There’s a difference?
Yes! In fact, most entrepreneurs don’t even realize that two different types of delegation options exists. So I’m going to break it down for you and explain the difference between outsourcing and out-tasking.
Once you understand your options, you’ll be able to choose the one that suits your particular needs.
What Outsourcing Means to Me:
I personally see “outsourcing” as a long-term solution, rather than a quick fix for when something goes awry in my business.
The thought of scrambling to find help in the midst of a stressful situation (my website breaks during a product launch) is not something I want to be dealing with. Do you?
Instead, over the years I’ve slowly built a team of loyal + dependable + freaking awesome women to support me in all areas of my business from design, tech, customer care, copywriting, editing, product development, and so much more! But to do that, I’ve had to be loyal in return – meaning, I’ve had to work with these women on an on-going, monthly basis.
Here’s the thing…contractors rely on their clients for regular income to pay their own bills. They are, after all, running their own business providing services to other business owners like us. So if they had to choose between a client who contracts them for work every month or someone who contacts them on the fly every once in a while for help with odds and ends – who do you think they’re going be more loyal too?
Obviously, they’re going to give their regular clients priority over anyone else – which means, when you run to them out of the blue because your website went down during a launch and you’re losing a ton of money, they may turn you away because their regular clients have tasks that need to be done first.
But outsourcing isn’t just for when the shit hits the fan and you need help…having an assistant or team will help you manage everything from your inbox to your product launches, blog content, social media, your email newsletter, copywriting, design, client followup, and sooooo much more! You’ll be able to do more in your business with help than you could ever do alone.
Like I said, I’m not looking for a band-aid that I can apply to my business once in a blue moon when something goes wrong, or I need a task done because I don’t know how to do it or don’t want to do it. I want on-going support that I can rely on every single day, for the good and the not so good.
My team gives me the freedom to focus on the things that I freaking love doing – like writing this blog post for instance, and taking the summer off to live it up and enjoy the beautiful weather. And for me to be able to do that, they need to be working with me on tasks + projects every month to keep my business rolling and growing.
But I totally understand if you’re not quite ready for full on outsourcing, so you can always get your feet wet with what I like to call “out-tasking”…
What Out-Tasking Means to Me:
For me, “out-tasking” is where you hire someone to help you with a project or a couple of tasks, and then you part ways and may never work together again, or you may call on them again from time to time for help.
In my own business, I actually do out-task some of my work, here are two examples:
Website Designer – When I hired her to do the project and then we went our separate ways. BUT…I will call on my web designer from time-to-time if I need something, but I don’t hire her on a monthly on-going basis. Whereas my other designers are working on projects every single month creating social media graphics, product covers, Facebook ad graphics, etc.. It’s just based on my own needs.
Tech Support – Now, three of my team members are highly skilled when it comes to technical stuff, but sometimes we have to call in my ninja tech gal (who has been with me since 2009) to assist with something. So again, she’s not working with me every month, I just out-task work to her on an as-needed basis.
There are also many women entrepreneurs who will reach out to virtual assistants for help with a one-time project or tasks, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that – because every business is going to have different needs.
So for your own business, you’ll want to take a look at what tasks are better suited to an on-going team member, and which tasks can be outsourced one time only via out-tasking.
For instance, if you’ve been getting help on and off with releasing your digital products or memberships, why not bring on an assistant to help you with that every month, and completely let go of that task so you can focus on creation.
But if you only release like one or two products per year, then of course it makes more sense to hire help for the duration of that product release.
Again, you’ll need to assess your business and choose the option that makes the most sense for you. And if you need help, get it! Whether you want to invest in outsourcing on an on-going basis or just one time, you deserve to be supported!
