I’m sure you feel the same way: time is limited and you have to focus on the things you can do best, or, want to spend your precious time on. In my life-long career I have experienced all kinds of tedious tasks I wish I would have never needed to do. With all the available outsourcing platforms it is easier than ever to outsource those boring duties to somebody else.
Even if you haven’t started outsourcing yet and are still wary whether you should hand out sensitive information, here are simple things you can start with, considering the complexity at hand and the amount of trust you want to put in.
Table Legend: 1 star is the lowest, 5 stars the highest. Ex. 1 star for complexity means it is an easy task, 5 stars for trust means you need to trust your outsourcing partner to a great extent.
| Task To Outsource | Complexity | Trust |
|---|---|---|
|
Spread your message on social networks Your assistant can communicate on twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, respond and retweet interesting content while you're busy doing other things. He/She can do it through your or a shared account so you don't need to give away login credentials. |
★ | ★ |
|
Research contact addresses and other data Sifting through websites, PDFs and email databases, filling excel sheets with product data or finding free domains: these are all easy but tedious tasks that take a lot of time. |
★★★ | ★★ |
|
Transcribe memos Your assistant can write up memos you have recorded on your smart phone or podcasts you have found on the internet. |
★★ | ★★ |
|
Sign up at affiliate programs Finding appropriate affiliate programs for your website's content and signing up for them is very time consuming. You can get rid of those boring tasks by outsourcing them. |
★★ | ★★ |
|
Select keywords or topics Looking for new topics for your blog or website? Let your assistant search for trendy topics or potentially interesting keywords. If you give them enough guidance this can be easily outsourced. |
★★★★★ | ★ |
|
Find the lowest price Even with comparison websites becoming better you still need quite some time to find the right flight for the right price at the right time. Same goes with hotels, train tickets or products in online shops. |
★★ | ★ |
|
Create a template Templates for business letters, quotations, memos and briefs you can reuse for communication are key for saving time. |
★★★ | ★ |
|
Prepare newsletters Send your assistant some bulletpoints for your upcoming newsletter and let him gather all needed information. At best you simply need to check at the end and hit the send button. |
★★★ | ★ |
|
Sift through contractors Once you posted a project description on platforms like ODesk or Freelancer your assistant can through all bids and pre-select the best ones according to standards you have set. |
★★★★ | ★★ |
|
Do simple On- and Offsite-SEO Simpe SEO work like finding pages that are not linked to yet, or, find blogs with dofollow links are the perfect tasks for outsourcing. |
★★★★★ | ★★★ |
Start Simple And Keep An Eye On Quality
There are surely more tasks you could outsource but they would require handing out more information as well (ex. responding to emails, organizing your calendar, etc.). I advise you to start with simple things and, once you feel comfortable, to extend the tasks your outsourcing partner is allowed to do.
Most important is that you find the right combination between saving time and still keeping up with your desired quality. Not every outsourcing partner works as autonomously as you would expect, so keep an eye on that.
What tasks have you outsourced? What worked, what didn’t? Let me know in the comments.
I agree with all points although I would never let them do on- and offsite SEO work. This is too important for my business and my standards cannot be met.
Hey Thomas, if you create a detailed procedure document, any standards can be met 🙂
This was a great post. I outsource blog and video editing, email management, research, lead generation and a bunch of other stuff.