Business Process Outsourcing Tips For Your Internet-Based Business

Thinking of online business process outsourcing (to the Philippines, for example)? Here are some great outsourcing tips from someone who’s discovered how to outsource effectively, through their own trial and error. Over to Dean…

“Of all the things I love most about having an internet-based business, is our ability as online entrepreneurs to access tools, software, systems, and people all across the globe, to help automate, and outsource, and systemise our operations, our business, our procedures.

There’s really been nothing like it. No business has had the opportunity – no traditional offline business – has really had the ability that we, as online entrepreneurs, have.

And so I want to talk about where you get started with that type of stuff – Y’know…

How To Outsource – How D’You Get Started Outsourcing Work?

What should you look at? That’s what I’m gonna talk about in today’s Drive.

Good morning! Welcome to The Drive. It’s Dean here of course, on the way to Internet Profits HQ. And I feel a little bunged up this morning. I don’t think I’ve got a cold, as such.

But last night, had a pretty late night. Didn’t get to bed till about 2:00 a.m.

I’m Just Not That Kind Of Guy Anymore

Late nights really affect me. It really breaks the routine I have. But needs must… Sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do in business.

We had a webinar that started at 11:00 p.m. UK time. And it ran for about an hour forty five to two hours, something like that. Then finished up a few other bits and came home.

I Want To Talk About Business Process Outsourcing

It’s an area that was always so unknown to me, for a long time in my business. I always struggled with things like…

What business processes should be outsourced first? How do you do it? Where do you go?

Who Do You Outsource To?

What type of person should I be looking for? And then, how do you train them? How do you teach them?

I made some huge mistakes with outsourcing work, early on in my business. Well, some mistakes ultimately went on to teach me a lot. But I want to share one mistake with you in just a second.

But before I do that, let’s first talk about…

What Business Processes Should You Be Looking To Outsource?

…Or what can you outsource? Well the bottom line ultimately is, you can outsource most things that you could choose to. But that doesn’t mean everything should be outsourced.

So let’s look at the areas, let’s look at the things that you probably should outsource.

Anything that is taking up your time unnecessarily, can and should be outsourced. So, for example, customer support – by answering emails and responding to support requests.

If you’re promoting products, if you have a website, if you have an email list… you will be receiving emails, replies to your broadcasts, contacts through your blog / website. If you sell your own products, you’re definitely going to have customer support.

You Should Not Be Dealing With That Yourself

It is okay to have a handle on the support, as in, “Are we having major problems?” y’know. You should have a handle… You should know what’s going on.

But you shouldn’t be dealing with the day-to-day to customer support. That’s a big thing. And responding to your emails can be outsourced quickly and easily.

It’s going to differ based on the business.

If you have a blog, and you post regularly to your blog, you could just create the content and outsource the uploading or the publishing of that blog post to somebody else… to a “virtual assistant”.

If you post videos online, all of that could be uploaded by an assistant and published to the video sharing sites at YouTube, Vimeo and other web sites.

The Best Way I Would Say To Do This…

Assess everything you do, to drive your business forwards. And if you find you’re struggling for time, or struggling to do enough of what you want and need to do, to drive your business forwards…

Then review the processes. Look for what can be passed off, and outsource those things.

Now, here’s something that I’ve got to make you aware of though. And here’s where my big mistake of the past comes into play.

So I, early on in my business – probably what would’ve been 2009/2010, start to look at business process outsourcing. And I thought…

“Great! I’m Gonna Get A Virtual Assistant”

And I got a Virtual Assistant. They were being paid a few bucks an hour, someone outsourcing in the Philippines. And it was actually really good, looking back… great.

But I let them down. Because, I got this Virtual Assistant I started thinking, “Well, they can do all this different stuff. They can answer my emails. They can do my blog posts. They can do this, and that, and this, and that.”

What it didn’t take into account is, when you typically hire someone like a Virtual Assistant, they do not know your process. They do not know how to do what you’ve been doing.

They don’t understand how to answer your emails. They don’t understand the responses to give in those emails. They don’t necessarily know how to upload the blog post. Y’know, obviously you can…

Find Virtual Assistants With Skills

But what I did… I expected this Virtual Assistant to just be able to take everything off my hands, get on with it, and I could walk away.

Which of course was not true, was not accurate, was not correct.

So what actually happened was, every single day I began to almost resent this person. Because in my head, they should be getting on with the work… In their head, they want to get on with the work, but they don’t know how.

And I didn’t put in the time to create processes. I didn’t put in the time to create training and manuals, perhaps, like procedures, standard operating procedures… How should something be done, what steps do you have to go through to do it.

So the benefits of outsourcing business processes are, and can be, and will be a very valuable thing to you, at the right stage of your business. But understand that to…

Maximise The Positive Effects Of Business Process Outsourcing…

I would start creating process manuals, and tutorial videos now, whilst you’re doing things yourself. Record yourself doing it, okay?

So if you are publishing a blog post, record the process. Set up the screen recording software. You can use either Camtasia, or a free one is something called Loom.

Record your screen. Talk yourself through the process. So that, when you want to teach someone else, or have someone else do that thing…

You’ve Got A Catalogue Of Walk-Through Videos

Then you can say, “Right, I want you to upload the blog post for me. Here’s a video on how to do that.”

And if you start doing that now, I guarantee when you come to outsource, or even if you start employing a team as you really grow, you will find the transition so much easier, so much more effective, and so much faster.

Because, believe me…

If You Do Things Wrong Outsourcing Work, It Can Be Painful!

…And it can actually cost you more time than doing the stuff yourself.

But if you do it the right way, it’s gonna be a pretty painless transition. And you can really just start to hand off your work, and focus eighty percent of your attention on the twenty percent of things you’re doing that actually produce the majority of your results.

So I hope this is helpful. If it is, please Like, please Comment, if you’ve got anything to contribute to the subject of outsourcing. And I’ll talk to you again in “The Worst Affiliate Marketing Mistake That Beginners Often Make” – another episode of The Drive. Thanks for joining us.

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