Are you overwhelmed with work? Here are six things you can outsource
If you're overwhelmed by a lengthy list of tasks It's probably time to hire reinforcements. Here are 6 tasks which you can delegate to a virtual or freelance assistant.
As an entrepreneur, your can never have enough to eat.
The work tasks keep increasing in number. You're swamped with emails, there are 17,17 Excel spreadsheets open You haven't checked your social media notifications in a week, and you keep catching typos afteryou post blog entries.
Your list of things to do is far much too large for one person to tackle. You can't do it all by yourself and that's okay.
It's time to call in reinforcements. In particular Virtual assistants (VAs) as well as freelancers.
Outsourcing repetitive tasks can give the time you need to concentrate on expanding your business. From the entry of data to managing social media, there are plenty of things taking up your time that can be outsourced to a third-party.
In this article we'll go over six areas that you can delegate for time savings (and your sanity).
But first to consider, is outsourcing trulyworth it?
And this is the reason why.
Why outsource tasks or tasks to an assistant virtual, or freelancer?
And that's especially true considering this perplexing fact: People tend to be able to spend 2.8 hours per day working on tasks that are productive.
If you're a business owner who is full-time this number will be greater for you. However, chances are you're still working on some tasks that aren't the best way to use your time.
By outsourcing those lower-growth, repetitive tasks to the freelancers or to a virtual assistant (VA) and you'll be able to spend more time on higher-growth to-dos.
Get an expert in to tackle the tasks you don't have time for (or you really don't like doing).
Reduce costs and save time by not employing a full-time worker.
The benefits of this are the reason 70% of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMBs) have employed a freelancer. 81% saying they would like to hire a freelancer again.
The hiring of virtual employees such as freelancers and VAs has been proven to boost the productivity.
Research says remote workers have an average of 13.5 percent more productive over their office counterparts.
Overall outsourcing work to freelancers or a VA could help you get some of your least favorite, lowest-growth business tasks off your to-do list and free up your time to concentrate on growing your business.
There's one more question to answer: Which tasks should you assign to an outside company?
6 jobs to outsource if you're running out of time
#1: Organization and admin work
When people think about outsourcing their work to a virtual assistant, they often think of offloading time-consuming jobs like data entry or transcription. Those definitely are a part of many VAs work.
However, VAs are able to assist businesses with a array of duties this is likely the reason they are so popular. The global outsourcing market -- which includes VAs -- was 92.5 billion dollars in 2019.
The most popular VA jobs comprise:
Management of calendars and scheduling
Data entry
Project management
Event planning
Email marketing
Outreach and follow-ups for PR
Managing accounts payable, invoicing, and expensing
Support for the customer, such as moderating social media accounts
CRM software management
Analyzing competitors
Transcribing video and audio files
Vendor management
Webinar management
Marketing via social media
Phew. If that list seems to cover a broad range of capabilities, it's due to the fact that VAs can be among the most flexible team members out there.
If you're looking for the services of a VA be sure to know which tasks you want the VA to concentrate onin addition, you should have the budget to compensate the VA fairly, according to their expertise.
The current market rates for VAs are:
$25-40 per hour for general admin skills
$30-50 per hour for advanced abilities
50+ dollars per hour for specialized skills
In the meantime, let's proceed to more specific jobs to outsourcefor example, bookkeeping and accounting.
#2: Bookkeeping and accounting
If you're like me -- you're nota numerals person there's a hundred different options you'd prefer to do rather other than crunch numbers.
In the event that you're making less than five figures in your business and you don't have an abundance of costs to keep track of, you can probably manage the finances of your company using an application like Quickbooks .
If you earn more than this, hiring an independent accountant could simplify the task of balancing the books off your plate and simplify the management of your finances.
Accounting is among the most frequently outsourcing business functions .
There's a valid justification for this. Accounting is one of the most important tasks for smaller businesses, particularly when you consider that nearly 29% of new businesses fail because they run short of funds.
Plan, organize the quarterly tax bill, and manage
Make sure you control your cash flow
Track and follow the
Unlike accounting software and accounting software, an accountant or bookkeeper will give you individualized advice and respond to your queries in greater detail since they're familiar with the specific tax issues you face.
Some bookkeepers even specialize in helping professionals in specific fields. As an example, Friedman, Kannenberg & Company, PC is a specialist in accounts services for musicians and bands, as well as music equipment dealers, as well as music education institutions.
For an accountant who understands the ins and outs of your field, Google "accountant specializing in [your industry]".
Look, as a small business owner, accounting services should be among the first areas services you need to outsource (unless you really enjoy analyzing tax code -- I won't be able to).
Apart from the more numerical tasks such as data entry and bookkeeping outsourcing technical and creative tasks, too.
#3 Design and development of web pages
It takes people about 0.05 second to form an opinion regarding your website.
It's the reason having a reliable web developer in your corner important.
Your website needs to appear appealing visually, simple to use, and also informative. In this day and time of instant access, it needs to be fast.
26.9 percent of online site visitors are waiting less than four seconds for a page to load, and 45.4 percent of users stated that they were less likely to purchase items if page loading speeds were slower than expected.
Also, you must be sure your site is responsive to mobile devices. The mobile-friendly traffic accounts around half the traffic on websites worldwide , and visitors who visit your site from mobile devices are nearly five times as likely to abandon your website if it isn't mobile-friendly.
Furthermore, Google announced in 2018 that they're boosting the ranking of sites optimized for mobile on their mobile-friendly search results, so having a mobile-optimized or responsive website will help with search engine optimization, too.
(You can check your site's accessibility on mobile devices using Google's mobile-friendly checker tool .)
Outsourcing your website work to an experienced web designer and developer can help you create a website that is fast loading, performs beautifully on mobile and matches your branding image.
Then, where do you find web designers and web development designers to make your website shine?
A few of the most popular websites to locate web-based developers are:
The Website Builder lets you create a website to sell any variety of digital items -- online courses, memberships, and digital downloads -without needing to ever enter a line of code, troubleshoot a finicky WordPress template, or install the wrong plugin.
Just take a look at the site Mallika Malhotra brand expert and photographer, created using 's site editor:
Mallika has customized her site to fit her brand and design without the need for the services of a designer or developer in order to design it.
also takes the care of mobile-optimization, website speeds, and all of the technical problems, so Mallika as well as you -- can focus on creating and selling the products you sell instead.
A good-looking, easy-to-use website is essential, but without great information, it will just take you so far. Luckily, you can also outsourcing copywriting and content writing.
#4: Copywriting and content writing
Making and carrying out a successful content marketing plan requires a significant amount of time -- especially considering that each blog post can take 3 an hour, 55 mins to compose.
If you're looking to put out weekly content, that's the extra time every week, which most solopreneurs can't afford.
Furthermore, different kinds of content need different kinds of writing.
There are a lot of experienced, skilled freelance copywriters, content marketers and copywriters out there to help you create content that engages your target audience, and boosts sales.
Outsource writing assignments of all sorts, including:
Blogging
Press releases written by journalists
SEO services, like search engine optimization, link building, as well as backlinks
For finding talented freelance content writers, Jodi Harris, director of strategy and editorial content at the Content Marketing Institute, offers these suggestions :
Reach out to your professional networks and ask for writers they recommend.
Post the assignment on a writers' job board that is focused on freelancer services, like Upwork as well as LinkedIn's Pro-Finder .
Use a creative staffing agency or Content marketing platforms like Contently . (This option tends to come at a cost higher however.)
Even if you manage writing content in-house, you can make sure your blog posts and copy are of the highest quality with outsourcing proofreading and editing procedures.
#5 5. Editing (writing, video, and podcasts)
Your customers want to be able to access -- and hear or read -- great material from your company. Customers are awestruck by videos and content.
Take podcasts, for example. 64% of Americans were listening to some kind of audio streaming (like podcasts) in the year 2018, with weekly online audio listeners reporting an average of nearly 17 hours listening time per week.
This is a huge amount of material viewers could get from you. And plenty of information you can make use of to gain the trust of your viewers, their loyaltyand even dollars. However, poor-quality content is unlikely to convert viewers into buyers.
Editors are the ones to call. A talented editor is the difference between good content as well as outstandingcontent.
Editorial editors can help writers sound the best they can, put their message across clearly and stay clear of common writing mistakes .
You can also use tools like Grammarly for an additional check however it shouldn't entirely replace human editors -- even if you're proofreading your own work. Grammarly's AI often misses errors (or discovers mistakes where there's none).
Depending on what you're looking for -- as well as the price you're willing to spendPodcast producers can assist with everything from reducing background noise to offering editorial input that helps your podcast tell a stronger storytelling.
The last but not least is that editing video is another time-consuming task that outsourcing can take off your plate.
To locate editors on the market who can freelance for all types of content, look into marketplaces for freelance editors such as Upwork as well as Freelancer.com .
Remember this old adage: you get what you spend for.
Do not choose freelancers who boast of the lowest prices and the highest quality, look for an experienced editor. This will help you receive the highest quality service -- and will save you lots of time (and a big headache) in the future.
Similar to audio editing and video, our final task of the list will require considerable skill and time to master. This makes it the ideal task for outsourcing.
#6: Graphic design
Let's get this off the table: Photoshop is hard. (And I'm not just telling you this because I received an A in my graphic design course.)
If you're a smaller company owner, it's likely that you're not able to learn the art of graphic design. Visual content is, however, important to branding and marketing online.
Actually, as much as 90 percent of all purchases are influenced by visual factors as well as 40% of marketers claimed that graphic designs aid them in reaching the goals they set for their marketing in last year.
Employing a graphic designer could help create a visual identity for your digital downloads, your website and social media accounts, and beyond.
Freelance graphic design deliverables might include:
Logos
Infographics
PowerPoint templates
Ebook designs and formatting
To save even more time You can also make a commission for ebooks and slide templates that you can use over and over, so it's not necessary to design those assets from scratch every time.
In this case, for example, turning your data-heavy blog post into an infographic will make it easier for the reader to comprehend Infographics are shared and liked via social networks three times more than other types of media.
If you're looking for a graphic artist look into design marketplaces like DesignCrowd and, of course, UpWork's design section .
Both websites connect businesses to tens of thousands of independent designers with design projects ranging from web design and email templates to packaging and t-shirt design.
Let's get to the point: Like all of our tasks today Visual content is a vital aspect of growing your company -- one that you don't have to tackle on your own.
Let these six tasks be outsourced to reduce your list of to-dos
"There isn't enough time in an entire day" is a common cliche that has reasons: It's true, especially when you're an entrepreneur who's looking to establish a company single-handedly.
Utilizing a freelancer or virtual assistant can help you get back your time. In case you're wondering, here's six tasks to consider outsourcing:
Organization and administrative work, like data entry, schedule management, transcription
Accounting and bookkeeping to keep you in the loop about your tax flow and your cash flow requirements
Design and development for web to design a user interface the audience will appreciate
Copywriting and content writing, to ensure that your content marketing and sales material stands out the crowd (and the Google results for searches)
Video, podcast, as well as editing written content, which means you won't need to be concerned about choppy or misspelled audio
Design and content that is visually appealing to show off your brand identity and grab potential customers' attention
It can be difficult, and often there's an overwhelming pressure on entrepreneurs to manage everything on their own. However, there's no reason to not consider outsourcing your tasks to focus on your best workbuilding and growing your company.