Thursday, June 12, 2014

Micro Outsource Like a Pro

Courtesy freeimages.com
As an aspiring entrepreneur you understand that a lot of work goes into building your business. Assuming the idea validation stage has provided a good direction for moving forward, following the non-trivial business registration step, activities quickly pile up: in-depth market analysis, product definition, logo design, site creation, marketing collateral, industry research, accounting, designing the prototype are just the tip of the iceberg.

While you still have a small business and there is only so many hours in the day, you may not be able to do all these activities yourself. Likewise, it may not be feasible for you to hire all of employees responsible for these tasks. So what are you supposed to do? One of the answers may be that you could just outsource the work.

Here's how it works: there are freelance professionals in all areas of marketing, web design, code writing, accounting, etc. that are available to give quality products in their specific area of expertise. Most are paid on a project by project basis. For instance, you need a new marketing ad by the end of the week. You can look on SourceItOut (or any other reputable ad outsourcing website) for someone who specializes in marketing campaigns. You give them the parameters and vision of what you want the campaign to accomplish, and they provide you with a high quality product within your time limits. This allows you to only pay for the work you need.

Crowdsourcing takes the concept to the next level. Many of the same activities could be accomplished by highly trained professionals who actually compete for your business. From crowdsourcing the marketing content and design to funding your project.

That is not to say that outsourcing does not require any work on your part. It takes time to identify the best individuals for every kind of project and track their progress. But the time spent and resources needed to track outsourced projects are generally less that those needed to find, attract, hire, train, and retain an employee. And in the process of outsourcing you may be able to whet potential employees before bringing them on board.

Many freelancers are professionals in their field, ready to provide you quality results right now. With so many of them out there, it's easy to find someone who can work with your schedule. You maintain control over product outcome by specifying what you want, but you don't have to dedicate time to overseeing the project. This gives you time to engage in more impactful activities.

Lets tap into some crowd wisdom together: what outsourcing outfits does your organization use on a regular basis? We'll share the updates in the upcoming posts.

Rachel & the team

No comments:

Post a Comment