I got this question from my blog on which is better: hiring employees from a service like Brickworks or hiring a fulltime employee?
Both types of outsourcing actually works and one isn’t necessarily better than the other. The kind of outsourcing that would work best for your business would depend on the type of tasks you want to outsource and what direction you want to take your business in he future.
When You Should Outsource To Contractors
Tim Ferris talked about this type of outsourcing in the “4 Hour Work Week”. He advises hiring people from a service or hiring contractors so you won’t have a single point of failure. This means if one job isn’t done correctly, it won’t affect your entire business.
Another great thing about outsourcing to contractors is that there’s always somebody who’ll do the work that you gave them to do. If the person who usually does it gets sick or can’t work for some reason, there’s always somebody who’ll replace that person so basically the work doesn’t stop.
And if you’re the type of business owner who likes to micromanage and basically do most of the work yourself, then outsourcing to contractors is a much better fit for you. You’ll still have to micromanage everything because you can only assign simple, repetitive jobs to contractors.
Contractors can only be given be given simple, specific tasks because you have no idea who’s going to be doing that job for you that day. Contractors assign tasks to anyone who is available so the guy who did your task yesterday may not be the same guy who’s going to do that work today.
As a result, these contractors have no idea how their work affects your business. In the end, you’ll always have to check the quality of their work or make some changes in order to make sure that you’re getting exactly what you want. For example, you get a contractor to write articles for you about a certain topic. They can do that but you’ll always have to check their work afterwards to see if it’s what you wanted and if it’s a good fit for your business.
When To Outsource To Fulltime Employees
Like Tim Ferris, I was able to build a business that bothers me the least thanks to outsourcing. But, I do things a little differently when it comes to outsourcing because I eventually want my employees to run my business for me. That’s why for my purpose, I prefer hiring fulltime employees over outsourcing to contractors.
When you become an employer, you’re going to have to deal with certain problem. The biggest problem with having fulltime employees is the do get sick sometime so there will be days that they can’t get any work done. But the biggest advantage about hiring fulltime employees, what makes it all worthwhile, is I have a group that has a growing skill set.
I can afford to eventually step back and let my employees run the business for me because of all the training I’ve given them. With all their skills, I’m confident enough to let things go and just check on them every once in a while.
What about that “single point of failure” that Tim Ferris talks about. I avoid that by getting people I know can do one thing really well. Once they’ve mastered the skill that they already have, I train them to do another thing that’s related to what they already do. I add more training everytime they master a new skill until they get to the point that they have enough skills and knowledge to run the business. And the best part about it is I know they can do it well, exactly how I want it. I only need to help out when they encounter problems that require my input.
You don’t have to stick to one type of outsourcing. You can outsource to contractors for sites in the beginning and eventually hire a fulltime staff once your business is established. You could even outsource to contractors for simple tasks while keep a small fulltime staff for more complicated tasks.
Before you decide on what type of outsourcing that you plan to use for your business, make sure that you know exactly how much of your business you want to outsource and you have to have ways of keeping track of your contractors, employees, and their work.
Find out how outsourcing can help your online business prosper while working less. Let John Jonas teach you how you can live the 4 hour work week by outsourcing to the Philippines.