Okay, you had a great idea for a website, perhaps all about family camping ideas, maybe a do it yourself blog, or even a site specializing in effective weighloss methods, it really doesn’t matter. Most of all the desire for a business you could run from home. You are only a few days into the process and already you’re feeling a bit inept and perhaps a bit intimidated as well. You have learned a lot in a short time; the most important of which is that you need help. You’re beginning to see just how many different skills it is going to take, and you know you are not up to the task.

Don’t worry – be happy!

You have some expertise and what you lack can be outsourced to professionals. The biggest things you must have are a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a basic knowledge of marketing.

You will need a good website developer or designer, a content writer with SEO knowledge, a legal advisor, and an accounts advisor and as the business grows you will need a virtual assistant to handle customer inquiries, send emails and time consuming tasks of that nature. You will also need dependable contractors for product storage and shipping.

Together, these will make up your team, or your company. Most all of these can be hired on a contract basis, on an as needed basis or by the job contract. If all of this sounds terribly time consuming, don’t panic.

There’s a way to speed up that process.

There are a lot of internet freelance staffing companies like elance which list thousands of skilled professionals from around the world. Unfortunately, they also have many who are not really qualified or professional and it is up to you to decide who fits your needs.

I don’t mean to imply that all who give you a cheap bid are not professional. Many good contractors will give a lower bid for work to fill in the gaps in their work schedule. But it is more likely that a really cheap bid will be given by freelancers from third world countries or emerging economies where the cost of living is low. These people can work for low wages and still fare very well. But for countries like Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Australia or Europe the cost of living is considerable higher and their residents cannot work on the cheap and survive economically.

Cheaper is not always a bargain

My friends parents live in the U.S., are retired and are on Medicare. They each have a different Medicare Supplement Insurance to help pay costs Medicare doesn’t pay. The mother pays more each month for her insurance, but it pays her annual deductible and 100% of costs Medicare doesn’t pay. Consequently, she doesn’t have to spend a lot of time sorting out claims, and doesn’t have to worry about unexpected medical bills which upset her budget.

The father, on the other hand opted for a cheaper plan with a lower monthly payment. As a result, he pays his own annual deductible and a percentage of what Medicare doesn’t pay. He spends hours tracking down claims for services he doesn’t remember getting from providers he doesn’t recognize etc, etc. The end result is he pays at least as much in the long run as my mother, but has a constant hassle trying to keep up with everything. In addition, his budget is hard to manage because he never knows when a medical bill will come in.

Of the two, which do you think is the wisest choice – the cheaper or the more costly plan? Now relate this to you business. If you had chosen the cheaper plan, you might have lost a lot of time sorting out the problems resulting in lost customers. Lost customers means lost income and a damaged business reputation. That’s why we say…

Cheap can be very expensive

So while the scenario above is only a personal inconvenience, it still illustrates the point that in the business world where time is money, you will want to hire the most highly qualified and professional contractors you can find to help you build a solid, viable, income producing business.

Downside

The downside to hiring a freelancer with a native language different from your own is the quality of work they produce. Language and cultural differences can lead to serious problems in communication and in the quality of work produced. Problems with proper communication will slow down production and cause frayed nerves on your part and chances are you will not be able to use the finished product without hiring someone else to “fix” it, especially in the field of article writing.

Upside

This is not always the case – you might get lucky and find someone in these countries who fits your needs exactly and works for far less. There are some very skilled technical type freelancers which work for wages below those of Americans. But before you hire them, do check out their references thoroughly and follow the tips below to make outsourcing faster and easier, and avoid some of the pitfalls.

1. Advertise your job in specific terms (never general). State your needs clearly, use direct language about what you want done, when, how and why.

2. Narrow your bidders list down to two top contenders, and then make contact with both of them prior to awarding the job. See who responds the fastest, communicates the best and shows the best understanding of your project and what it entails

3. When you award the job, set milestones so you will be aware and involved in the progression of the work. If the job is long, request a status report weekly and set payments for each milestone reached.

4. Be available to your provider and stay in contact for any questions which might arise.

5. Pay quickly – you want your contractor to give you feedback indicating you are a dependable employer.

6. Give honest and fair feedback to your provider on a job well done. Your comments go on his employment profile and cannot be revoked, so give him a good rating unless you really feel he has failed you in some way.

Outsourcing really is the best way to keep your business efficient and profitable. You wanted this business to give you more free time to enjoy life – now take advantage of outsourcing so you can do exactly that.

When avid outdoor enthusiast Bruce Stevens began surfing the web to get information on camping, fishing and other outdoor equipment, he became so frustrated at the lack of truthful and helpful product reviews that he took matters into his own hands and established his own site http://hubzz.net. He still hosts the site today and you can find valid, fair and honest evaluations of everything outdoors – products Bruce has either used himself or conducted extensive reviews on. He can also be found blogging at http://rocketrider.net