10 Reasons Not to Outsource

1. Setting up processes and setting up checking systems is too big of a job.
What if I get so engrossed in setting up processes and checking systems that the business suffers? Setting things up properly to receive the advantage of having help will take too long.

Planning is the key to any outsourcing venture; you will need to break it down into smaller more manageable tasks. By starting small and ensuring you follow up on each outsourced task, will consume less time and yield better results.

2. The outsourcer will do a poor job.
What if the outsourcer doesn't do things properly or meet my own personal standards when I do it?

Your strategy should be to employ people who are skilled and professional in the area you want to outsource while you specialize on your core strengths. The same due diligence when employing a new person either in-house or outsourced must be taken to find the right business match.

3. Outsourcing is too much hassle.
It will take too much time and effort to tell a person what to do, rather than just doing it myself?

On the contrary, the time you spend communicating the processes to the outsourcer will be earned back in time and revenue, in the long term you will be freer to focus on business growth and revenue generating tasks.

4. What if there are communication difficulties with the outsourcer?
Communication with a colleague can be difficult enough, it will be near impossible to communicate with a non-native English speaker living half-way around the world.

Again this comes back to finding an outsourcer that best suits your business culture. The majority of global online outsourcers have a range of ways to communicate with you. Most outsourcers have decent written skills and using chat and email will help you to document what you want and is less likely to get lost in translation when speaking over the phone.

5. Can I trust an outsourcer I hired online?
What if the outsourcer is a scammer and harms my website or sends spam from my email address?

While there are opportunists lurking all over the internet. There are a variety of well known and trusted outsourcing platforms that offer tools to evaluate profiles, feedback from others, and communicate with the individual or business prior to working with each other.

6. The tasks I perform can't be clearly communicated to an outsourcer.
My day consists of muddling around in random directions and somehow stuff gets done. How can I write a process to teach someone else to do that?

While it may seem that a small business owner is randomly doing different things in no particular order. It is possible to establish a log of the different tasks you perform each day. You can then analyze and group them together in a logical way and then assess each in terms of core and non-core tasks.

7. What if the outsourcer I hire quits?
Do I have the time and can I afford to be constantly training people and then have them quit? This could get expensive, not to mention frustrating.

People get hired, fired, quit and relocate all the time. Typically outsourcing contracts are entered into on a project by project basis. Where longer ongoing services are required, look to work with a company that offers backup services or additional employees that can pick up where the other left off. But remember that sometimes there are no guarantees.

8. What if the outsourcer constantly asks questions and drives me crazy?
How can an outsourcer perform a task the way I want it done without constantly asking questions and drive me crazy?

The majority of questions should be clarified in the initial negotiations and knowledge transfer. Obviously the more intelligent the questions, the more confidence you will have and the better the outsourcer will be able to perform. You will expect to be asked further questions to clarify requirements as the project progresses, but if the numbers of questions are unnecessarily high, or even worse, no questions are asked at all, then perhaps you should consider a different outsourcer to work with.

9. What if I don't increase my revenue?
What if I hire an outsourcer and I don't increase my productivity or my revenue?

True there are no guarantees. The initial costs will seem more than any savings you may see in the short-term. But consider the amount of time it would take you to perform that same task and compare it to the cost of outsourcing, add to that the possible income from that future available time then of course it will be a favorable equation. However, if the outsourcing project is viewed as out-of-sight out-of-mind, then this will decrease the likelihood of receiving any positive benefits.

10. I don't want to be a boss.
Having to tell someone what to do is uncomfortable, I just can't handle that.

If you feel that being someone's boss is not for you, then consider the outsourcer as a business partner. Here you will respect that they have certain skills to offer your business and as long as they are achieving the project requirements and performance measures you will be happy to work alongside them.