This is an extract from a blog written by Sam Agnew of Everyday People Sourcing, talking about why freelancers should look to outsource some of their tasks.
I was delighted that Sam chose to interview me to provide my experience of doing just that and why it is the right strategy for small business owners to be adopting.
Unless your company still uses a fax machine you’ll probably be aware that outsourcing work to freelancers can facilitate business growth.
“Freelancers add value to the UK economy. These entail enabling of firm growth and innovation through a workforce model that is lean, agile and flexible, providing access to expertise beyond the confidence of core employees and on a variable cost model which enables risk management and lower financial requirements.”
Now that’s all well and good, but if you’re running a small business or trying to get a start-up off the ground you’ll be trying to do everything and learning as you go.
The thought of having to find time to simply think about what to handover yet alone actually let go of a part of your business to someone else may seem like a hassle you can do without.
I spoke with a number of small business owners who generously took time out of their busy week to share their experience of working with freelancers. With the aim of helping make the process easier for others.
Gary King, Founder of Tendo which was created to support business owners just like you to build the right business. A business which will allow you the freedom to choose when, where and how you work.
During our chat, Gary shared his experience and gave some great advice. If you have any further questions for Gary, get in touch he’s the type of bloke who’s happy to help.
Where most business owners go wrong in the early stages is that they try and do everything. They feel like nobody can do it as well as they can. People also feel like they can’t afford or justify outsourcing,
For me, one of the biggest turning points in my career was outsourcing admin to someone who was clearly more effective and more passionate about it than I was.
“It absolutely transformed my business overnight.”
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO PEOPLE WHO FEEL LIKE THEY CAN’T AFFORD TO OUTSOURCE?
Take the risk. I started with a small budget of say £100.
I thought, right what can I get for £100? 5 hours of PA work at the time. So I applied the logic, in those five hours that I free up, can I earn £100 or more to justify it? So I got super focused on generating more than £100 revenue to pay the PA and have a bit leftover. The following month I upped it to £150 budget, then £200 and so on.
HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT DECIDING WHAT TO OUTSOURCE AND WHO TO OUTSOURCE TO?
I evaluated what was on my to do list and how much time I was spending on each of those items. The timer was set on my phone to 30 minutes and when the time was up, I just put a little tick against the activity I’d spent most of that 30 minutes doing.
Next I assessed what activities were taking up what time and I put them in a kind of league table. Admin activity was at the top of the league!
WHAT DID YOU CONSIDER WHEN YOU WERE CHOOSING YOUR PA?
Somebody that was more passionate about doing it more than I was and who shared my values, particularly attention to detail and customer service.
HOW DID YOU INTEGRATE THE PA INTO YOUR BUSINESS?
I spent time on the telephone and face to face getting to know them. Understanding someone’s value alignment isn’t just asking them, have you got a high attention to detail? It’s about do you connect with them, do you have a similar sense of humour. Do you get on, and trust them to do the things you’re hesitant to let go of.
Once I was sure she was the right person. I gave her 5 hours of simple things that were virtually impossible to mess up and evaluated at the end of the five hours whether they’d met the commitments.
Also, did I hold up my side of the bargain? Had I managed to spend more time with my family? Or had I managed to earn the extra money to offset the cost?
HAVE YOU GOT ANY TIPS FOR COMMUNICATING VIRTUALLY?
Be clear about what you are asking for, in what format and when you want it. Bear in mind it’s never going to be perfect on day one it takes time for them to get to know your systems, and how you want things to be done. It also takes time for you to get to know how they work.
“Be patient and trust that it’s going to work.“
DO YOU OUTSOURCE ANYTHING ELSE OTHER THAN YOUR ADMIN?
I outsource everything! I outsource content writing, marketing, social media, video production. Everything that is not one-to-one delivery, which is what I set up a business to do.
WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE A VIRTUAL TEAM?
I’ve never had employees since I’ve been running my own business. I decided to opt for the freelance model because I wanted to keep the overheads low.
The benefit of an outsource resource you can turn it on and off. If it’s a quiet month, I can just say I want fewer hours from you this month. It meant that I didn’t need a place for them to sit, a computer or a phone.
A person specialising in something doesn’t need their hand holding because they know how those things work, whereas taking on a junior / graduate PA, it’s going to take me three months to train them.
HOW DO YOU FIND A PERSON TO OUTSOURCE TO?
I would go to someone I trust implicitly and shares my values and my way of working and I would ask them to refer me the person that they are working with.
A personal recommendation from someone that has worked with them and not someone who just wants a referral for a networking group.
WHY IS OUTSOURCING TO FREELANCERS SUCH A POWERFUL OPTION?
As well as allowing you to spend more time doing what you love, being in front of customers and supporting them, it gives you maximum flexibility in terms of growth and control.
Outsourcing everything that is none core means you can spend maximum time serving clients and working on your business rather than having to deal with team issues.
As your business grows, so do your overheads which reduces flexibility as a team needs managing and training, they have legal rights if you don’t need them and can be inflexible as your business evolves.
An outsourced model allows you to resource up and down and change the freelancers in-line with your demands as you need to grow, contract or change direction.
One thing that will change is for larger corporate businesses to reduce their huge inflexible wage bills in favour of a more flexible freelance model which will make them more future-proof.
To read the full blog written by Sam, click here.
Outsourcing admin tasks to someone that could do them better, quicker and more cost effectively than I could was the first step towards me building the right business. I now have an outsourced team with over ten people, that are all specialists in their field and allow me to focus on what I do best.
Developing a dream team is one of the essential building blocks to running a successful business. If you are working too many hours or are frustrated about any element of your team, it’s time to take action.
Access our tool here to get started: tendo-uk.com/dreamteam
