The Benefits of Personal Outsourcing — Pt II
A few months ago, I wrote a brief post about the benefits of personal outsourcing. I explained how outsourcing some of your personal tasks — specifically those that you’re not fond of AND those that someone else can do more cost effectively — can help free up some of your time and enable you to become a more profitable and focused freelancer.
Many of you commented on how helpful the ideas were. You even asked for more suggestions on other tasks that could conceivably be outsourced. So I was asked to write a second post with a more exhaustive list of potentially “outsourceable” tasks.
Glad to do that. But first, I want to clarify a misconception I often hear when the topic of personal outsourcing comes up: the claim that paying someone else to take care of your personal responsibilities is a sign of laziness.
That comment misses the point. The idea behind personal outsourcing is to farm out tasks that you do not enjoy AND add little to no value to your life. Tasks that, when outsourced, can add productive time to your busy week.
If you believe that having your kids mow the lawn without paying them will teach them about personal responsibility and hard work (and I definitely agree with that), then by all means, have them do it. If you don’t mind making runs to the post office because it gets you out of the house occasionally, then go for it!
But if you hate doing those things (or have no kids to mow the lawn) and know that you could be working on billable projects you truly enjoy, then … why not at least consider having someone else help you?
OK. Enough of that. Let’s get to our list.
Sales Leads
Do you find yourself putting off your marketing efforts because you hate prospecting? If so, you may want to consider hiring an experienced virtual assistant or prospecting expert to help you out. When it comes to lead generation for professional services, the best approach I’ve found is to use a combination of direct mail and phone.
First, send out your letters. Then have your assistant call all recipients to try to schedule an appointment (or phone call) for you. Not only will you save time, but you’ll be giving the task to someone who might be more experienced and effective. Plus, to some prospects, it can make your business appear bigger and more impressive.
Prospect Research
Similarly, when it comes time to assemble your mailing list for your marketing campaign, you can hire an assistant to help you collect the necessary information and even verify all the names and addresses for accuracy. This might seem like a waste of time, but if you’re trying to put together a very targeted campaign — or if you’re sending out an expensive dimensional mailer — list accuracy can pay off.
Mailing Campaign Help
When it comes time to assemble your letters or packages, why not recruit family members to help you out? You’ll get it done in a fraction of the time and they’ll be glad to contribute. Last year, we drove to Florida to visit some family. I took 300 letters, envelopes and postage stamps with me and had a group of 8 relatives help me fold, stuff, seal and stamp all 300 letters. We were done in 45 minutes — a process that would have taken me hours to do by myself.
Vacation Coverage
Go on vacation and forget about the scads of emails and voicemails that will be there waiting for you when you get back! A virtual assistant can check both your email and voicemail while you’re away. He or she can summarize and prioritize voicemail messages into one document and even respond to urgent requests, if needed. When you get back to the office, you return to a manageable environment, not chaos!
Gifts and Cards
We all want to show our appreciation to our good clients during the holidays. But taking time to find and ship (or personally deliver) appropriate gifts can be extremely time consuming. If you find yourself in this situation, why not get some help? Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be a stranger. Ask your spouse or other family member to help you shop for and deliver your gifts. Provide spending guidelines, office addresses and driving directions. You can even ask him or her to address and mail your presigned greeting cards and run them to the post office.
Personal Tech Support and Help Desk
As writer and consultant, my laptop is arguably my most important physical asset. But that doesn’t mean I know everything about how it works and how to fix it. So I outsource my tech support to a remote help desk. And I’m about to outsource physical repair services to a local IT pro who does house calls. I don’t mind paying these specialists for their services because, again, we’re talking about a critical piece of equipment to my business.
Transcriptions
If you have to interview people for a living, it pays to record the conversation (with the other party’s permission, of course). Trouble is, going back to the recording to find specific information can be a hassle. That’s where a transcription service comes in handy. A skilled transcriber can convert a 1-hour interview into text in a day or two. And once you have the transcript, you can easily use the “Find” feature in your word processing program to locate key words and get to the information you need quickly.
Data Entry
If you need a lot of data entered, a typist with excellent data entry skills can take on the task for you, saving you countless hours and a ton of frustration. Maybe the information you need is only available in a printout, but you need it in a Word document. Or maybe you have a big stack of business cards that need to be entered into your Outlook database. In either case, a skilled typist can save you a great deal of time.
Scheduling Appointments and Reservations
Setting appointments and keeping up with a busy schedule can be overwhelming. And that’s one area where a good virtual assistant can help. He or she can schedule appointments for you (both personal and for business), handle schedule changes, make travel arrangements (or at least do most of the research for you) or even find a great restaurant and make reservations. Don’t knock it until you try it!
Personal Driver
My colleague Pete Savage recently told me a great story about how he managed to turn a bad situation into an opportunity. Turns out that his car broke down on the morning of a very busy day. He had a very important client meeting scheduled, followed by a doctor’s appointment he couldn’t cancel. So instead of bailing out, Pete paid his college-age nephew to be his personal driver for the day. Not only was he able to keep both appointments, but as his nephew drove him around town, Pete used the idle time to get caught up with his email and calls on his BlackBerry.
Home Repair/Handyman
My “honey-do” list grew out of proportion a couple of years ago. So I hired a very reasonable handyman to work on some of the higher-priority projects on that list. And recently, my retired father-in-law, who loves to work on projects around the house, has tackled some of the more labor-intensive jobs. He does great work and loves doing it, and my wife is happy that we’re (finally!) getting these projects done.
As you can see, the possibilities of personal outsourcing are only limited by your imagination. Again, do what feels right to you. Do only what will add value to your business and make your life less stressful. Keep the tasks that are core to your business or those that you enjoy doing. Bottom line: There’s no right or wrong. YOU make the rules!
I mean … isn’t that why you became a freelancer in the first place?
Ed Gandia is a successful freelance copywriter and co-editor of The Wealthy Freelancer blog. To get a free copy of his report, 7 Steps to Landing More Lucrative Freelance Projects, visit TheProfitableFreelancer.
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For the freelance writers out there, I know there’s a service that finds jobs to your specifications- does all the searching for you . . .BUT. . .I didn’t bookmark it. Grr.
Maybe someone knows it?
I finally gave in and outsourced my laundry. I’ve always hated doing laundry, and it finally got to the point where I was too busy and just didn’t have the time. I now have my room mate take mine when he goes to do his. My cost? The quarters for the machine. He does it for free since he is going anyway, and he uses the time to read / do homework.
I know Craigslist would work for finding people to do misc. jobs.
I’m with you on hiring out the driving and vacation coverage, but when it comes to handy-work, I’m my first choice. Why? Because I enjoy doing it. And, if the job is too big for me to do alone, I hire help and work alongside them.
The key word in the above graf is “enjoy.” If you’re a confirmed laundry-hater like Drew, then it’s best to outsource the work.
For most of these things, I feel are very easy tasks, and I do go back to the laziness idea…..nothing wrong with people doing this.
But these are all normal everyday life tasks… I don’t see why you need to outsource these things, cutting the grass can take 1 – 3 hours at the most, do it yourself…get your ass out of the house and do it.. the fresh air will help you and you will feel good getting out and doing something other then sitting in front of your computer.
Accounting and tax tasks… this is why we have accountants.. i totally agree with you….this is something that doesnt take an hour or 2….its takes a week or so… so yes outsource.. but with little house chores… do it yourself… if you are a good freelancer, you should be able to balance life and work together… take an hour or 2 each day to do these things is not a bad thing.. you work 8 hours… do chores for 2 hours.. thats 10 hours… allows you to be with your family for the rest of the day….
good article to fetch opinions.. great job
thanks
Not too sure I agree with Chad – even an hour or two a day that you spend doing things you DISLIKE is not worthwhile. It’s not about laziness, it’s about making your time count. I’d much rather pay someone to wash my floors than do it myself. And while they are being washed I’m on my computer getting my work done! And I’m a virtual assistant who ENJOYS many of the things Ed has talked about – transcribing recordings, managing email, data entry, etc. But my clients don’t enjoy these things and they need to spend their productive time getting their main work done. It’s win-win when you outsource things. Great post Ed!
I’m going to start looking into this… I’m doing more documentation than development.
Outsourcing to a specialist can be very efficient. I should know: most of my work right now comes from people who don’t have time to write their own HTML/CSS. If it takes you three hours to sort out an obscure CSS bug and you can outsource it to someone who fixes it in one, you come out at a profit.
It’s also possible that a specialist can do a better job than you will at their chosen task, even on simple tasks like cleaning and laundry.
Chad – Thanks for your comments. Good stuff!
Here’s where we disagree: our definitions of work/life balance…and our ideas of what’s enjoyable.
I don’t consider “mowing the lawn” having a life. In fact, IMO, spending half of your weekend doing yardwork and other chores means not having a life.
I work hard — yes. But when I play, I want to have fun. And many of the tasks above are not fun to me. I want more out of life. It’s not that I want to stay at my desk all week — far from it. And it’s not that I don’t like the fresh outdoor air — I’d rather be hiking in the mountains any day (especially with the fantastic early-fall weather we’ve been having here recently)!
Again, as I wrote in the post, if you enjoy these things, go for it. But if you hate or dislike some of them, free yourself from them!
Drew – I’m with you, brother! I haven’t done laundry in years! I cook every day, my wife does laundry. We’ve done that for 11 years. And when I was single, one of the most liberating days I can remember was when I began paying someone to do my laundry. This outfit charged by the pound, and I think I paid them an average of $12/week.
For me, it was a bargain. It freed me from the constant walks to the laundry room in my apartment complex, only to find out that all washers were taken…or that I didn’t have enough quarters…or that someone took out my clothes out of the dryer before they were dry!
Good discussion, everyone!
-Ed
Lead generating programs can be great tools not only to find those people who are interested in a home based business but will help to save precious time by filtering out the uninitiated. Once you have an established list it can be time consuming to qualify leads on a one by one basis. One tool I’ve been using successfully over the past month to qualify leads can be seen at:
http://fullvoicemail.com
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Im all about “time is money” and paying alittle bit to make things more efficient or run more smoothly both in my personal life and career is so valuable to me. Plus a believe in rewarding people for a good service or product (ie. I don’t mind paying for it) That mentality is what brings me business so I’m thankful to pass it on.
My biggest struggle however is just finding the right people and organizing them for success properly, which means me setting aside time to make it happen. I think its something I could figure out, but more advice along those lines would be very valuable to all freelancers I think.
Outsourcing isn’t only beneficial to you, but it’s also an excellent way to help other people. If you can afford to hire people to do things, you’ve freed up time for yourself to pursue things you enjoy more and you’ve provided an opportunity for someone else to make some cash. With the economy like it is, that’s a win-win for everyone.
As a virtual assistant and one of those who are in the industry you are speaking of, I feel the need to explain a bit about some of the things you mention.
A big one is to say that a virtual assistant will not always save you money. If that’s all you are looking for, you probably won’t find it with a VA – at least not with a professional VA. What you will find is more time to do what you love to do – whether that be personal such as spending more time with your kids or whether that be business such as spending more time meeting and greeting new potential clients. Another thing a VA can provide is experience. We are experts at what we do. You don’t have to worry about “training” someone as a VA is already trained. Another thing you will find is a partner – a VA is a partner in your business. We care about your business, where it’s heading and how we can help you get there. So a VA is much more than an assistant – a VA is a sounding board, an expert and a time-saver. Because we too are business owners, we understand the trials of having to do it all yourself. By partnering with a VA, you allow yourself the time to concentrate on what you do best and allow the VA to do what they do best.
It’s a win-win situation!
@Chad
I think I will have to disagree with you, Chad. To me, personally, I’d prefer to have “one to three hours of cutting grass” for my personal leisure time. Why not? Balancing life and work? Yes, we have to. And I do not believe in working the hell out of me either.
But to me, “life” is not “doing little chores. Perhaps we have different definitions of what “life” is.
So I would gladly pay a few bucks to enjoy a few hours everyday to have my own “life”. It’s… kind of an exchange, ah?
Here is an extreme example of personal outsourcing: http://www.virtualdatingassistants.com
I haven’t reach the point in life when I have the capability to pay someone else to do work for me. Still, there are many opportunities for me to explore and surely someday I would be able to outsource my work to someone else.