At some point in time in your business you will reach a place where:

Most likely when this happens it means it’s time to start thinking about expanding. A big part of expansion is outsourcing.

Although, you are still in the early stages of your business, it’s never too soon to begin thinking about expansion. Actually the best time to think about it is before it happens. This way when the time is right, you can move with action more quickly and seamlessly.

Outsourcing is an intentional focused activity that will provide better leverage and achievement of expected results more quickly and easily over time.

Here are 5 quick strategies to get you started:

1. Get clear on what you need to outsource – many wait until overwhelm sets in. When you get to that saturation place, it’s hard to figure out what needs to be outsourced first. Suddently everything presents itself as a priority. To start, focus your attention on revenue generating activities that aren’t getting done, and that which takes up too much time or energy.

2. Identify the skills needed to get tasks done – once you know what need to get done, then you need to think about how. This is, figuring out what skills are needed to get you from point A to point B. For example, if you find yourself hitting a wall with technical tasks (e.g. web development, shopping cart set up, setting up a blog, use of an autoresponder, etc), you will need to find someone with this skill set to fill the void.

3. Know first what outcomes you are looking for – often times people get upset when they hire someone and they just aren’t producing the results that they want. To avoid this from happening, get clear in your mind first what “criteria” you need for a job well done. Essentially, think about what finished projects should look and feel like.

4. Articulate clearly how you want things done – the idea here is delegation, not abdication. This means YOU need to provide direction as opposed to leaving your hiree to figure out the what and how on their own. In so doing, you will have a way to measure whether outcomes are being met as expected.

5. Hire subcontractors vs. employees- subcontractors or freelancers are the way to go because it’s easier, more convenient, and overall cheaper than an employee. They work on a hourly or project basis, and are responsible for their own taxes and insurance. The only thing you would have to provide is a 1099-MISC form that specifies what you pay them, so that they can use it to file their taxes.

Hope these suggestions helped: See you in a couple weeks…it’s my kid’s spring break!!

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