Important Things To Know About Before Outsourcing Your Freelance Services Tutorial Debate

Important Things To Know About Before Outsourcing Your Freelance Services

Freelancing and Outsourcing is on the up!

More and more people are taking to freelancing to find financial freedom. And that also means the outsourcing market and value worth is on the up too! More and more businesses and freelancers in the SEO and IT industry are outsourcing their clients work to other freelancers. And this might be something you're thinking of doing also, but if it is, you should know some things about it first to make sure you're better prepared for it.

In an attempt to save money and reduce out goings and improve your business or company or even your own productivity and effectiveness, many businesses and companies in the SEO and IT industry are looking for 3rd parties to outsource their own clients work or services to. Much more so for smaller sized businesses and companies or the solo freelancer who might not have the same human resources and facilities in place to keep up with the demand and amount of orders they're getting!

And for all intents and purposes, outsourcing your work can help in several obvious ways from giving you more time to handle more orders or deliver current ones so it makes a lot of sense. But it also comes with an element of risk and there's some pitfalls if not done right!

According to an article I was just reading on Information Week on Should Your Company Outsource IT Services? Trusting a third-party provider for all of your company’s IT needs can create serious security issues. And outsourcing is not a one-for-all pill that is a solution or remedy for all your business needs. It goes on to say that "If your business is having trouble managing technology on its own, it’s likely that an IT outsourcing provider will be bound by the same constraints that make in-house management difficult." Basically, if you're struggling with keeping up with things on your own in your business, either on your own or as a team or company. Outsourcing wont necessarily make things that much easier.

However, get it right and it can be a well oiled power house of a machine!

• But what things should you know about to find the most success when outsourcing?
  
• What skills or expertise do you need to properly outsource your freelance work?
  
• How can you be sure to find the best person or crowd to actually outsource to?
  

Let's talk about three of the main things to do to safely outsource your freelance work.

Exhaustive Research A Must

By putting your trust into a 3rd party to do the work that you do for your clients, you're essentially putting your business's success into their own hands. There's no specific part of the services your business offers that isn't as important as the rest. So unless you're doing exhaustive research into who you're hiring for the job first of all before hiring them, you're putting your business's success to risk and could potentially end up doing more damage than good!

When considering the benefits vs the risks of outsourcing, “Businesses considering outsourcing IT services must investigate whether the managing company employs security measures as robust as their own. And this is especially important when dealing with offshore companies run from a foreign country.” says Chron’s Samantha Gluck.

Sure you probably have your own security steps in place. You practice common sense and don't give the outsourcer access to your email account or payment processors. But if you do, there is always a risk that one of the companies you're outsourcing to has an employee that breaches that. Even if the country has its own laws that protect your IP (Intellectual Property) or other sensitive data like clients email address, home addresses, payment information etc, you may find it hard to bring that company or employee of that company to court should some "illegal activity" take place.

So one must do extensive, exhaustive research first on a company or even individual they are outsourcing to first. This ranges from background checks to police checks. Checking their social media pages history and looking for anything that sticks out as bad to you. To just checking out their previous ratings and feedback to make sure nobody is saying something bad about them!

How Much It Will Cost You In The Long Run?

Sure outsourcing your work can save you time and money as well if you find a reliable outsourcer that is able to do the work and do it well and on time. That's one of the best things about it. But if you don't look at how much you're spending on it in the long run, it could actually end up having a negative aspect on your budget in the long run.

Tech Republic have done a lot of research into the costs of outsourcing and in their post on 10 problems with outsourcing IT they explain that there are a number of costs that most people don’t even consider. These include the costs that outsourcers might charge you for the drive time there and back. And times when the outsourcer has a problem he/she doesn't know how to fix and has to learn on the job as they go will want to charge for that extra. Can you afford those extra costs?

Can You Manage The Liability?

Let's say that you outsource to a company or an individual and have to pass along some sensitive information about that client and that information becomes lost or stolen. Who will be held responsible and accountable for that? The outsource company or individual you outsource to should have some kind of indemnity agreement or clause from the start that states this in the terms.

What about being locked in?

Some outsource companies or even freelance individuals will require you to sign a contract that ties you into outsourcing to them for a minimum term of time. Do you require that or do you only need to on an as is required basis? For more industries like SEO which isn't a regulated industry you wont really need to sign an indemnity agreement or long term contract. But if your work is one that is in a regulated industry, you may need to make sure that the people you hire are regulatory compliant first.

If you don't know if the people you're hiring are or not, you run the risk of destroying your companies reputation should things go pear shaped and information become lost/stolen. Especially if you haven't already took steps to handle this first.

Where To Find Professional People to Outsource To?

On SEOClerks of course! There are many professional Freelancers on SEOClerks that have a wide breadth of skills and expertise in the SEO industry and many other industries to boot! Just browse through the list of Freelancers and sort by user level, most recommendations or top rated to find someone you can contact.

You can also just create a WTB as well saying what it is you need doing and then other freelancers here can place a bid on that for you so you can hire them.

Conclusion.

When you outsource your work either to an individual freelancer or an invested company, it can be an excellent way to free up your time and resources and make your business more agile. But you must be sure to know you can afford the long time costs and be prepared for the other challenges it has. Without knowing these things first, you could be in for a bad experience later down the line.

Have you considered these things before when outsourcing your work?

What do you look for in an individual or company you want to outsource to?