subject: Outsourcing: The Reality - Part One [print this page] Making the switch from Do-It-Yourself to paying someone else to do it, can be a difficult switch for a home business owner.
The first hurdle is having enough money to outsource, the second is the reluctance to relinquish 100% control over everything you create, and the third is the logistical difficulties that come with finding and managing the right people to work for you.
Whole books and courses have been written on the subject and, while they can give a healthy does of confidence and strategy, the one thing they can never supply you with is experience.
When you finally begin to outsource your work, its not uncommon to experience problems that you never even envisaged to begin with.
This article is not intended to compete with a comprehensive training product and it certainly isnt going to claim to be a definitive voice on the topic. What it will do is let you inside the TRUE story of a number of successfully outsourced tasks that I carried out over the last 12 months.
Hopefully, by the time you finish reading this article, youll feel more inclined to start or increase outsourcing your work, youll have learned some important lessons from my mistakes, and maybe some handy tips along the away.
Lucid SEO
Although no money changed hands, in a sense, 100% of the Lucid SEO website was outsourced.
The project was conceived, designed, built and launched by myself, Tim Whiston and Roy Miller. More precisely:
Tim wrote the material and installed and customised the membership script,
I edited the material, created the videos and managed the launch and JV campaign,
And Roy wrote the sales copy and the affiliate material (and repeatedly cracked his whip until Tim and I got our finger out and finally got the work done).
You might consider this to be a joint venture, rather than outsourcing but really, all joint ventures are a form of outsourcing. Whenever ANYONE, other than you, works on something that contributes to your business, then its true to say that you outsourced that work.
Teaming up with one or more people to produce a project is a great way to start off your outsourcing experiences.
It doesnt cost anything and, because your partners only profit when the project makes money, motivation shouldnt be too much of a problem.
Ultimately, your overall profit may be lower as its likely that the percentage each partner takes will be in excess of what it would of cost to hire someone and pay them upfront. But if youre worried that your skill set is inadequate to carry a project through to completion, then the support and shared responsibility of a joint venture can be extremely helpful.
