outsourcing can turn your biggest weakness into your biggest strengthFar too many people are reluctant to outsource. I'm not sure what it is exactly; the reluctance comes from different places depending on who you are talking to. For some, the desire to keep everything in house comes from a deep fear of losing control. They are absolutely terrified by the idea of other people having an influence over their work. With something like PR, they are worried that some words might be published about their company that they did not have absolute control over. Maybe they would have phrased things differently, or maybe they'll say something that might offend their competitors! For others, it is not fear but an intense greed and arrogance which prevents them from ever being able to outsource. We've all worked with someone like this. Hell, some of us have actually been this way for at least a part of our career. These people can't stand the thought of someone else interfering with their work. After all, nobody can possible do it properly, right? Other people will only detract from the quality of the end product. Nobody can design like them, nobody can write like them, and nobody can pitch like them. No matter what happens in a meeting, or no matter what gets written in a press release, there's going to be a problem. They would have done it differently - that is to say, they would have done it right. It doesn't matter what it is that prevents you from outsourcing. What is important is that you GET OVER IT. You need to realize that you aren't perfect. You are not the only one capable of writing a press release, and not every thing that happens out of your control is going to be a disaster. Quite the contrary. Once you accept that you are a) not perfect and b) that other people are better than you at certain things, you will realize the true potential of outsourcing. The Power Of Outsourcing A reluctance to outsource is something that afflicts two types of business: the very small, and the extremely large. Yet the desire to keep everything under their control comes from very different places for these different sorts of enterprises. For big businesses, it is often just good business practice. A lot of big businesses are not innovative; they rely on maintaining market share, and their large size means that economies of scale apply. People like Amazon, for example, can afford to run their own airline because they ship so many packages per day. It actually makes economic sense to buy your own planes when you're running so many flights per day. But for small businesses, the inability to outsource is driven by the negative mindsets laid out above. And small businesses often remain small BECAUSE of their inability to outsource. Building a well-functioning PR department, for instance, or finding, hiring, and motivating a social media expert, can be extremely expensive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. That's why small businesses outsource these functions. But those that don't either simply don't have these tools available to them, or they do them haphazardly. They therefore don't get the value that these tools deliver, and they remain small. Trying to half-fund a PR guy, a social media guy, and an in-house bookkeeper can be a huge drain on your capital without providing a great deal in return. This can cripple your expansion for no good reason whatsoever. But outsourcing these functions can cost you a lot less than keeping them in-house while actually being a lot more effective too. All it requires is for you to get some proper perspective, to have some humility or bravery, and to set up your business properly. What You Need To Outsource Properly
There are a few things that you need to set up before you can start outsourcing properly. You don't need to do anything dramatic. But making sure that you are set up right before you start out sourcing any business functions whatsoever is just a good, smart way to safeguard against any of the sort of slip-ups that so many entrepreneurs are scared of! These aren't necessary obviously. To start outsourcing you can just pick up the phone and place an order. But if you make sure you have at least thought about the following:
If you have at least given some thought to these things, then you're ready to test the waters!
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AuthorI'm Henry. I've been obsessed with optimizing my life for over 15 years now. 'Do more work' is my mantra, and I'm going to try to help you do the same. Archives
December 2018
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