Setting Up, Letting Go

How much is too much when it comes to pouring money into outsourcing in order to build your business? The answer is not as straightforward as it might appear and will very much depend on what type of business you’re in the process of setting up and where you want to focus your attention.

It will also depend largely on you. You may have a huge range of skills as an entrepreneur. Perhaps you’re a marketing natural, clued up on social media marketing, direct marketing and so on. Perhaps you’re a content specialist who knows exactly who SEO works and exactly what you have to do to get your website figures through the roof. It may be that you bring to the table years of accountancy practice and know your way effortlessly around the latest software, producing reports and performance figures. But, even with all those skills and all that knowledge under your belt, the bigger question is: do you have time to put it all into practice and if not, how do you choose what to outsource and what to keep in-house?

In this article, we take a look at how to make that decision and how to pass over the elements of your business that you need outsourced.

Take a Cold, Hard Look

It’s a tough call but though you enjoy the cut and thrust of the marketing and advertising worlds are they really your strong point? If you know that you’re struggling under the sheer volume of work or you lack the finesse you need to pull off a successful marketing strategy, take a deep breath and think about getting in an outside agency or consultant.

How do you go about choosing an agency or consultant? The answer is that you must be confident that you choose a team who has fully grasped the specifics of your business and is fully aligned with you on the goals that you want to achieve. You will only find that combination by talking to them. 

Before you think about starting the procurement process, draw up a plan with some actionable, specific and achievable goals. You’ll also need to think strongly about your budget. Will the agency or consultant come in for a one-off project to draw up a marketing or content plan and then leave or will you have them deliver it over a longer period? Whatever you choose, your budget needs to reflect your realistic ability to make that happen.

It might be that you can divide the work up between you, with you taking on the overview or the strategy and your outside source coming up with killer SEO content, seoexplode.com, for 

example.

The Recruitment Process

When you sit down with the agency or consultant, don’t be afraid to listen to your gut instinct. How well are they communicating with you? Are they doing the majority of the listening to you or are they talking about their business and offering? You need to be sure that they’ve listened and appreciated the finer details of your needs. 

You’ll also want to thrash out the finer details. Will they be working in your office or remotely to you? How often will you expect to schedule calls and how will they regularly monitor the various points of your campaign? These details are the elements that make the work go smoothly and reassure you, you’re in safe hands.

Don’t feel rushed into making a decision and feel free to spend some time digging into their customer satisfaction records. Most companies will have some personal recommendations on the front page so why not drop them an email or give them a ring to see if they would recommend them to you to work with.

Letting Go

This is perhaps the hardest part. While you’re still in control of your business and all its elements, knowing that there’s someone else doing the parts of your job that you once enjoyed can be hard and it can be very tempting to interfere at every step. Tell yourself that you’ve made the right choice and you can trust others to deliver the same, if not better, results.

Getting outside help doesn’t mean you’ve failed it just means you’ve recognised that you can’t do everything at the standard you’d like for your entire business. Let go and trust others to help you achieve your business goals. Leave yourself free to concentrate on what you do best and trust the process.