Outsourcing: How To Get It To Work For You.

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Outsourcing How To Get It To Work For You.

• By Todd Skaggs
• Glazer-Kennedy Insiders Circle

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What Were Going To Go Over

• My Experience
• What You Should Outsource (How to pick the most
  important things)
• Deciding What To Outsource (Considering budget,
  time per task, etc.)
• Where To Find People To Hire (Including my
  opinions)
• Creating A Job Ad
• After The Job Has Been Accepted
• Training Providers
• While Theyre Working For You
• How To Pay Workers
• Rewarding Workers
• F.A.Q.
• Any Questions You Have ?

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My Experience

• Got my first taste of outsourcing when I tried to
  do my site
• Myself!

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My Experience

• Hired Virtual Assistants For My Niche Sites
• Moved On To Hiring People For Tech Stuff from
  India
• Hired 3 Full Time Workers From The Philippines
• Profootballreferee.com, forwardprogressbook.com,
  twilightgiftsonline.com, twilightpostersonline.com
  
• NoBSLouisville.com, toddskaggs.com,
  bourbontrailguide.com

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Example

• What do you need to get each one done?
• Buy a domain Might include keyword research
• Write sales letter Need copy skills
• Create a thank you page Need website skills
• Post blog comments to foster relationships with
  potential JVs Need time and knowhow to post
  intelligent comments
• Install shopping cart Someone good with techy
  stuff
• Social Media friending, Twitter followers,
  management

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Deciding What To Outsource

• Factor 1 How often do you need each thing done?
• If your business plan only requires one website,
  you only need to buy a domain ONCE.
• Will you need multiple sales pages?
• How many pages need to be linked with your
  shopping cart?

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Deciding What To Outsource

• Factor 2 Whats your budget?
• If you have more time than money, only outsource
  the crucial stuff for now.
• Do NOT hire before you have the money. Not only
  is it putting peoples livelihood at stake but it
  will only stress you out.

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Deciding What To Outsource

• Factor 3 What are your skills?
• Can you write copy?
• Do you know how to do tech stuff?
• Are you great at customer support?

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Deciding What To Outsource

• Factor 4 How long does each thing you need
  done take?
• You might be excellent at customer service but
  if it takes you 2 hours per day your time may be
  spent elsewhere.
• If keyword research is a one-time thing youll
  never need done again its a lot faster to do it
  yourself.

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Deciding What To Outsource

• Factor 5 Whats the most important?
• Whats making you the most money?
• What do you NEED done?
• Examples Customer service, writing articles,
  making phone calls.
• Obviously the most important things should be
  amongst the first things you consider outsourcing
  (as long as theyre train-able).
• Dont go for bells and whistles right away
  outsource what you NEED ESPECIALLY if youre on
  a limited budget.

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Where To Find People To Hire

• Different sites are good for different things.

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Where To Find People To Hire

• ScriptLance.com
• Inexpensive
• Lots of talented people
• Can be hit or miss
• Pretty good for tech stuff

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Where To Find People To Hire

• eLance.com
• Higher quality candidates
• More expensive - 50 minimum bid
• Candidates need to pay in order to apply to jobs
  so youre not getting tons of Spam bids
• Great for AWESOME premium virtual assistants

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Where To Find People To Hire

• Craigslist USA
• Can find excellent candidates who dont know
  about telecommuting jobs
• Can get flagged very easily
• Quality is inconsistent
• Have found some great article writers here

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Where To Find People To Hire

• Craigslist Philippines
• Can find extremely inexpensive workers
• Hit-and-miss (My experience is far more misses,
  though I know some have had excellent results)
• Quality is inconsistent
• Can find your super-cheap workers here

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Where To Find People To Hire

• MyWebSupportTeam.com
• Training already done for you
• Wide set of technical tasks
• Credits roll over
• Great for almost any technical task
• Pretty inexpensive (97/month for 30 credits)

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Where To Find People To Hire

• Zirtual.com Maren Kate
• Training already done for you
• Isnt always immediate
• Can be pricier than training people on your own
• Can use for article writers, backlinks, social
  media, etc.

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Where To Find People To Hire

• oDesk
• Can find very inexpensive providers
• Quality is inconsistent at best
• Very expensive fees (10)
• Have heard most excuses from this site
• Best for menial type tasks (copying and pasting
  data, backlinks, etc)

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Creating A Job Ad

• Keys To An Effective Job Advertisement
• Give steps (The less vague, the cheaper the bids.
  Our 14 page ad attracted more quality candidates
  than anything else.)
• ALWAYS get samples upfront
• Put in a qualifier
• Explain whats in it for them (long term work,
  feedback, why its a fun job, etc.)

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Creating A Job Ad

• Sample Job Ad

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Creating A Job Ad

• Key Points From That Job Ad
• Explained exactly what was needed
• Asked for a sample before anything
• Put in a few steps (Purple cow, need a sample,
  make sure to tell me how long itll take you) to
  sort for people who can follow instructions
• Asked for price per 50 comments NOT an hourly
  price
• In future I might include sample for people to
  refer to

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Creating A Job Ad

• Going Through Job Advertisements
• Immediately reject anybody who didnt follow all
  instructions
• Look at bids (Start rationing out bids that are
  too high or too low)
• Look at feedback
• If no feedback, talk about doing a small trial
  job first, or asking for a few references.
• Ask follow-up questions to gauge how quickly
  people respond (Do they take an hour? 72?)

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Creating A Job Ad

• Going Through Job Advertisements
• Confirm deadlines with people
• Reiterate how important deadlines are
• Can work out less money if past deadline clause
• Can definitely tell people feedback will be
  affected
• Let them know more work will be given according
  to quality and meeting the mutually met upon
  deadlines

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After The Job Has Been Awarded

• Give clear and concise instructions
• Explain all the details and give examples
• Make it clear youre open for communication (but
  that you expect not to answer questions twice)
• Give milestone work (this way you can check
  without getting in too deep)
• Ask for progress reports daily
• If youre training for a custom-task, make a
  quick video
• If you may want ongoing work explain that this
  the initial job is a trial so both of you can
  gauge your satisfaction in working together

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Training Providers

• If youre training for a unique job position
• Video is great. Jing is free for 5 minute videos
  or you can get JING Pro for 14.95 a year.
• You can gauge how long each task takes you
• If for some reason things dont work out with
  this provider you will have immediate training
  for a new provider
• People seem to learn a lot easier by watching
  things in motion versus having to read long
  explanations
• You can show examples
• Can also get them transcribed
• Always explain in blanket form
• You may also consider tests to grasp
  understanding
• Google Docs is great for multiple choice tests

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Creating A Job Ad

• 3 Questions For Providers To Answer Every Day (a
  la Eben Pagan)
• What did you get done today?
• What obstacles or challenges did you face?
• Do you have any questions for me?

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Sample Hiring Process

• Sample before application
• Application
• Sent to training site
• Test given on how to use training site
• Test given on job
• Trial assignment
• 30 Day Trial with Tier 1 Pay
• All work sent to proofreaders if article writers
• If quality is good after 30 days, extended a
  formal job invitation and Tier 2 Pay

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While Theyre Working For You

• Take the time to give feedback so that
  expectations are clear on both ends
• It takes 300-500 repetitions of something to
  master it the right way, but if someone learned
  the WRONG way, it takes 3000-5000 repetitions to
  right it.
• You dont want to get stuck later on with
  performance youre not happy with but knowing you
  never said anything
• Since youve worked out a trial period, you can
  legitimately see if the provider can do what you
  want (or not) and let them go if they cant do
  what you want.

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How To Pay People

• Keys In Paying People
• Always go task basis
• This way people dont take their time
• Is generally a LOT faster
• You never feel slighted
• There are no surprises
• You have fixed costs you can budget for

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How To Pay People

• Keys In Paying People
• Always go task basis
• Pay on time (If you want them to be fast for you,
  you need to be fast for them.)
• Express gratitude for the work theyre doing
• Random bonuses (but NOT raises all the time more
  on that soon.)
• Incentive bonuses can work very well (I need at
  least 4,000 a week. Ill give you 20 of
  everything above that for the next month.)

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Rewarding Workers

• Know their culture
• Dont do anything prematurely
• Sometimes words of affirmation may be all they
  need (so take the time to get to know them)
• Special paying time-limited jobs are another
  option

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QA

• Do you have any questions? ?