Growing a Business
Guide to outsourcing for small business owners
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If you’re anything like me, you’re a busy entrepreneur who gets so caught up in her tasks she often forgets to eat, let alone go on vacation. Though I’ve been trying to get better about this in recent years, I’m still really bad about not outsourcing small business tasks, and instead taking on all the things and doing them myself.
But, as I’ve been reminded time and time again, I’m not Superwoman. The reality is we can’t do it all, and we shouldn’t try to because when we do it’s the fast track to entrepreneur burnout. Nobody wants that.
I certainly don’t!
So, let’s talk about outsourcing for small business owners. While outsourcing and delegating can feel scary, it doesn’t have to.
To get some real-world perspectives on outsourcing, I went straight to the experts — entrepreneurs just like you and me — for their top tips on letting it go.
How to know when it’s time to outsource
You might be thinking the best time to outsource is when:
- You’ve got plenty of money
- You have more work than you know what to do with and/or
- You’re unable to take on more clients because your schedule is packed
But, perhaps the better time to outsource is right away! The sooner the better.
Anton Giuroiu, founder of Homesthetics.net, recommends that you outsource any task that jeopardizes your ability to do the things that only you can do immediately. “For example, if accounting and bookkeeping tasks rob me of precious time that I could have spent in executive decision-making, then it’s time to outsource or delegate that task,” he says.
You shouldn’t wait on outsourcing small business tasks that take up mental bandwidth you need for the bigger picture. Put another way, the sooner you start outsourcing and delegating, the sooner you can focus on the ideas and action items that can help your business grow and make more revenue in the long run.
Ravi Davda, CEO of Rockstar Marketing agrees with Giuroiu. “I have a simple rule: Outsource everything that costs $10 or less. Whether that’s cleaning, social media management, admin work, or anything else. This is a great place to start. You can get great VAs for this price. Then, increase this to $15 or $20. For me, the best time to outsource is straight away, as terrifying as this may sound. The benefits are worth it,” he says.
You might not want to wait until you have “plenty” of capital either.
Aseem Kishore, founder of Help Desk Geek, says the best time to outsource is actually when you’re having financial issues. The reason? It’s a more economical way to handle business operations. Kishore explains that managers and executives often have too much on their plate, and when they can outsource certain tasks, they can alleviate the work pressure.
Think about it: When you’re earning $50/hour, if you can delegate the less labor intensive tasks at even half that hourly rate, you’re able to take back that time and earn more money overall for your business.
According to Christopher Pappas of eLearning Industry Inc., the reason you need to start working on outsourcing and delegating as soon as possible is because it could take time to find the help you need.
“It will take time to find the right vendor or workers for your needs, so resist the urge to hire the first person you speak with. Even if they turn out to be the best option, compare and contrast their strengths with those of other providers. Spend some time looking around on outsourcing websites as well,” he says. “Choose a company specializing in exactly what you require; you want their strengths to match your objectives. When deciding with whom to begin a business relationship, numerous factors to consider. Of course, a reasonable price will influence your decision, but that isn’t the only consideration.”
Eden Cheng of PeopleFinderFree says the first thing to do when you’re considering delegating is to determine whether the task should be delegated, automated, or eliminated. “Otherwise, you just end up adding more costs to your business and wasting your hard-earned cash. For example, if you need to handle social media posting, you can always use a tool like Hootsuite to help schedule your social media posts in advance,” she says. “Or, if it’s something that can be eliminated without much consequence, like weekly client reports, then you don’t need to try delegating the task out.”
Related: Capital options for sole proprietors
How to determine which tasks should be delegated
Jonathan Tian of Mobitrix says the best tasks to delegate are the ones that are unrelated to your core business but take up a lot of your time.
“For example, a retail business dealing in household items can outsource data backup maintenance, accounting, and tax filing. These tasks are often best suited for professionals, and hiring an in-house one can be very costly,” he says. “Performing them on your own can also limit your business growth, hence the need to outsource. They can take up valuable resources which you can channel towards growing the business as well.”
There are so many tasks you can delegate to someone else. Here’s a list of tasks to consider outsourcing:
- Taxes and/or bookkeeping
- Transcription
- Media and publicity assistance
- Help getting on podcasts/finding podcast guests
- Writing press releases and/or submitting them to media outlets
- Audio and video editing
- Copywriting
- Websites
- Blogs
- Newsletters, and more
- Social media
- Invoicing/accounts payable/accounts receivable
- IT assistance/troubleshooting/networking
- Virtual receptionist
- Appointment setting and/or calendar management
- Event planning
- Inventory management
- Personal shopping
- Research
- Writing reports
- Graphic Design
This is far from an exhaustive list, but it should get you thinking about the possibilities.
On the flip side, there are a few tasks you should not outsource. According to Vaibhav Kakkar, CEO of Digital Web Solutions, “Any areas of your corporation that will instantly impact customers should not be outsourced. Although some companies do well by hiring vendors for customer service or sales, it’s a risky venture that small businesses or businesses in transition can’t afford.”
Carter Seuthe, CEO of Credit Summit, seconds this, and adds, “If the task you are outsourcing could have an impact on your reputation and something goes wrong, you’ll be left in a difficult position. This is why I prefer to only outsource the most routine, basic, in-the-background work.”
Their advice for tasks like these is to hire a staff member rather than a virtual assistant or independent contractor.
When someone is working directly with you full time, or even part time, they are more likely to have a greater level of care for the tasks at hand.
This won’t be just one of many things they do. Instead, they will have a higher vested interest in keeping the customers and their employer happy.
How to find reputable outsourcing help
Once you’re ready to finally start loosening the grip you have on your to-do list, the next logical step is determining where to find help.
Personally, when I was first looking into outsourcing and delegating aspects of my content creation business, I went to Upwork and Fiverr on the recommendation of entrepreneurs that I mastermind and network with. Sometimes looking for help this way can take a while, but I’ve had pretty good luck finding the people I need when I need them.
I’ve found many people are eager to work, especially amidst the pandemic because they want to have the freedom to stay at home.
Heather Welch of Ukelele Tabs says she prefers freelance platforms like Upwork as well because individuals looking for work often have portfolios online. “This way, I can see past work and get a better idea on what to expect when I do decide to work with a specific freelancer.”
For Dalila Rodriguez, who runs a public relations company, she looks for talent on LinkedIn, whereas Shane and Jocelyn Sams of Flipped Lifestyle and many online business owners like them have been known to post their independent contractor opportunities on Facebook.
The key with using social media to find help is to have thorough job descriptions and a lengthy vetting process, but this process works and can yield decent results.
Pro Tip: If you want to use a freelancing platform, stick with only one
Hutch Ashoo who runs Pillar Wealth Management, says if you choose to use a website such as Upwork, Freelancer.com, or People Per Hour, to only stick with one of them. “Using many sites can make things (i.e. contracts, tasks, the people you’re working with) more difficult to maintain, but if you use only one, it’s simple to manage all of your tasks from a single location.”
Melissa Smith, Founder and CEO of The Association of Virtual Assistants says, “Look for talent on LinkedIn, in your peer groups, and where the person would likely spend time online. For instance, if you want assistance with your Instagram [profile] it would make sense that the virtual assistant would spend a good bit of time on IG.”
Pro Tip: If you’re struggling to find help on your own, consider an agency
Some entrepreneurs use agencies to find virtual assistants and contractors they can hire by the hour or even by the task, and there are hundreds of agencies to choose from. So, how do you choose?
It boils down to a few basic questions:
- What is their reputation?
- Can you speak to past clients/do they have testimonials or reviews?
- How’s their success rate?
- What is the fee?
- How much of the fee actually goes to the person doing the work?
- Where is the agency located? (Some businesses prefer to only work with agencies in the U.S. whereas others only want to hire help in other countries.)
- Do you personally know anyone who has used the agency? If so, what was their experience like?
- How do the contracts work?
- What’s the exit strategy like?
- What happens when you are ready to move on/let the help go?
Bottom line: Regardless of how you go about finding virtual assistants and/or independent contractors for outsourcing and delegating tasks, do your homework. Don’t just hire the first person at the rate you’re looking for.
Once you find someone to work with, the next question is how to delegate tasks to them.
How to delegate your tasks
Malte Scholz, CEO and CPO of Airfocus, says the key with outsourcing and delegating is to make sure the tasks you assign are “straightforward and easy to complete without constant supervision. You want [people] to be independent and save you time. If you have to explain every single thing, you aren’t really benefiting in the process.”
Nick Chernets, SEO of Data for SEO seconds this and adds, “One of the most common issues with outsourcing is the lack of understanding which leads to multiple mistakes. Instead of saving time, you risk spending hours explaining the task to the freelancer. That’s why you have to prepare detailed guidelines ahead of time and make sure they are easy to follow.”
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve personally ever heard for giving thorough instructions to a freelancer is to film yourself doing the task and then write out the steps you took.
This way, your independent contractor will have both visual and written cues for how to complete the task themselves.
It’s also important to avoid going back and double checking the work too many times. Micromanaging takes too much time, and can actually lead to your assistant making more mistakes than if you have empowered the individual to handle the task at hand on their own.
Next steps for outsourcing for small business owners
Hopefully, this post has inspired you to start looking at the tasks you do daily and start delegating some of them out. It can be scary to hand over the things you normally do, but the most important thing to remember is you’re not giving up control. You’re actually taking back control — of your time, your energy, and your ability to expand your business.
Take some time and really start thinking about everything you do in a day. Then, go back through the list and put a star next to the things that only you can do. I’m betting you’ll be surprised by how many tasks can actually be done by someone else.
Next, I challenge you to outsource just a single task. Start small. Before you know it, you’ll be an outsourcing expert. Who knows what you’ll be able to create with all the time you’ll free up!
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The idea for sharing community management tips came to me about a year ago. That’s when I synced up with the GoDaddy Community team to host a webinar for small business owners. As hundreds of attendees rolled into the Zoom, I had a realization: “GoDaddy has a strong community.”
Behind every good brand and business, there’s a solid community of supporters, stakeholders, and sometimes, even haters.
But building a community and maintaining connections is one of the most misunderstood and least talked about topics within the small business world. For a business with fewer than five employees and a handful of customers, community building might seem like just another marketing tactic that is just out of reach.
To help small businesses build and manage an online community, I asked other business owners and marketers what community management tips they had for creating meaningful connections with customers.
14 community management tips to create meaningful customer connections
Given that creating and maintaining a strong community can help retain and attract customers, consider following these 14 community management tips:
- Be quick to address negative experiences
- Filter out spam
- Showcase success
- Send a postcard
- Get your customers involved in important decisions
- Bring Up topics that encourage engagement
- Provide talking points and engage with your community
- Engage regularly
- Be the face of your brand
- Choose a channel that works
- Create content that addresses customers’ specific needs
- Consider a brand ambassador program
- Reward loyalty
- Recognize the importance of inclusivity
Read on to learn more.
1. Be quick to address negative experiences
A bad customer experience can quickly escalate to a brand reputation crisis, and the company’s response must be fast to revert the situation.
Monitoring social channel mentions is an easy way to keep an eye on conversations surrounding your brand and detect potential concerns.
Once a customer posts a comment that threatens your brand reputation, listen, honestly apologize and be willing to solve the issue in the best possible way. Your unsatisfied customer will feel appreciated and perhaps even become a brand advocate.
-Rebeca Sena, GetSpace.digital
2. Filter out spam
The most important thing you should be doing in regards to community management is interacting with your community, and you cannot do that properly if you have to work through a bunch of spam. There are many programs out there, even some within the different social media sites, that can filter out spam in your comments and messages so you can focus on addressing your community. Plus, getting rid of the spam and moderating harmful comments creates a better space for your community to contact you through.
-Jacob Dayan, Community Tax
3. Showcase success
Develop case studies from your successful community members. This is a practical way of propagating the core values of your online community and encouraging new users to join your community.
The more these members contribute to the community, the more impact these case studies have. You can start by creating basic reports to identify the members who are actively contributing high-quality content, assisting other members, and elevating the community.
-Hasan Farahani, Yocale
4. Send a postcard
Many of my customers spend $15–$20K on medical care in Latin America. I send my customers handwritten postcards to remind them of their journey, thank them for their business, and to stay engaged while they recover from procedures like dental implants or plastic surgery.
The cost in time and money is very low, but a human touch in the healthcare space is increasingly rare.
-Wesley Jacobs, Apollo Medical Travel
5. Get your customers involved in important decisions
Taking the time to follow up with your most active customers and getting their insights on important decisions makes them feel like their opinions are truly valued and cared for.
In the long run, this forges a strong connection between you and your audience that relies on more than simply a transaction.
An added benefit of doing this is that you may even get some eye-opening suggestions and creative ideas that could end up benefiting your business.
-Harry Morton, Lower Street
6. Bring up topics that encourage engagement
Meaningful connections need to originate from a common source that offers a moment of relatability, which can further build brand trust. Social platforms offer numerous opportunities for these types of exchanges. When managing your social community, bring up topics that encourage engagement so you can connect on a level that goes beyond the basic company/customer relationship. In doing so, the consumer will feel more at ease to comment, ask questions and even provide more detailed feedback.
-Lindsay McCormick, Bite
7. Provide talking points and engage with your community
It’s important to recognize that community management is an ongoing responsibility. If you want to see your community thrive, you must create opportunities for customers to voice their opinion, communicate with other community members and provide you with feedback. Finding success is contingent on your ability to encourage participation from users, so you must provide talking points and give them plenty of avenues to stay involved.
If you leave your community dormant without your administrative oversight, engagement will start to dwindle as fewer users initiate conversations and take part.
Communities rarely function autonomously, so be sure to play an active role as you connect with and safeguard your community.
This gives you a chance to speak with your customers on a personal level, helping you learn about their likes, dislikes, objections and pain points directly—all of which are crucial in building meaningful connections with customers.
-Mike Grossman, GoodHire
8. Engage regularly
The best community management tip is to engage regularly and don’t neglect questions or threads you didn’t start—even better if they aren’t getting a lot of feedback. If you’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to regularly interact with your customers, make sure you’re commenting often and have a badge next to your name letting them know you’re a moderator or part of the company. That will really cement that feeling of connection and letting members feel heard. Plus, we’ve found that a community manager can really breathe life into a topic by offering input and pushing it to the front of that community for more engagement.
-Sylvia Kang, Mira
9. Be the face of your brand
Revealing the human side of your brand is without a shadow of a doubt an efficient strategy to boost your customers’ connection. It conveys transparency and accountability, building a stronger human bond. Consumers tend to trust people more than a company, and showcasing real people will make you and your brand easier to remember and trust.
-Chiara Sternardi, Passport-photo.online
10. Choose a channel that works
The best way to build an authentic community is to have everyone communicate using the same social media platform. Make that a crucial part of your strategy.
If it’s a professional audience that you’re going after, choose LinkedIn. If it’s a broader audience, use Facebook or Instagram. If it’s a young audience, try Snapchat or WhatsApp. If it’s a politically charged audience, maybe try Twitter.
YouTube is a great way to encourage people to watch videos that provide clear instructions on how a product or service works.
Users flock to YouTube for instructions on everything from how to change batteries on a device to playing scales on a guitar. The comment section can be useful for feedback purposes, and it also can be a way for customers to communicate with one another.
-Joel Jackson, Lifeforce
11. Create content that addresses customers’ specific needs
By creating audience and buyer personas based on different client categories, content marketers can create social content that speaks to people rather than just industries. Learn where your customers hang out online using your social media demographics. Then, narrow those results using audience research to help you define a specific audience and channel. You can then customize communications by researching the LinkedIn profiles of potential customers. Doing so will allow you to identify different stakeholders within the organization and determine their pain points. You can then create better content that addresses their challenges. But it’s all about finding an interesting angle for each segment.
Content that is too broad won’t result in authentic engagement with your followers.
Social media posts that offer helpful information are guaranteed to stand out in your clients’ feeds, resulting in more likes, shares and leads.
-Daniel Tejada, Straight Up Growth
12. Consider a brand ambassador program
A great way to create authentic connections with customers is with an acquisition and advocacy program like a brand ambassador program. For example, if a user can get five people to sign up for a service or product, they become an ambassador.
These brand ambassadors can help your business acquire new users. You can reward them with swag and access to special products or services … maybe even a special event!
-Jennifer Pieniazek, Resume Now
13. Reward loyalty
You can create meaningful connections by rewarding loyal customers to show how much you appreciate them. Just like any relationship, whether it’s personal or professional, people appreciate rewards. Show your customers that they matter and are top of mind in your decision-making. That’s how you create a stronger, more loyal customer base—one that will continue to pay attention for new initiatives and future rewards.
-Alyssa Berman-Waugh, Level Home, Inc.
14. Recognize the importance of inclusivity
To create meaningful connections with customers, recognize and accept diversities within your community. Each of your customers will differ in terms of their culture, orientation, ability and life experience. It’s imperative that you celebrate these differences and welcome input from individuals of all walks of life as you advocate for equity and inclusivity. This will develop your community’s reputation and attract diverse groups in greater numbers.
Communities that cater to just one group of people almost always become echo chambers, creating a suboptimal environment for connections to form and important discussions to take place.
By listening, asking questions, and welcoming input from diverse groups of individuals, you’ll cement your community as a welcoming place for diversity and insight to flourish.
In doing so, your ability to build a rapport and create meaningful, lasting connections with your customers will blossom.
-Patrick Casey, Felix
The community management tips used in this article were gathered using Terkel.
Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.
Have you ever made a dining decision based on a review you saw on the internet? You may have picked a product because it seemed “more trustworthy” online. It’s also a deal breaker if it isn’t handled correctly.
Customers are more inclined to believe in your company if it presents itself well on the internet. Whether a startup or a large corporation, your online appearance and behaviour matter to your consumers if you own an offline or online company.
Why Should Your Business Go Online?
In addition to being available for your consumers, here are other reasons to consider your online presence.
It Improves Your Company’s Accessibility
When you don’t sell anything online, a solid online presence can help you make more money from the internet if you aren’t engaged on social media.
Before making a purchase, most consumers do internet research to learn more about the company and the goods. Being at the right place at the right time is simply good business.
It Takes Care of Your Marketing and Branding
An internet presence provides a steady supply of customers for your company. Customer feedback and social media participation may help boost purchases. It’s easier for consumers to identify your online presence with a website or social media account.
It May Boosts Your Company’s Credibility
Having an online presence is essential for your organisation to be taken seriously. A startup might have difficulty being accepted as a legitimate organisation in its early stages. It’s essential to have a strong internet presence before people take you seriously. It’s easier to get quick loans at gdayloans.com.au to expand your company.
It Aids in the Comprehension of Your Target Market
When you have an online presence, you can engage with your audience in a two-way conversation to get valuable feedback or evaluations. In addition, it helps you learn more about your prospective consumers and the things they’re looking for. If a restaurant uses polls on its Facebook page, it may determine which specials and goods are most popular with its patrons.
How Can You Evaluate and Enhance Your Company’s Web Presence?
Analysing your online reputation simply means monitoring what others say about you online. Then you make it work for you.
You can monitor and enhance your company’s online appearance by following these three steps.:
Monitor Mentions of Your Business
Monitoring your company’s internet mentions can help you track what’s being said about you and mitigate unfavourable publicity. This can also help you identify communication gaps.
Google Alerts can help you track online references of your company. Set up notifications for your business/product name and relevant keywords, and you’ll be alerted promptly whenever you’re mentioned anyplace online.
Analyse Your Website Traffic
The source of your traffic (and how much) might assist you in evaluating your internet presence. It may be necessary to expand your internet activities beyond your website. For example, low social media traffic might imply a poor social presence.
Tracking your website’s traffic with Google Analytics might reveal secret traffic sources that your Google search may have overlooked. It will also help you find unnoticed remarks or backlinks.
Assess Your Social Media Engagement
Your social media presence affects your online reputation as well. Active consumers on your social media platforms help build trust and confidence.
Consider checking a company’s and a competitor’s Facebook accounts. You may observe that one firm interacts with clients while the other has a few likes but no comments. Which do you prefer?
Bottom Line
An active social media presence gives the impression of reliability while also conveying a sense of humanity and authenticity. Your audience will be more engaged as your social media presence improves.
To keep up with your target audience, you need to be one step ahead of them online. The first step is to become well-versed in everything your consumers discover about your company through the internet. Your internet presence must be understood, monitored, and improved to reach this goal.
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