Some people dive head on into outsourcing without checking whether there is water in the pool or not.
But I'm sure you're not most people, right? After all, you are reading this article.
Yes, you can learn how to use outsourcing by trial and error but since you will be using this primarily for business, you need to be prepared before using any of the outsourcing services that are out there.
Doing the opposite will just rob you of your time, money and sanity.
I've noticed myself that you need to keep some important things in mind or else contracting outside help can become more trouble that it's worth.
Here are five tips on how to get the most out of your outsourcing providers.
Outsource non-critical tasks and focus on what you do best.
Consider outsourcing your business operations that are not strategic and don't hand over the core functions of your business.
You're outsourcing because you want to maintain, or better yet, increase your company's competitive edge, right? Then pass your non-bank breaking business functions to outsourcing providers so you can concentrate on the main operations of your business.
For example, you can outsourcing services for your accounting or customer service so you can focus on improving your product or honing your skills.
This will save you costs versus doing these tasks yourself because you end up neglecting the more important factors of your business.
Know your budget.
A smart idea is to allocate a percentage of your capital only for outsourcing.
This will help you steadily increase your profits by leveraging the works of others.
Not only will your profit keep growing, but your outsourcing budget will do too as well, thus expanding your outsourcing capital and reinforcing the virtuous cycle.
To keep your contractors on track, provide milestones and deadlines for tasks at hand.
You don't want your spending to spin out of control, especially if you pay by the hour.
Also, this ensure that your project gets done on time so you can move on to the next phase without any fuss.
Use tools to monitor tasks and projects.
Behind every well-oiled project is a great software suite.
You don't have to spend a lot to keep your project running smoothly; there are a lot of free and online tools you can use to manage your project.
Some free tools are Google Docs for handling your office work, Basecamp for managing projects and tasks and which lets you chat with your team and view the work they are doing as they do it.
Keep it simple, set unambiguous objectives for your project.
This might seem obvious, but every outsourced project needs an upfront and specific statement of the project requirements in order for your contractor to be able to do it successfully.
Time is money, after all, more so when you don't work in the same office as the one doing the task.
You don't want your projects to be revised over and over again.
To truly be productive and so that your provider can give you exactly the output that you want, give her the necessary (and complete) information regarding what you want done.
Hire the right guy.
You don't want to be stuck with the wrong contractor after all and constantly picking new outsourcing providers every week for a single project can be a drain.
Check references or feedback from her previous clients and have her do a quick mock-up or submit a few samples or better yet, ask for her portfolio.
The most important thing is to interview the contractor personally if possible (or via live chat if not) and make sure that you will get along with each other well.
Bonus Tip: Don't hire just because it's cheap! Many people think that outsourcing is a great way to cut costs, and admittedly it is.
But remember that getting good value is not the same as buying something cheap.
Don't be fooled by outsourcers offering to do work for you for less than a couple of dollars an hour only to find out that the entire project needs to be trashed and redone again.
In the end, hiring quality workers will be more cost-effective and save more time versus cheap labor.
With these six tips under your belt, you won't have trouble integrating outsourcers into your workflow.
And more than saving money, you might just even be able to spend some time developing that pet project of yours and turn it into another great business venture.