There are so many reasons people say they don’t outsource…
- I don’t know what to outsource
- I’m not ready to outsource yet
- I can’t afford to outsource
- It’s easier to do things myself than train someone to do it for me
These are just a few of the many reasons people tend to be resistant to the idea of outsourcing. But think about this for a minute – the pilot of an airplane doesn’t pause to pass out peanuts, repair the plane wheels, or check the boarding passes. Instead, he has one job, to steer the plane and trust the team around him to do their parts or he’ll end up too exhausted and overwhelmed to be an effective pilot.
If you think of it like that, that just might change your perspective about outsourcing. If not, here are 10 reasons it’s a smart business decision.
10 Reasons Outsourcing Is a Smart Business Decision
Reason #1: Get Your Focus Back
Chances are, you started your business because you like to do one or two things and you do them well. This might be designing beautiful graphics or writing high-converting copy. Whatever your gift is, it’s your “Zone of Genius” and you love it. Doing it lights you up like nothing else.
But when you’re running a business, you can begin wearing so many hats that you forget about your first love. The very reason you started your business in the first place gets pushed to the backburner as you put out a million other fires.
Once you outsource and train your team member, you have time to focus again. You can spend more of your energy doing the things you love in your business.
Reason #2: Level Up Areas of Your Business
There are always areas of your business where you know you could be doing better. Maybe you struggle with setting up sales funnels so none of your products lead to each other. Perhaps you struggle with creating graphics to showcase your amazing courses.
When you outsource, you can level up these areas of your business. That’s why it’s important to look at where you need the most help before you choose to bring on a new team member. If you’re already strong with writing copy, then look for a virtual assistant or intern that’s strong in an area where you’re weak such as sales funnels or graphics.
Reason #3: Create Margin in Your Calendar
Many entrepreneurs have too much on their plate. If you’ve noticed that your days are packed with back-to-back tasks, meetings, and appointments, then you could surely benefit from outsourcing.
While it’s understandable to have busy seasons in your business, it can become draining and overwhelming if these seasons last for years on end. Get the help you need by outsourcing.
Reason #4: Lower Your Costs
Sometimes, the resistance to outsourcing is centered in a concern about costs. That’s how it was for Shannon. She was worried that she couldn’t afford the experienced virtual assistant who would help her with her video marketing.
It was her husband who helped her to understand that her clients paid her $200 an hour to work on their copy. But she would often spend ten hours or more a week frustrated by video marketing.
So her husband concluded that she was spending roughly $2,000 a week in valuable time frustrated when she could be making money from client work. Suddenly, paying the VA $500 per week didn’t seem so outrageous to Shannon.
Reason #5: Grow Your Business
Another advantage of outsourcing is that you can focus on growing your business in new and exciting ways. That’s because instead of passing out peanuts to your passengers, you’re free to focus on the flight plan. The result is a business that can expand in ways you’d only dreamed of before.
Reason #6: Get Early Feedback on Ideas
You can also use outsourcing to get early feedback on ideas. Maybe the first few products you launched flopped because you weren’t in touch with what the market wanted, or your presentation wasn’t what customers expected.
With outsourcing, you can have a virtual assistant or another team member do early research. This can allow you to shape your projects in such a way that they’re more likely to appeal to the market.
For example, you might have your VA compile a list of the top 5 products that will be similar to yours. Then you might ask her to compare them and point out what the product creators could have done better. You can use this information to make a more competitive product.
Reason #7: Create a Better Customer Experience
If you’ve been running your business solo for a long time, you may have lost touch with what the customer experience is like for someone who makes a purchase from you. But you can have a new team member audit the system and go through making test purchases. Then they can give you feedback on what the experience was like and how it could have been smoother.
Reason #8: Keep Up with Industry Trends
Tina, a personal assistant to authors, felt like she was always falling behind on industry trends because she was so busy with work. In fact, she’d gotten so overwhelmed that she couldn’t even leave her desk to attend conferences and other offline events that would provide continuing education for her.
When you have a team around you, you’re free to explore new industry trends. You can look around at what others are doing and analyze how your brand could do it differently or do it better.
Reason #9: Stay Compliant & Secure
You may also want to consider outsourcing if you struggle to stay compliant with new and expanding standards in your industry. That’s what happened to Katie who wasn’t good with technology. She struggled to keep her website compliant with the latest web standards. Because of this, her site was hacked twice in two months.
After the second hack, Katie took the time to hire a website security expert. Her expert keeps her website up to date and compliant. He also makes regular backups of her site and runs security scans. Now, Katie is free to focus on helping her customers and she can rest knowing that her website is secure for them.
Reason #10: Get Your Work-Life Balance Back
Perhaps the biggest benefit of outsourcing is that it can give you back your work-life balance. Instead of juggling customer service emails while you’re at your child’s soccer game or dealing with client deadlines while you’re sick, you have someone to help you.
Now you can focus on taking a step back when life or your health demands it. You can do this without guilt or hesitation, knowing you’ve left your tasks in the capable hands of a trusted team member.
Outsourcing can be a wonderful way to get relief from overwhelm and create more of what you want in your life.
If you’re looking for a fun way to create new content to publish in your business (or a fun way to assign some content creation to your Virtual Assistant), I invite you to take my roll the die content dare 😉