Outsourcing 101: How do I Know What to Outsource First?
If you’re at a point in your business where you’ve recognised that it’s time to get some external support, the next step is looking at what tasks you actually need to delegate so that you can find the right person to help you.
Identify your Key Strengths
Everyone who owns a business will have key strengths that they should continue to focus on themselves. These are the bits that you do best, you enjoy the most and bring the most value to your business. Once you’ve identified the key strengths, start looking at the other tasks that aren’t in your skill set or drain your energy to see what someone else could help you with.
Categorise your Tasks
Of the tasks that you don’t consider to be your key strengths, break the rest down into categories. Think about the following:
Repetitive Tasks: Newsletters, sending invoices, data entry.
Specialised Tasks: Graphic design, copywriting, website management.
Time Consuming Tasks: Research, customer service, client admin.
Prioritise for Impact
Taking it one category at a time, rate each task based on the impact on your time and the value they bring to your business. The tasks that take you the most time but bring the lowest value to the business are good things to outsource as this will free up your time for strategic work or higher value tasks. You should also consider the return on investment for the tasks, e.g. if you pay someone to help you set up a client onboarding workflow, this will save you time (and therefore money) in the future not having to go through the onboarding process individually with each client.
Start Small and Scale
Pick the most repetitive tasks to outsource first, these are usually easy for you to explain and quick for someone else to pick up as they will be doing them over and over. Once you are feeling confident and comfortable with having someone else doing these tasks for you, it’s time to start building up to outsourcing the bigger or more time consuming tasks. This may include adding more people to your team to focus on specialised tasks as well as one person who can support in a variety of areas, such as an online business manager.
Some top tips:
Systems will make outsourcing easier. By having clear processes and tools in place before you start outsourcing, this will help you to communicate the tasks and how to complete them. Especially with repetitive tasks, writing SOPs (Standard Operating Practices) or sharing screen recordings of you doing the tasks yourself, will help to make sure that whoever you’re bringing in for support is able to hit the ground running.
A shift in mindset around outsourcing can help make the process easier. Try to view outsourcing as an investment in your business growth rather than an expense. Letting go can feel challenging, but it allows you to focus on growing your business and innovating to come up with new ideas.
