Hi, I’m Nicole Dean and I’m a guest expert here this week, talking about “Common Mistakes that Can Sabotage your Outsourcing Success and How to Avoid Them”.
Yesterday, I wrote about the #1 Mistake that People Make When Outsourcing which was waiting too long to get started.
Today, we’ll move on to the next one.
#2: Making it So Darned Hard!
It actually cracks me up how freaked out and over-analytical people get when they start thinking about outsourcing. Most people that I know outsource all the time and don’t even realize it.
Think about it for a moment.
- You probably don’t drive your own garbage to the dump.
- I’m guessing you don’t cut your own hair.
- Most people don’t fix their own brakes in their cars.
- I’m hoping you wouldn’t fill your own cavity or take out your own appendix.
When my roof blew off after Hurricane Ivan, I didn’t climb up and try to re-roof it all by myself. Want to guess what I did instead? Yes, I hired Roofers.
See? You already know a bit about outsourcing. The roofers put on a new roof in 2 days, including pulling off the FEMA blue tarp, fixing the boards underneath that had water damage, and add all the details like the Soffits (who knew?!).
If my husband and I had tried to do it ourselves? It probably would still not be done years later, and it would have cost me a whole bunch in marriage counseling afterwards.
So, why do we overcomplicate outsourcing in our busineses? Is it because outsourcing isn’t as obvious in online businses as it is in real life? When you have your roof missing and water pouring into your bedroom, I guess it’s pretty clear what should be outsosurced and it’s kind of timely that you make it happen.
However, in our online businesses, we face overwhelm and get all frazzled trying to figure out what to do and who to trust and how to hire them and … and… and… So, we put it off.
Let me break it down for you.
If you have a roadblock that is standing between you and money –> Outsource whatever it is that’s currently standing in your way.
- Installing software.
- Transcribing Audio.
- Creating Videos.
- Recruiting Affiliates.
- Contacting potential JV partners.
- Writing Press Releases.
If you don’t know what’s standing between you and profit –> Hire a coach to tell you what to do.
If you’ve got a stream of income and you’re great at making money –> Hire support staff to take some pressure off yourself so you can make more.
If you’re a creative type but hate that yucky “marketing” -> CREATE. Hire an affiliate manager or marketing assistant to help you to make more sales.
Guys, it’s common sense stuff here. Stop making it harder than it has to be.
Do what you love. Outsource the rest.
Otherwise, you’ll continue to either struggle with or put off the other stuff. Have you ever heard the expression “You’re only as good as your weakest link?” It’s a saying regarding a chain. Think about it. You can have a huge chain like the type that holds an anchor off the side of a ship, or you can have a thin chain like would be in your toilet tank.
If even ONE link on either chain is broken, it’s not going to hold on very long, is it?
So, take a minute to look at what’s “broken” in your business. Start your outsourcing journey right there.
Of course, if you like what I have to say here about Outsourcing, I invite you to check out Outsource Weekly as I have a whole lot more where this came from. You can get info about everything from “Getting Traffic from Social Media — or Outsourcing It” to “Getting FREE Help from JV Partners, Affiliates, Interns, and Your Kids”.
That’s it for today. I’ll be back with more tomorrow.
Warmly,
Nicole Dean
Nicole Dean on Twitter| Sherice Jacob on Twitter | Nicole’s Blog
Tags: common mistakes, nicole dean, outsourcing
I learned early on to hire people to fill in my weaknesses. Of course it wasn’t called outsourcing back then.
As a coach I give people this advice all the time – it’s much more important to get help and get the job done than to postpone a job that you’re dreading.
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