Hiring Inexpensive Help

I recently watched a short two hour seminar by Rich Schefren.  You can get a thirty minute preview of it here.  Or you can give your info and get the two hour version on the same page.  It’s great stuff - I recommend taking notes!

Rich had some fascinating stuff to say but one thing that really caught and took ahold of me was the difference between outsourcing and outtasking.

I had always considered outsourcing to be a method that I was frequently using by hiring people off of Scriptlance.

To Rich, however, this is outtasking.  For the simple fact that I would hire a programmer, get them to do a simple task, and then move on to another programmer.

Each time I would lose a potentially valuable skillset and someone that was used to working with me.  Rather than building a relationship with a specific programmer and keeping them around to build my business, I was being a technician and farming little tasks out to people as I realized they needed to be done.

A better solution is to outsource something.  When you outsource, you’re getting a person and/or team that you’re going to be working with frequently.  Not only do you get more synergy from doing this but you also develop a long term strategy for your business by allowing you to focus on what is important to the core of your business.

It’s a fascinating topic and one I am eager to learn more about as I work with Rich.

G-Man