Notes/Transcription

Hi, today we’re going to be covering what you should outsource as a small business owner. 

Small business owners generally tend to do everything themselves. I do that myself, I don’t like letting things go, and I do notice it does hamper my productivity. Trying to figure things out yourself takes so much time. For example, I was having a bit of technical problems, it just drove me up the wall and I wasted pretty much a whole day’s work trying to figure that out. Then when it comes to, for example, social media posting, editing the videos, posting the videos, all these different tasks are very time-consuming where I could be focused on getting new clients.

Why I need to outsource to a Virtual Assistant

It has to come a point in my life where I am seriously thinking about outsourcing and I have outsourced before to virtual assistants. I’m not sure if you ever heard of virtual assistants, but they are fantastic and there’s lots of different kinds which could help you more with the technical stuff or more administrative things that you need to have done. 

So this video is basically going through what you could outsource and how you even start the whole process of looking for somebody and where you look and what the cost is and all that. 

Benefits of outsourcing

Let’s discuss what and when you should outsource to be more productive in your small business. First of all, we are going to be talking about the benefits of outsourcing because a lot of people think, oh, it’s quite a hassle to brief the person I’m outsourcing to and I don’t have the control. But there are many benefits that I find way much higher than the disadvantages.

  1. It frees up your valuable time. You are your business, but you cannot be everywhere. So you need to be able to free up your time that brings in more money into your business instead of focusing on the little tasks that actually don’t bring in that much volume of money. 
  2. It increases your productivity. Of course, it does because then you don’t have to worry about all the little nitty-gritty. Somebody else is doing that for you. 
  3. You’re also then much more flexible because you have less tasks to focus on. You’re focusing on the bigger ones that actually show bigger returns.
  4. Your quality of work improves because you are not spread thin. You can really do a good job at what you are focusing on and then the rest is covered by somebody else.
  5. Which leads to less stress. Because you have more hours in the day, you can feel less stressed and really relax a little bit. Also, you could be pulling out your hair, trying to figure out why something doesn’t work, whereas if you hire somebody who has the technical knowledge, they can do it in five minutes where it usually would take you three hours.
  6. It’s less risky.  If you hire someone directly you are responsible for the labor costs, the salaries, and you are fixed with them. If your business gets a bit quieter over certain periods of time, you still need to be paying those labor costs. You still need to be paying their salaries. But if you outsource it, it is very flexible and you can stop the contract for a certain period of time and then when your business picks up, you can carry on and so on.

These are the benefits of outsourcing, especially for digital marketing. When you have to do it yourself, it can be really overwhelming because there’s so much to do. I mean it’s endless. There’s website, social media, blogging, SEO and email marketing, the list goes on. So if you’re trying to do everything yourself, you can easily, easily feel overwhelmed. Instead of doing it all yourself, outsource it to a virtual assistant.

What kind of tasks can you outsource?

This is just based on digital marketing in this case, but there are lots of other types of tasks that you can outsource such as bookkeeping that will help you as well. 

Social media

  • Create a social media calendar
  • Research inspiration and ideas for social media posts
  • Find images for social media posts
  • Click “like” when people comment on your social media posts

Website/blog

  • Basic management of blog/website 
  • Format and publish your weekly content
  • Have weekly content transcribed (video, audio, podcasts)
  • Research blog topics relevant to your niche

Email marketing

  • Prepare and schedule newsletter
  • Set up your lead magnet opt-in, thank you page and confirmation email
  • Set up your new subscriber and/or new customer nurture sequence

Customer Service

  • Respond to questions and inquiries 
  • Send thank you notes, emails or shoutouts to followers and customers 
  • Handle Facebook group community management

Miscellaneous

  • Research guest blogging and podcast or video show interview opportunities
  • Create lead magnets
  • Research keywords
  • Get testimonials
  • Set up Facebook ads

Where do you find a VA and what is the cost?

As a small business owner, sometimes you don’t have lots of money that you could just throw around and just get somebody else to do it. That’s why we do a lot ourselves…to save of course. 

But you’ve got to weigh out the benefits of saving the money versus the time that you waste doing the little things where you could be actually going out and increasing your income. 

Here are some places you can find virtual assistants. 

Hire a freelancer

Find them on Upwork.com, and in Facebook groups such as Virtual Assistant Savvies

Rates start at 10$ per hour. (depending on skills)

Virtual Assistant agencies

Priorityva.com (US based)

Timeetc.com (UK and US)

Boldly.com (UK and US)

More expensive per hour – starting at 20$ p/h and may have “enrollment” fee.

As you can see it’s not that expensive. And the return that you get on that because it saves you so much time and you can actually go and get more clients, which boosts your income really, really makes sense, doesn’t it?

Conclusion

This was a little video on what I think about outsourcing and how it actually could benefit your business. Try hiring a VA and hopefully you can see a huge return on your investment in terms of time and more sales.

If you want to learn more and ask questions about digital marketing for small businesses, tips and hacks, join me in my private Facebook Group – Digital Marketing Simplified. I hope to see you there!

Bye for now.