It took me a while to figure it out. It took me a little longer to accept it.
(My wife, by the way, was way ahead of me on this one. She\’d been telling me this for years…)
I\’m not…
…Superman.
I don\’t have a cloak. I look terrible in Spandex, and the only time I fly is when I\’m on my way to a conference. And then it\’s with four engines, a movie and a few tons of steel.
I can\’t do everything. I like to think I can. I like to tell people I can… but I can\’t.
That was why I started outsourcing some of my tasks. I started doing that a long time ago and I still do it. I have a great team here in Loveland but I also use a number outside experts to handle some of the specialized tasks we need done.
It\’s a fantastic way to work and I think it\’s essential if your want your business to grow.
But bringing in help from outside can be a difficult step. No one knows your business and your work as well as you do. And unlike full-time staff, you can\’t look over their shoulder and give them guidance. That\’s why you need to do three things if you\’re going to make outsourcing successful, profitable and completely headache-free.
The first is to explain exactly what you need.
At the beginning, you can expect to be doing a lot of explaining. Every job is different so however experienced your freelancer, your work will be new to him. You\’ll have to give him as much help as you can. That could be a long list of sites to look at, samples of products you\’ve enjoyed or just information he needs to know. The freelancer should have the basic skills to do the job. But try to supply the knowledge to do the job you want.
The second thing you\’ll need is to provide feedback.
Again, after a while, you won\’t need to do this any more. You\’ll be able to set a project and expect to get it back exactly the way you want. But at the beginning tell your freelancer what you need changed and why — and don\’t forget to say where he went right too.
And finally, you\’ll need patience.
Don\’t expect to get the work done exactly the way you were hoping first time out. That might happen. But you might also find that it takes a few goes before everything\’s running smoothly.
At that point, you should have someone trained up and producing the things that you can\’t do alone… unless of course, it turns that you really are Superman.