How to Know What and When to Outsource..
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I’m not going to be popular with this one:
There’s a saying in the entrepreneurial circles…
“Focus on your strengths. Outsource your weaknesses”
Yes, that may be true…But, there’s a time and place for it. And when you’re just starting out – it’s NOT for you.
It’s one of the main contributors to the high failure rate for new businesses! And it’s ‘the’ #1 reason the freelancers / consultants you hire often turn out to be opportunity hacks!
It’s a common scenario though…
Newbie entrepreneur puts out feelers for a web designer/developer. But has no clue what’s required.
Or what’s involved in creating or maintaining a website.
They see so-and-so coach or consultant ‘over there’ with a fancy website that seems to be doing well, so it must be the way the website looks. And orders one just like it with a few ‘brand’ changes to make it their own.
How easy for an opportunist to take a $19 template, slap a few add-ons and charge $3000+
And newbie entrepreneur wonders why there’s no new business!
Ok, so maybe this happens instead…
Let’s say a skilled, high-integrity web designer responds to the ad. You know them through your network. They’ve done a great job for one of your friends.
But what makes it a ‘great job’?
How other websites look?
Price? Not too expensive (Compared to what? For what purpose?)
And don’t forget all the other bells and whistles offered.
SEO package?
Ongoing maintenance?
Of course the newbie entrepreneur ‘needs’ all that if there’s zero clue what to do after the handover!
And it just snowballs from there…
Social media consultant?
Google PPC expert?
Facebook marketing specialist?
Advanced SEO?
Facebook marketing expert?
But what about Instagram?
And Snapchat?
Why not just hire a full suite digital marketing agency to ‘do it all’??
It never ends!
So what’s the right time to outsource?
Look I get it. We can’t do everything.
But instead of running off to outsource what you can’t do, or don’t like, first figure out, as an entrepreneur, what needs to be done given where your business is at.
For a new business, the hardest part is generating those first few sales to validate that what you have is indeed what people want! It’s called getting proof of concept. More on this right here.
But essentially this is THE most important thing you could be doing as a newbie entrepreneur.
You cannot outsource the work of figuring out how to get people to buy YOUR product.
Let me say this another way: You cannot outsource the selling of your product when you haven’t yet figured out what makes people buy from you.
So many newbie entrepreneurs dream about hiring that specialist or rockstar digital marketer who’s going to bring in all the leads and sales from [the latest ‘hot’ social media platform].
That’s delusional thinking.
If it were that easy, everyone would be outsourcing AND succeeding in business!
We wouldn’t have the atrociously high failure rate we currently have for new businesses.
And somehow, there’s something about that black box of digital marketing that makes even the smartest, most capable person suspend their critical thinking long enough to hire the ‘expert’ to put their ‘leads and sales on autopilot’.
Whatever the reason…
“I’m not good at marketing and sales”
“It’s not the best use of my time”
“It’s not my highest and best work”
“That’s a job for the ‘experts'”
All of this may be true…
But there is no more important skill when you’re starting out then to figure out product-market fit. Figure out how to sell your product. So that you get proof of concept ⬅️ Click here for a step by step process on how to get proof of concept for your new product.
When you’ve figure that out – meaning you are generating revenue repeatedly and viably – then you might consider outsourcing.
Ready to outsource? Make sure you have this first.
Often the first things an entrepreneur seeks to outsource are the boring, repetitive tasks that seem to stop the entrepreneur from higher value activities.
The biggest trap for entrepreneurs outsourcing admin or repetitive tasks for ‘cheaper’ labour is doing this before they know precisely what their growth strategy is.
When this happens, they are effectively spending their cash on non revenue-generating resources but at the same time, they are NOT effectively using that freed-up time to focus on higher revenue generating activities, e.g. sales, better conversions or new acquisition channels.
It’s a crying shame when that entrepreneur feels that they can no longer afford the help they have been getting and thinks they have to go back to doing the repetitive, boring tasks on their own to ‘save’ money!
I think you can see now why that’s NOT the solution here.
Instead, it’s about getting clear on what needs to be done to grow the business. More time spent on higher revenue generating activities!
Outsourcing for business growth
Once you have a proven, reliable method for generating sales, the next best results will come from ramping up the growth by setting up your marketing and sales systems.
This is when the magic happens. First, with the one channel you’ve proven. Then one by one, with others.
No matter the channel – phone, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram… it’s all the same. You’re still selling to people.
When you’ve figured out product-market fit, it’s simply about changing the context depending on the channel used.
This is when you start building out a defined selling system – aka a sales funnel.
Where are you at?
Identifying where you are at in the chart below will show you the next best step for your business.
When you are looking to outsource to make more leads and sales, here’s what’s possible. Clients are able to:
- plug the gaps in their existing sales process – to increase conversions, get more leads, and more sales.
- automate, where possible, freeing up their time and creating real leverage by taking away the boring repetitive tasks
- focus on activities that make more sales (e.g. connecting with new partners, negotiating large corporate contracts)
Frankly these are the ‘easy’ wins once the initial product-market match has been established and entrepreneurs have proven sales.
If you’d like to find out how we might be able to help you specifically leverage your time for higher-value work, then simply click here to message us here on Facebook.
Or click here to book a time to speak to one of our VA service consultants.
