Outsourcing refers to a business activity that you pass on to a contractor. An outsourced job means that you rely on the expertise of another person or company, and you can focus your efforts on your core competencies.
If you are maintaining website, outsourcing content creation is better than doing it yourself. You are better off using your time for marketing efforts and dealing with customers than creating infographic or blog articles.
Why?
Today, you will learn the main benefits of outsourcing. I will help you understand its merits and by the end of this article, you should be able to decide if it makes sense to outsource content for your business.
Capitalize on Another Person’s Strength
If you are not a good graphic designer, chances are it is too late for you to learn how to use Photoshop. While you can use free tools or apps, nothing really beats the quality of an expert’s work. As a result, the expert’s outputs will yield better engagement, and you’ll get your money’s worth.
Businesses have a lot of facets. You cannot be an expert in all aspects of your business. If you are, then you simply do not have the time to do all these. You have to capitalize on someone else’s strength and expertise if you want a job done right.
In outsourcing content creation, you take the role of a leader—you steer the course of your ship while the freelancers execute your plan. You direct the freelancers with what you want to happen, and then they complete these tasks before a deadline.
A good example of this is hiring an affordable freelance writer. Not all people are born to write. Since your blog needs content, a wise business decision is to hire a writer who can fill your blog with content, with SEO and value in mind, while you focus on developing your core product or services.
If you write the articles yourself, you may find that your written materials are not as decent as the writer’s output.
Another example is a voiceover gig. It is better to hire someone to read a script for your video advertisement than reading the script yourself.
With outsourcing, you have access to world-class services. There are millions of freelancers out there who can deliver what you need. You can find them in online freelance marketplaces.
Focus on the Things that Matter
The only thing that really matters in business is your product or service. This is what keeps your business alive. All the things that you do just revolve around this.
As a business person, you need to work smart, not hard. If you think about it, why would Apple outsource its manufacturing to other companies?
The reason behind this is that Apple wants to focus its resources on product research and development. Apple employees are busy creating new products. Once the product prototypes are completed and approved, they will pass on the details to the manufacturer.
Nike does the same. Its employees are focused on designing better products. And once they have applied a new technology to come up with a new design or a better pair of sneakers, they pass on the details to the manufacturer.
Manufacturing is hard work; research is smart work. The same principle applies to your blog. You need to focus on strategies, and have these strategies implemented by the freelancers you work with.
For example, you can think of video creatives, and you know that your idea is going to work. Instead of you doing the video yourself, lay down the plan to an expert and let him do the animation.
Save on Cost and Time
It is likely that you are the only person managing your blog or business right now. If you do everything, how much money did you lose?
Think of it this way: how much is your time worth by the hour? If you are being paid $20 per hour (as an employee), and it takes you five hours to write an article, then you just spent $100 worth of money for your time.
Why not pay someone to do this for you and then go to work overtime (if you are employed)?
Now, what if you do not have a job and you rely solely on the income of your business?
As the business owner, you are also the manager. Just do the same exercise—how much are you going to pay a manager who can do your duty—$40 an hour? If you do the graphic arts yourself and it took your three hours, you must pay yourself $120 for that work.
This is how you have to treat your business. You have to “pay” yourself for every time you spent doing work on your blog.
In outsourcing content creation, you can find a graphic artist who can do it for less than $10 per project. It only takes three days for this artist to do the job. Compare $10 against the worth of your time for doing the same thing. You would have saved $110 worth of your time if you outsourced the graphic work.
Also, you do not have to buy Photoshop or other tools that are too costly if you outsource. You let the freelancers buy these tools because they need it for a living. You do not need it for your business.
Share the Risks with the Provider
Instead of hiring an employee, you need to outsource the job so you do not have to manage it yourself.
Think of a contact center. It is a difficult aspect of a business. You need to schedule people to answer customer inquiries, you have to have standards, you need to train the employees how to deal with customer problems, and so much more.
In addition to that, you have to buy computers, you need to have internet connection for all, you need to rent a space, and so much more.
If you outsource this service to a company, the company’s management will take care of everything—the computers, the data infrastructure, the hiring, the training—all of it. They will also manage the performance of their own people. All you need to do is to set your standards and pay them.
For your online business, you do the same. Outsource order fulfillment and customer service to a virtual assistant. Outsource your content needs to a freelance writer. In fact, you can even outsource your marketing efforts if you want.
If you do this, you do not have to buy computers and other equipment or tools. That risk is now shared between you and the freelancers. You do not even have to pay rent to house employees.
Summary
Outsourcing is one of the best business practices there is. A lot of huge corporations do this—from telcos to utility companies to electronic giants.
The most outsourced jobs in the world are manufacturing and contact centers. Both of these are important to make the business run smoothly, but they are not the core of the business.
You have to start outsourcing certain parts of your business. It does not take much money to do this. All it takes is patience in finding the right freelancer who understands your needs—a freelancer who can deliver.
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