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The ability to connect worldwide with anyone over the internet has truly changed the way the world works by turning the talent pool of job candidates into an endless sea of people from all kinds of backgrounds, career levels and locations. Freelance rates that have been standard all over this country have taken a shot in the arm as employers and business owners start to evolve their job searches and look for new ways to have projects completed. There are many benefits and reasons to outsource your projects to other people and plenty of ways to go about doing it.
There was a time when outsourcing was really only available to the big companies of the world, but these days, with the advent of the online marketplace, auction sites, and even websites and services solely devoted to this form of work, outsourcing is now available to the small business owner. Even if you’ve got a one person operation handling online marketing or selling a product, it’s now easy for you to get some help to complete your projects.
There are some barriers and things that might cause outsourcing to be a little more difficult then usual. While these problems exist, there are ways to avoid them so you don’t have to worry about the situations that might come up. There are going to be people vying to help you from all over the world, or perhaps you’re already in a far off land without many people around to help you. There are some struggles and conflicts that might arise for you when you work with somebody in a completely different timezone. Let’s say you’re living in Australia and you decide to hire an American to help you complete a project. Your time zones are so far off, it might present difficulties when it comes to getting connected beyond slow email conversations. But, like I said, it’s easy enough to avoid this by not hiring people that far out of your time zone. Pretty simple. You do have a choice!
Other risks you might have to deal with are managing people that aren’t in your vicinity through instant messaging, email, and maybe the telephone. There’s something to be said for both sides of the fence on this one. While it might be hard managing people in this fashion, it actually might work even better. Consider the positives and negatives that go along with not being surrounded by employees. As long as projects are getting done on time or ahead of schedule then there isn’t much else to worry about, really.
How do you make outsourcing work out for you?
1. Start small. There’s no reason to hand over your business to somebody you’ve never worked with before based on how friendly they are in their emails and what they promise that they can do. Give them a little test. You don’t have to let them know it’s a test. Just pretend it’s a legit, small project and see how it goes. If you tell them it’s a test, chances are that if they plan on ripping you off, then they’ll take the test seriously to earn your respect.
2. Low bids don’t rule. When you’re outsourcing you’ll be getting bids for your projects. Of course you want to take them into consideration but you aren’t just waiting for the lowest bid to come around. The lowest bids are probably going to result in the weakest work. Also, keep in mind what kind of job description you gave initially and if that has anything to do with such a low bid.
3. Your goals. Provide your goals and let them know the grand scheme of what you’re after. You want success, so don’t leave the people that are being creative for you in the dark. Especially if you’re looking for a creative service, you have to give these people the big picture as to what you’re after. If you don’t, then you can’t blame them when they don’t give you what you wanted.
4. Let it be known. Make it clear to your people what you’re looking for as a finished product. You want to give them a goal, or a finish line, so they know what to do. An open assignment with nothing but loose ends might never get finished.
5. Know how things work and pay attention to the rules. If you’re using some kind of site that deals in outsourcing and freelance work, read their laws and become familiar with how they handle things. Protect yourself.
6. Private freelancers over firms. Typically a freelancer who’s seeking out work on his or her own is going to put forth more of an effort that somebody found through an outsourcing firm in India. Maybe you pay a little more, but you will probably get a lot more.
7. Intellectual properties. There’s law involved with what’s being created, whether it’s images or written projects, somebody owns the copyright and unless you have some assemblage of how that works and know how to approach it, then stay away until you learn it. Read up and get the skills to produce agreements as to who owns what upon completion. Obviously, you’ll want the rights to everything.
8. Know who you’re hiring. There are rating systems on the sites that most freelancers use. If the person you’re looking to hire doesn’t have a ton of experience on the site, that’s okay. Just make sure they can show experience with a resume and work samples. Maybe they don’t have a bunch of hours on that site, but they’re recently laid-off and are a professional outside the site. Do a reference check if you have to, it’s just a simple phone call or two.
9. Keep track. Set up a schedule for status reports and progress. Some of these sites you might be looking into will monitor work for you, or at least make it simple to follow.
10. Location. You need to keep in mind the location of the people you hire. Hire a guy in India while you’re in California, then all the sudden you can’t connect like you want to. Don’t sacrifice location for a few extra dollars. It’s not worth it.
Outsourcing is really going to help you out. If you’ve got the next big idea then most likely you’re going to struggle to get it off the ground and running all by yourself. To be successful takes multiple strategies and techniques to be implemented all at the same time. Get help. You might be surprised at how inexpensive and professional it will be if you go about it the right way.
