4 questions to decide: outsource your project or do it in-house?

Choosing to outsource some of your company’s tasks is not always an easy choice to make, especially when you are used to doing everything yourself.

The point is that as your business grows, you will need someone else to take care of specific tasks so that you can focus on those aspects which are necessary to continue with the expansion of your business.

However, outsourcing and delegating to someone else outside your usual team (or your control) may be something that raises doubts… First, because you don’t know if the person you are going to hire for the task is the right person to do it. In the past, only agencies could be used to request a task or the development of a project.

However, you currently have the services of platforms such as Workana that connect your company directly with the person to work with you. This allows you to work with specialists in specific areas (design, marketing, sales, programming, copy, etc.) and at the same time ensure compliance with the agreements made between your company and the freelancer.

If you have any doubts about whether it is time to outsource or to continue in-house, we have prepared a list of the “pros and cons” offered by each type of work.

Lower costs

  • To do it in-house, you need to invest more money to attract them, and keep them on your payroll. In addition to the time it will take you to find the right people for your business.
  • With outsourcing you reduce costs as you can have more and better professionals for different tasks. Because when you outsource jobs, you save the costs of having to incorporate employees on a permanent basis.

More productivity

Efficiency

  • If you have to hire a team of people, train them, and provide them with the necessary inputs and tools to carry out the tasks which will require a lot of your time and a significant investment.
  • When hiring the services of freelancers you can have a greater efficiency and speed in the delivery of the work requested because independent professionals are used to work with delivery dates and schedule their calendars based on this.

Quality

  • Probably not everyone who works for you is an expert in what they do, and this will be reflected in the quality of the final product.
  • Leaving specific tasks in the hands of experts in the different areas guarantees a successful product or final result.

To continue with your evaluation of whether or not to outsource, I propose you to know the 4 questions that will arise in the outsourcing process.

The 4 questions every business owner should ask themselves before outsourcing

#1 – If I hire someone to do a task, do I stop making money?

This question appears when a company wants to determine whether it should outsource to perform a task. It’s very simple what you have to think about, we all have only 24 hours a day and if you take care of a certain task (such as answering clients queries) you will have less time to get new clients. And without clients, your business doesn’t exist. So it would be very convenient to outsource this task and dedicate yourself to those that require your full attention.

#2 – Do I only outsource for tasks I have little knowledge of?

This is very important: look at the task itself. If it’s something you don’t like or it’s something you have very limited knowledge about, then you should definitely outsource the work. You must leave those who know best so that you can get better results.

For example….

… Some companies are outsourcing the design of their website, because their owners, although they know something about design, do not have good taste to do it.

Others have outsourced the administration of Facebook ads. Why? Because you need to be up to date with the constant changes in Facebook and keep up to date with this can take a lot of time (time you can spend creating and innovating products or strategies to take your company to the next level…).

However, you can also outsource those tasks with which you do not feel very comfortable or that generate discomfort at the time of executing them.

Think about this…

If you try to do any of the tasks that are necessary, but you don’t like them or your knowledge is limited, you’ll probably…

  1. Feel that you hate doing your job and
  2. Feel that you waste a huge amount of time trying to solve it.

And that time you can spend running a task you don’t know is time you could use to attract more clients, closing more sales, etc. That’s why you should seriously consider outsourcing to freelancers for the tasks you’re terrible at or for which you’re not competent.

#3 – What will I get from outsourcing tasks?

You may think that outsourcing is an unnecessary waste of money. But it’s really an investment…

Time is more valuable than money, so sometimes the ROI (Return on Investment) of outsourcing is simply based on having more time. This is an important factor in determining whether or not to outsource a task.

As I mentioned earlier, time is money, and you can use it to earn more instead of doing tasks that other people might do even better than you.

For example. You may eventually understand the importance of being able to travel quietly looking for new ideas for your business, while your virtual assistant does the tasks you outsource to them and you trust them to keep things running while you’re away.

#4 – Will I be protected if business conditions change?

The best way to ensure that the contract or commercial agreement between your company and the freelancer that will perform the task is to make the agreement through platforms such as Workana that guarantee compliance and protect both your company and the external service provider.

So, we can say (by way of summary) that….

You get 2 concrete benefits by outsourcing tasks within your company

Knowing these benefits of outsourcing will help you decide if this is something that could work for your business. Here are two reasons to try this:

1. You don’t have to hire more employees.

When you outsource, you pay for that person’s service. This allows you to prevent an employee from joining the company. Which is going to save you money on everything from benefits to training.

2. Access to a larger pool of talent.

When hiring an employee, you may only have access to a small local talent pool. Many companies have found that outsourcing gives them access to talent in other parts of the world. If you need specialized help, it often makes sense to expand your search. And outsourcing can be the perfect solution for this.

At Workana we value your time and believe it is your most valuable asset in growing your business. That’s why we invite you to discover the thousands of freelancers willing to help you with our platform and you will have a clearer view of the tasks you can outsource.

You might also be interested in: 

Thousands of freelancers are ready to start working on your project.

Subscribe to the Workana newsletter and keep updated