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.
Outsourcing 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.
Outsourcing to contractors also has another advantage: the work never stops. When the person usually assigned to do your task gets sick or con’t work for some reason, the contractor can always replace that person with some else.
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.
You can only assign simple tasks to contractors because you basically have no idea who’s doing that job for you. The person who did that job for you yesterday may not be the same person who’s doing that job today.
Because of this, contractors then have no idea how their work would affect your business. You’ll have to make sure you’re getting what you want by always checking the quality of their work or making some changes in their output. Let’s say you asked a contractor to regularly submit to you articles about a certain topic. They’ll deliver these articles consistently but the quality won’t be. You’ll always have to check their work, to make sure it it’s what you wanted and if it fits the image of your business.
Outsourcing To Fulltime Employess
Like Tim Ferris, I love outsourcing because it has helped me build a business that doesn’t require that much work. But unlike him, I prefer hiring fulltime employees and outsourcing the work to them. The reason I hire a fulltime staff because, eventually, I want them to do most of the work and run my business for me.
As an employer, I do encounter some problems. My employees sometimes get sick and so there will be days that they won’t be able to get any work done. But the reason I prefer hiring fulltime employees because I get to take advantage of their growing set of skills.
They have this growing skill set because I train them to do different things. This way, I can eventually let go of the reins and let them run my business for me. After that, I can just sit back, relax, and check in on them every once in a while.
So how do I get around that “single point of failure’? I look for employees that can do one thing really well. I work with them and train them until they master that skill. Once they master that skill, I train them to do other tasks that are related to what they already know to do. I continue to train them, adding to their skills until they have enough skills to run my business works. Eventually, they’ll know enough to do in on their own. They know what needs to be done and when to do it. They only need to consult with me every once in a while if they encounter problems that need my input.
You can use one or bothtypes of outsourcing, whatever suits your business. You could try outsourcing to contractors in the beginning as you’re starting your business and get a fulltime staff once you’ve established your business. You an choose to hire a contractor for easy, simple tasks while getting a fulltime employee for more complicated tasks.
Regardless of the type of outsourcing you use, just make sure that before you outsource that you know exactly what you outsource and figure out ways for you to keep track of your contractors, employees, and their work.
Learn how outsourcing to the Philippines can help your online business prosper while working less. Let John Jonas show you how you can live the 4 hour work week by outsourcing to the Philippines.