient, to have them all in one place.

Run a sale and invest your profits into pre-paying your assistant. So if you make $500 from the sale, pay her for 20 hours of her time and that will get you through the next 4 months. It will also give you 20 hours of time that you can invest into your business. Just imagine what you can do with 20 hours of free time.

You have to treat your contractors as an essential part of your business, in the same way you couldn’t go without your web hosting or autoresponder service, you need your contractors. They shouldn’t be thought of as a flexible expense, because then instead of allotting funds in your budget for the month, you’ll just think, “Oh, I can just do the work myself this month instead of paying someone else.”

Think in terms of “this is a bill I have to pay”, and then find a way to pay it. You’ll be glad you did!

Oh, and don’t forget to grab your free outsourcing checklists.

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