Archive for the ‘Outsourcing Strategies’ Category

Okay, so due to a flub on my part, Carrie’s response to last week’s roundtable chat didn’t get added in – oops, sorry Carrie!

So I wanted to share her response with you here today. Again, the question I asked was:

“For those business owners who haven’t started to outsource, but are interested in taking that step, budget is always a big concern. Often, they tend to avoid jumping in feet first, and instead, they’ll test it out with a minimal investment. So with that in mind, our business owners are looking to spend no more than $25/wk. ($100/month).

“With a $100 budget, where should they be putting their outsourcing dollars to get the most bang for their buck? Why?”

And here’s Carrie’s reply:

Carrie Wilkerson from BarefootExecutiveOnline.com says:

If you have a $100 to outsource with – then see where that goes the furthest to get you farthest ahead (that grammar may be ALL wrong…but you get my drift!

If you can get alot of blog promo buttons and social media buttons ‘on the cheap’ – but it would take you hours and hours to do them yourself – DO THAT.

If you can get 10 articles written or blog posts sourced…and it will save you HOURS, do that!

If it will secure you the amazing WP theme that you need to make everything else easier, do that!

Bottom line is — it depends on YOU! What my $100 buys will be different that what yours does!

Maybe you need to have some audio transcribed so you can configure a product for quick sale! Maybe you need to pay for a few hours of payment processor, 1ShoppingCart or SWIMCart or InfusionSoft.

Whatever it is – spend wisely…both your dollars AND your time!

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If you want to start outsourcing, go to www.OutsourcingSweetie.com to see how I can help!

I just an email out to my readers about how they can get help from me with their outsourcing, so I thought I would share it here too

Here’s what the email said:

======================

If you run an online business, you know what it’s like
to be busy, busy, busy…sometimes with no end in sight.

We all have our own reasons to start a business, but
most of us didn’t start for the opportunity to work
around the clock. Yet somehow, that’s exactly what
happened.

The good news is, there is definitely a way out and
you may have heard of “outsourcing” before. Outsourcing
allows you to find virtual helpers from around the
country or around the world to simplify and reduce the
day-to-day tasks in your business.

BUT…

* How do you make that happen without sacrificing the
quality you and your clients expect from your
business?

* How do you find reliable and qualified help?

* What if you’re on a budget?

* What if you just don’t have TIME to train people to
help?

Thankfully, it’s all easier than you think and I can
help.

As a busy mom of 3 young kids, one with special needs,
I knew it was do or die when it came to keeping
everything in my life and business afloat. Now, I want
to help you do the same.

I’ve created a unique opportunity to give you personal
help with your business at an incredible price.

Grab your spot at my BRAND NEW SITE:

=> http://www.outsourcingsweetie.com

If it’s time to stop slaving endlessly for your business,
I’ll see you on the inside.

All my best,
Melissa Ingold
InternetMarketingSweetie.com

I started outsourcing a few years ago, and as my business grew, I found myself putting together a team of people that I could count on to help me.

I completely understand the thinking, “Why pay someone else to do what I can do myself” because I felt the same way at one point too. But now I can see that it was short-sighted thinking. I wasn’t looking at the bigger picture, because the bigger picture held GROWTH and lots of it. Obviously, there was no way I could get my business where I wanted it all by my lonesome.

There are so many time suckers in your business, and if you’re not careful, they’ll steal hours from your life and leave you with little to show for it. It you’re busy handling customer support, who’s bringing in new customers? If you’re scheduling emails in your autoresponder, who’s creating the promotional plan so you can earn money from your list?

You can’t do it all, and when you try, you end up sacrificing the important stuff that creates GROWTH in your business because you’re too busy maintaining what you have, instead of growing it.

So with that said, I wanted to ask our experts what they would do if they were working on a small outsourcing budget, in the hopes that you’re short-sighted thinking will enable you to see the big picture

“For those business owners who haven’t started to outsource, but are interested in taking that step, budget is always a big concern. Often, they tend to avoid jumping in feet first, and instead, they’ll test it out with a minimal investment. So with that in mind, our business owners are looking to spend no more than $25/wk. ($100/month).
 
“With a $100 budget, where should they be putting their outsourcing dollars to get the most bang for their buck? Why?

To which they replied…

Josh Spaulding from Ethicalim.com says:

I’ve found a good majority of my developers/designers etc. at scriptlance.com. So if someone is just starting with outsourcing (GREAT decision to start btw) I recommend coming up with small tasks, putting them up on SL and getting comfortable with that first.

These tasks could be anything from article writing projects, to small code or design tweaks. You’ll learn the overall process with little to no risk, being that you’re only investing a few dollars, and you’ll be able to start building your list of good people to outsource to for bigger tasks.

Building a list of trusted “workers” is VERY important! I personally have several people in each outsourcing category in my contact list. If I need a CSS expert I have several CSS experts. If I need a web app developers I have several of those etc.

So, with a budget of $100 it’s more about developing your outsourcing network in the beginning than it is about finding the most “bang for your buck.”

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Tiffany Dow from the Tiffany Dow Blog says:

Well $25 a week isn’t enough to get more than 3 pages maximum ghostwritten – 2 pages if it’s a decent ghostwriter and only 1 page for a really good one. It’s not enough for high tech media outsourcing, either. It might be enough to get 1-2 “grunt work” tasks completed.

What I suggest instead is that they invest that $25 per week on relevant Private Label Rights (PLR) content and use that to act as a net that brings in more traffic and opt ins to their business.

PLR is outsourcing to a degree – only the work’s already been done and multiple people are benefiting from it. Take the content you buy and post it on blogs with links to your site. Use it as free reports to help build your list. Post it in your email autoresponders to free up time in the future when you need to be working on tasks other than creating email messages.

If you struggle with writing, but can’t afford a ghostwriter on a $25/week budget, then PLR will also give you the springboard you need to help make your writing tasks get completed faster – you can alter and tweak rather than wrack your brain trying to start from scratch.

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Alice Seba from Contentrix.com says:

I guess it would really depend where their strengths and interests  are, but as a general answer, I would say get a Virtual Assistant (VA)  on board.

At $25 per week, you can get a junior VA or work at home mom looking  to earn cash for a couple of hours per week. Two hours may not seem  like a lot, but it is amazing what a focused person can do in that short amount of time. When we work on our businesses, things seem to  take us longer because we’re distracted and are constantly doing  things that really aren’t directly working on our businesses. A VA  charges for her time actually working on tasks or projects you set out  for her…not posting to Facebook, reading the latest guru offer or  checking Adsense stats like we might when we are supposed to be working. (Side note, yes there are male VAs…I am just saying “her” for  simplicity sake.)

I think the biggest drain on an online business owner is email and I  would start outsourcing incoming inquiries and customer support. Come  up with a list of frequently asked questions and train your VA on the  type of service you want to offer. If you want to keep an eye on how  she is doing, set up a support ticket system, so a record is kept of  everything.

I say email is a drain because:

- It is our leash to our online business. If we are responsible for  email, we feel compelled to check it constantly. That’s no way to run  a business or live a life.

- Sometimes negative feedback comes through email and it can be a  drained on your day. Of course, constructive feedback should be passed  on to you and so should praise, but online people are just negative  when they hide behind a screen. You don’t need to see those “stop  spamming me” messages that come from an opt-in subscriber and you  don’t have to bare the brunt of someone’s bad day. Your VA is one  stepped removed ad won’t take it personally and you can stay focused  on your work day.

If you’re a relatively new business and just starting to grow, you  probably don’t need to have 2 full hours of email support each week.  You can assign other tasks to your VA like:

- Updating websites
- Researching affiliate programs and potential partners
- Submitting content to various websites
- Proofreading
- Research service options
- Create monthly statistics reports
- Pay your affiliates
- Invoice clients

Just think about what you hate doing, aren’t good at doing or never  get around too, but should. There are so many possibilities when you  have a helper on your team.

$25 can go a long way…and as you free up your time and get more  focussed on building your business, you’ll see you can afford even more.

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Nicole Dean from NicoleOnTheNet.com says:

This is a great question and one that I talk about a lot in my course Outsource Weekly. Honestly, spending money on freelancers, without an overall plan is like throwing money into the wind.
 
The absolute first thing I would recommend to this person is to analyze the one thing that’s standing between her and profit. 
Is it transcribing the product so it can be put up for sale. Is it installing a script? Setting up a shopping cart? Maybe figuring out the autoresponder?

Whatever that thing is that’s keeping her unfinished project from being finished is where she’ll want to start. As I always say “Unfinished projects can NOT make you money. So get it out there into the world.”
 
However, if we’re talking about a marketer who’s already reached profit and is just frazzled and overwhelmed, then we’ve got a totally different strategy.
 
She’ll want to look at her strengths and where profit is coming from already. Then, she’ll want to track her time for a few days in 15 minute increments to see where her time is going.
 
Based upon that informaton, you’ll get a very clear picture of both what you should be focusing on vs. where you’re actually spending time.
 
From that info…
 
Do more of your strengths – especially if they’re bringing in profit. Start to outsource the time drainers like customer support.
 
I also always recommend that anything you’ll ever only have to do once – outsource it. Personally, I never install scripts. There’s no need for me to spend the time monkeying with it, when most developers will install it for you for a small fee if you ask. They know their software a heck of a lot better than I do, and normally can do it in a jiffy.
 
Thanks, again, Melissa, for having me here!

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Kelly McCausey from WahmTalkRadio.com says:

I would start with content creation and distribution.  With $25 a week I could have a good article written and  have money left over at the end of the month to have the articles distributed to the best directories.  With that steady approach to building back links I know I’m building search engine juice that will pay off over the long term.

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Angela Wills from MarketersMojo.com says:

Wow that’s a tough one. Before I give some suggestions on where to spend that money, I’d love to go on a little rant about how NOT to outsource – ok?

You see I’ve been serving online business owners for over four years now and I see a BIG misconception that is widespread throughout the community.

Many business owners believe that a virtual assistant or other service provider is going to have the ability to quickly and accurately recognize where the money should go for the biggest and fastest profit. Essentially looking for someone to help build the business for them and create the return on investment for the business owner.

Instead of coming to a service provider with this question:
“I know exactly where my business is profitable and I need help ramping up what works for me – can you help?”

They come with the question:
“I don’t know what to do to make more money online – can you help?”

My point is this:
Every business is very, very different because it is a direct result of the person who built it and the market they serve. It is the responsibility of that business owner to pay very close attention to what works for them and then make the decision to outsource what will help them do that better.

That doesn’t mean your question is unanswerable Melissa. However, I don’t want to even suggest that outsourcing is easy as pie and everybody should just hire the next VA that comes along so they can get rich quick – it just doesn’t work that way!

Ok, now that my little rant is out of the way I have some very practical questions you can ask yourself to see where you can put that initial $25/week:

- What makes me money right now?
- Where am I loosing money?
- What makes me money that someone else can do faster than I?
- Can I hand over a task that takes away time I could be using to make money?
- How much can I afford to loose in training a team member before I make money back?
- How much can I afford to pay while figuring out where the return on investment will come from?
- Are their tasks I just hate doing that cause procrastination and slow down my business progress?
- Can I outsource profit-producing ‘projects’?

With these questions answered where to put that initial $100 should become much more clear. If it’s not possible to answer these questions then I would seriously recommend taking a look at if it’s worth it at this point for you. If you can afford to spend $100 a month testing for Return on Investment or as a justified business expense then go for it. If not, pass until you can figure out how that monthly spend will come back to you.

Another tip for saving a huge amount of money is this:
Be Super Organized!

Organizers and Virtual Assistant are two different professions. However, many business owners rely on their team members to help keep them organized. This is fine if you can afford it (and your team member is willing) but if you want to save yourself big time then have everything ready to outsource. This means your passwords, your directions, links to references, etc – have it ALL ready to go. You might think a two minute email here and there is nothing, but multiple emails day after day eat up your billable time like nothing else!

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If you already outsource, or plan to, pick up a copy of my FREE guide to learn more about micro-managing and how you can avoid it for a more profitable outsourcing experience => The Micro-Manager: The Quick Way to Lose Money and Strangle Your Business

All my best,

This one mistake sucks your time, drains your energy, and eats up your outsourcing dollars like its going out of style. And, I bet you don’t even realize you’re doing it.

Want to know what it is?

Watch the video to find out

To learn more about micro-managing and how you can avoid it for a more profitable outsourcing experience, claim your FREE COPY of my micro-managing guide “The Micro-Manager: The Quick Way to Lose Money and Strangle Your Business“.

If you haven’t heard yet, there’s a big product launch in the works in Internet Marketing land. John Reese has been talking a lot about outsourcing and shown you the wonderful things he’s learned for himself through leveraging the work of others.

But what if you don’t necessarily dream of having a Ferrari in your driveway? Seriously, how could you fit 3 kids in there anyway?

Let’s think about it for a second

What if you’re a mom or dad that simply wants more time with their family?

Or what if you want to afford a flexible lifestyle that allows you to pursue other interests, community service, etc?

Or what if you just don’t want to work so darned hard? After all, you’re a business owner, not an employee.

If that sounds more like you, the basic formula is the same. You can leverage the work of others and get that lifestyle YOU’RE looking for.

Here’s how it started for me and maybe some of this will sound a little familiar to your own life:

It was 2002 and I was just starting my online business. With some smart planning and a whole lot of luck, I created a website that was
growing to be very popular. It had lots of content and an active forum.

Problem was, I was overwhelmed and felt chained to my computer. I was worried if I left, I would miss an important email. I was afraid someone would post some disgusting spam on my forum in my absence. I just really felt compelled to be close by at all times. Add to that, I was writing and publishing all the content…keeping me way too busy and stressed out!

I decided enough is enough, I needed help. I didn’t have a lot of cash to play with, but started by hiring a VA to work a couple hours a week to answer email. I hired someone to manage the forum for a small monthly fee and some added exposure for her business. I also hired someone to manage our ad sales on a percentage basis.

In short, all this meant I had a heavy weight lifted off my shoulders and it didn’t cost me much at all.

Slowly, I gave my team members more responsibility and hired more people. The new found focus I had meant I could work less, but it also meant I was now much more focused. I could finally concentrate on building my business, rather than certainly working it. I also had a heck of a lot more to spend time with my growing family.

If you’d rather be building than working, it’s simple for you to do as well

Even if you’re on a budget, you can start hiring help. While John’s formula is to focus on hiring inexpensive overseas workers, you can still afford to hire locally…without losing your shirt. Start small and then grow. And personally, I prefer to hire my contractors from the same areas from which most of my business comes from. It just makes sense to give back to the community that gives to me. And what’s key is that you hire the right people, not that you found someone to work for $2 per hour.

And ahem…if you would prefer to use your money directly for hiring people, instead of on a really high-priced education, Melissa has what you need to get started. If you haven’t already seen inside Outsourcing Sweetie – I’d recommend you do so.

It’s only $10 for access and if you want to pay for John’s course, you can expect to pay about 200 times more.  That’s a heck of a lot of hours you could actually hire someone to WORK on your business, instead of watching some videos about hiring people. OUCH!

It covers everything you need to know to free up your time including:

• How to outsource on a budget: You are the CEO of your business, you stunt your growth if you feel you have to do every task.

• What to outsource: It’s one of the biggest questions people have. You might feel you don’t have time to train people, you know the work the best, etc…but the thinking is backward. Learning to let go of tasks that are costing you time and money are key to growing your business.

• How to find quality contractors: We’ve all heard horror stories and heck, you may encounter a horror story or two, but when you know how to look for and approach contractors, things can go a lot more smoothly.

• Communicating effectively with your contractors: It’s absolutely crucial that you know how to communicate with your contractors if you want results. I’d say 8 times out of 10 when someone tells me their contractor did a bad job, it comes down to poor communication. If you don’t say what you want, you simply aren’t going to get it.

• Building your team for business growth: This isn’t about hiring cheap labor to get some tasks done. It’s about working with people on an ongoing basis, so they can become valued members and contributors to your team. When you get someone good, treat them like gold and give them ongoing work.

How do you get started?

Overall, the important thing is to get started with getting the help you need. Think about what you hate doing most about business. What causes you stress? What takes you more time than it should? What causes you to procrastinate and put the rest of your business on hold? Start by getting those things off your plate.

Once you’ve got a valued member on your team and you become more productive and more profitable, give them more tasks and add more people to your team.

One of the best ways to find good people is through word of mouth. Ask your fellow online business owners for a recommendation. You can search freelance sites as well, but sometimes finding that perfect member for your team, is closer than you think.

Give them a bit of work at first or a project to take care of, to see how you work together and what their output is like.

As I mentioned, good communication is incredibly important. It’s key to getting the job done right and to building a solid relationship with your team member. Always provide as much detail as possible in how you like things done. While this can be time consuming at first, the more your team member gets to know you, the easier it will be to add more work for them to do.

One note: it’s OKAY to use an outsourcing company.

If you have reviewed John’s videos, he tells you shouldn’t use an outsourcing company, but that you should go straight to the labor source. This may or may not be appropriate for your own business.

When it comes to overseas hiring, I personally would tend to stay away from an outsourcing company because I would feel uncertain about the conditions and wages the actual employees receive. I would be unwilling to possibly risk employing the services of a virtual sweatshop. That does NOT mean that overseas outsourcing companies are all sweatshops. It just means, the risk isn’t worth it for me.

And truthfully, you could run into the same issue in hiring an American company if they happen to outsource their own work overseas. However, if you do your homework and due diligence, I think you can come up with the right answers.

Outside of that point, one of the reasons you might want to employ an outsourcing company is simply for time management and to avoid the stress that comes with managing individual contractors. Even though you can find great workers by going directly to the source, sometimes an outsourcing company can be the glue that holds your project together.

Instead of dealing with flaky contractors who disappear without completing work and sometimes take deposits with them, you can work with a company that ensures everything gets done.  If the company is reputable, they’ll get it done for you. If the company is not, and it sounds like John found a bad apple or two, they may take longer than necessary or never get it done. About half the people who work for me on a regular basis, I went to directly…but in some cases, I just prefer to get my projects done with someone else holding the wheel.

John suggests that you can hire a project manager in house, instead of letting the outsourcing company do it. In fact, that’s what we’ve done with All Custom Content. Annette & I have an AWESOME project manager that manages clients projects and writers. This  frees up our time for more important work. But the thing is, it may be a while before you get there. If you only have a few contractors, it may not be practical to have your own project manager and that’s where working with a company that delivers the finished product to you, just as you wanted it, can make all the difference.

Keep at it, it’s worth it.

I’ve gone from that frazzled mom trying to build a site and community to the CEO of my business. Currently, I work about 6-8 hours per week and focus in what I like doing and what I am good at. To me, that means my focus is marketing and copywriting…while most of the other details are tended to by my team and business partners. The amount I work changes, depending on the time of year, what’s going on in my life and really, how much I feel like working.

For you,  the amount you work and your focus might be a little different, but the important thing is you find where you are best contributing your business growing.

It’s a good life and it’s possible for you to carve out the life you’re looking for too. Where will you start or continue on that journey?

Further Study

Click here to $10 access Outsourcing Sweetie. Complete with study guide or audio, if you prefer, plus training materials for your contractors and other useful tools.

By the way, that’s my affiliate link…just so you’re in the know. I can’t offer you an iPad as a bonus for using my link, nor will I be cruising to the Bahamas on what I might earn. But what I do know is that you’ll feel much more capable of hiring good help and getting a whole lot of your life back.

For those who know me and know me well, it comes as no surprise that I love Melissa’s series on “Work Less, Earn More“. It’s a favorite topic of mine and over the past 8 years, I have continuously looked for ways to maximize my time and I’ve gladly shared my tips along the way.

I think Melissa has touched on a lot of the resistance online business owners have to working less and earning more. Sure, it sounds like a great idea in theory…but people hold themselves back. Melissa has talked about:

• Is it too good to be true?
• Needing to stay committed to the goal.
• Working out a budget, even if you think you can’t afford it.
• Letting go (Melissa’s just too nice to say it, but she means stop being a CONTROL FREAK!)

She also has another post planned for later this week and I’m sure she’ll bring even more insight and guidance. You gotta admire Melissa and all that she’s accomplished. She’s the mom of 3 and is fighting daily to get appropriate medical care for her littlest one who has been diagnosed with a very rare disease. You can bet she’s got a lot on her plate, but she seems to manage it flawlessly and with zero complaint. This gal has her priorities in order.

The Key: Live It, Breathe It

Melissa talked about committing to the idea of working less and earning more…and if you’re going to do it with any vigor, you’ve got to start here. But it’s not enough to say you’re committed, you need to have a REASON WHY. Sure, one of the reasons may be to earn a good living, but you can work tons and earn a great living. You need motivation to continuously REDUCE the amount of work you’re doing, without sacrificing your profits.

Some of these reasons might be:

• More time with your family.
• The ability to support your spouse in their dreams and goals.
• A hobby or other interest.
• A higher calling or charitable work

…or it could be anything that’s important to you. For Melissa, it’s a need to be there for her son and other family members. For me, it’s family and having a comfortable lifestyle with plenty of freedom. For you, it’s something you need to discover for yourself.

If you’ve been glued to the computer for the past few years and you’ve lost sight of the other things that might be important in your life, take some time to rediscover or even newly discover what you want out of life.

If this causes any stress or fear in you, keep in mind Melissa’s lessons on letting go and consider these things as well:

• Your business will not fall apart if you stay away from it for a while. If you’ve got the right help in place, you can start taking more time away from your business. And even if you don’t have the right help in place YET…I’m willing to bet that you’re placing more importance on your presence than you need to be. It sounds cruel, but it’s a realization that all business owners need to come to if they want to move onward and upward.

• A lot of what you do on a daily basis, probably isn’t necessary. If you’ve been duped into thinking Twitter, Facebook or Linked In are your key to success…find new role models. Ask a “social media expert” how much time they spend “working on their business” and you’ll be mortified. And even outside of socializing your day away, there are probably plenty of non-profitable activities you can shave out of your day. Get rid of unprofitable and time-sucking websites, projects and tasks.

• Put together your training materials once, train your helper and take it off your plate. The time you’ll save in the long run will be immeasurable. Over time, you’ll become more and more efficient at training and when you find the right long-term contractors, the relationship you forge will prove invaluable.

Whatever your budget, if you figure out what’s important to you, evaluate what you actually do in your business and make plans to get the help you need…you’re gonna get there. Work as little or as much as you’d like. It’s all within your control.

This is a tough thing to do, but if you want to work less, you have to learn to let go. Remember how I said that it was only recently that I felt as though I had achieved the full impact of “working less and earning more”?

Well, not too long ago I was still spending hours putting together packages of content, uploading files, updating sales letters, etc. for the Special Report Club. Turns out, it amounted to about 4 hours each and every month. I was also answering email that bypassed the support desk and went to the specialreportclub.com email I was using, probably another 2 hours a month there.

You see, even though I had help, I was still spending too much time doing mundane tasks. About 6 hours worth to be exact, but why was I still doing it?

Because I kept thinking the process was just easier to do myself, and it would take too much time to show someone else how to do it. It sounds simple, but there’s a certain way that things have to be done, so I couldn’t just say “do this please,” I had to fully explain and show the process to make it understandable.

On the other hand, I think I was afraid to let it go because it meant that I was no longer in control. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist about some stuff, so I was afraid that if I got someone else to do it, it wouldn’t turn out the way I wanted it to be.

What do you know, I was wrong! LOL!

I finally realized that I just had to break free and let it go because my time was better spent on other things. So I buckled down and spent a couple of hours creating written and video instructions detailing the process. My VA, of course, handled the job with ease.

I also had to let go of that one email address. On the one hand I felt bad because my customers always said how nice it was to be able to speak directly to me. On the other, I knew that I couldn’t do it alone anymore; it was sucking up too much of my time. Time that belongs to my family.

It can be hard to let go of the things you’ve been doing yourself for so long, but the funny thing is, you won’t even miss doing them.

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.