Is your business starting to flourish? Do you think it is about time that you take a closer look into small business outsourcing? Many business owners are doing it and so you might as well give it a try. If you are a bit apprehensive in making that first step, let this article enlighten you a bit.
Outsourcing is when you hire someone to do a job or a series of tasks for you. Now that person is not in your regular pay, meaning he is not your employee. He is actually a self-employed who specializes on the job you want him to do. Therefore you can outsource your tasks to someone who is within your area or even in another country.
However, small business outsourcing can be tricky at first and so I have prepared here some tips on how you should approach this business move.
Start small by outsourcing just some minor tasks. Why? This is because it will give you the necessary experience, no matter how minimal it may seem, to teach you how outsourcing works. It will show you if this process is really fit for your existing work systems and to your business as a whole. Do not do it with highly complicated and very big jobs so that if it does not work out at least it will have a minimal effect on your business.
Find a job marketplace that you will feel most comfortable working with. Sites such as VWorker, GetAFreelancer, and oDesk have their own way of doing business with both you as the employer and for the contractors. I suggest that you try them all and post some minor jobs so that you can get a feel of how these sites work and if you think you can easily adapt to it as well as get the best workers through them.
Know how much you should pay. This may take a bit of a research first, but it is quite easy if you analyze the going rates in the various job websites mentioned earlier. However, do not scrimp and just get someone because his rate is the lowest. Often the more quality a worker’s output is, the higher is the rate. So be willing to pay for top quality jobs.
Definitely when you post a job ad you will be inundated by the many active virtual workers in the job site that you choose. Would you feel overwhelmed with the sheer number of applicants? Just narrow down your prospects to just around 5 or 3 and then interview them. This is important because this is the best way for you to gauge the character and the sincerity of the person who is applying for the job. Anyone can look professional in a CV, but when you talk to them in person, that is a completely different matter.
So there you have, these are the basics that you should cover if you are serious in getting into small business outsourcing. Just give it a try and you will realize what a great relief it brings to your business.