Time is money, right? And if you had more time, you'd have more money? Outsourcing is the way to give yourself more time, but how much do you actually do it? I want to start doing it more and more - reinvesting profits back into my business as further investment.
I outsource as much as I possibly can. Whenever I find a competent and conscientious subcontractor, I try to send them as much work as possible.
I tend to outsource, now, more and more. The problem I find is finding the competent help like Will mentioned. I HATE taking two days to write up a schema and than having to go back over and over and point out what they didnt do from the original writeup, NOT to mention fixing new mistakes. I've had a lot of outsourcers that have caused me more time than ever saved. Even at pennies on the dollar, when you take into account my time to go over it, it doesnt always even out.
For our paid Web hosting service, all functions except administrative and marketing are outsourced. For FreewayWebhost, it's actually the same. It can be rough getting started with outsourcing, but once you're up and going, it's a great alternative to doing everything in house!
also it is nice to build up a roster of coders who specialize in different areas and have them on your chat list. You'll find they can also help you answer little questions here and there if you hire them regularly. Yeah I would outsource much more if I had more $$ Some things you might want to do yourself if you are good at them and enjoy it.
I haven't outsourced yet.. I haven't really considered it yet (I think it's because I do all of my website & graphics design lol). But, you do get what you pay more, outsourcing has a higher risk of things going wrong so... I would think twice
Yes, I'm outsourcing more and more as well. It really saves time, some tasks are such a chore. One problem I've had is they do the job at a really competitive price the first time then their rates start creeping up! The risk depends a lot on the type of project. Article writing and data input type jobs will be easier to manage than programming.
i outsource as much as i can too. my ultimate goal is a position called 'supervisor'. i just watch what's going on and once in a blue moon lay my fingers on it.
Outsourcing is vital to my online business activities and I spend approximately $125K per year on it. That includes everything from articles and graphics to program development for marketable products. There are tons of resources for outsourcing online, but I’ve found that locating someone talented in a given area, paying them very well for their services and providing incentives for them to go the extra mile works really well in the long term. I’ve got two full-time programmers working for me exclusively, along with a graphics artist and about 15 talented writers. This allows me to manage multiple projects at the same time without having to be a micro-manager and focus on marketing activities. But, like everyone, I started small and outsourced more and more as my online business grew. I take the same basic approach in offline business activities, and it allows me to manage a fairly large organization without having to hire extra staff for management and supervisory functions.
One of the keys to successful outsourcing is building relationships, as apposed to constantly looking for the cheapest or fastest- just as you would with a JV or LTR partner. Camaraderie still goes a long way these days.
I agree with many of you. As your business grows and you make more money, outsourcing is a helpful and profitable tool. BUT YES, you must find reliable vendors to outsource to otherwise you are spending more time fixing the work and ultimately paying for nothing.
i dunno, one of the most profitable sites on the internet (a free dating site that doesn't need to be mentioned) is run by one person and generates over 5,000$ a day. i'm a big fan of doing things yourself.
Outsourcing can be a bit of a pain in the arse.....you can't really have as much control over things...or you work with bad vendors. I have a few trusted vendors and got them to develop code for me the way I want it, so it's been tested, it works and I trust it...therefore I use it over and over to cut down the costs of recoding. bottom line: keep looking and find the best vendors to work with and stick with them, You'll see that some will rip you off and give you shit and headaches, some will trully work with you until you're satisfied (or amazed--if lucky, barelly happens). I only outsource up to a point; I don't outsource if I can do it myself. - Alex - /// -
I haven't done any outsourcing yet (other than harassing coworkers to help me for free when it's something I can't or don't have time to do). I've been heavily considering it though. I have a million and one ideas for projects I'd like to take on but haven't any free time so I think I will be outsourcing some projects soon. Especially once summer comes around 'cause I need a tan pretty bad.
I think we've only outsourced a couple special projects over the years, but other than that, everything we keep inhouse.
Until i reach to an amonunt i wish, i will outsource all of my money to whatever job i am not good at. (like content writing and graphics) And if i want to do other things, i may outsource the jobs i can do time to time. The quality and savign time is important and this is why i am trying to work with the same people all the time.