Ten No-Brainer Tasks to Outsource Right Now with Arnold San Miguel

Today Derek is joined by Arnold and they will talk about ten tasks that you should be outsourcing right now.

Summary

• Derek and Arnold talked about the Top 10 Tasks you should be outsourcing. Here’s the list;

1. Administrative Tasks
2. Customer Service
3. Accounting and Financial Duties
4. Marketing
5. Human Resources and Recruitment
6. Content Writing
7. Graphics Designing
8. Web Development
9. IT Support
10. Legal Processes.

• Cal Newport mentioned in his book “Deep Work” that if it takes less than a week to train someone to do a certain function, then you should not be doing it. You should be concentrating your function on the complex stuff which has high-value output.
• For Accounting and Financial Duties, you should start by outsourcing a bookkeeper.
• The nitty gritty of Marketing is a very tedious task so therefore it should be outsourced to people who can do it as efficiently as you.
• In terms of Recruitment, it should still be the owner who should have the final say in terms of who gets hired or not but the actual process of screening administering and evaluating exams should be outsourced.
• If you’re into mass producing the content of your website, then you should consider outsourcing it, but of course, you still need to be selective about the content that goes into your website.
• For Graphic Designing and IT, it doesn’t mean that if you’re outsourcing it, you wouldn’t want to learn the basics of running a website. It’s about getting the right people for a certain job and getting it done much faster.
• The administrative tasks of Legal processes can also be outsourced.

Key Points

• If a certain task takes more than 15 minutes then create a job and pass it on to someone else.
• Outsource the time-consuming tasks to be able to focus on running your business more efficiently.
• Consider outsourcing the nitty gritty of your business to people who, not only can work as efficient as you but can work at a much cheaper rate.

Resources

• outsourceaccelerator.com/podcast/episode19

Transcript

Derek: Hi and welcome to another podcast of the Outsource Accelerator. My name is Derek Gallimore and I’m joined today with my co-host Arnold San Miguel. Today we are talking about the top ten tasks that you should be outsourcing right now and there’s a lot of complexity of some outsourcing but there’s some absolute no-brainers. So, we’re covering the no-brainers. It’s a bit of a productivity hack for all you busy business owners out there. So, I hope you enjoy. If you want any of the show notes, go to outsourceaccelerator.com/podcast/episode19.

Derek: Okay, welcome back. Hi Arnold.

Arnold: Hi Derek. Hi Guys

Derek: Okay. We are today talking about ten tasks you should be outsourcing today. If you’re not doing it already, do it now because we only have limited hours in a day and limited days on this planet so we don’t wanna be wasting them. So, we’re gonna go through the top ten list now we’ll just stop around. The first one on the list is the administrative tasks. It has everything that a secretary or a VA which is Virtual Assistant should be doing. That is scheduling, that’s travel arrangements, that’s data entry, that’s typing, all of this kind of the stuff that we could easily fill each and every hour of our day up but there’s a saying going around that if you don’t have a Virtual Assistant then you are one. Get all of that off your desk, hire someone to do all of that and you can find good people in places like the Philippines who would gladly do that and be very effective at it. Do you have any thoughts on that Arnold?

Arnold: Yeah and everyone should be sticking on to the core business activities of your business and let these time consuming minimal output tasks be passed on to someone else.

Derek: Yes, they say as well, Cal Newport in his book Deep Work, he says if it takes less than a week or two to train someone to do that function, then you should not be doing that function. You should be concentrating your function on the really complex stuff which has high value output. Okay, so moving on. What’s number two Arnold?

Arnold: Yeah, the next one is Customer Service and for this one I wouldn’t want you as the owner to sit idly by waiting for the next customer inquiry to come through and for you to be able to respond to that. Get someone else to do that for you. By getting people more responsive, quicker turnaround time, they have a more personalized touch when responding to inquiries. So, I think that’s also something you should start outsourcing today.

Derek: Absolutely, so Customer Service can be very draining on time but also, I think sometimes people are very concerned about outsourcing Customer Service because that is the contact with their customers. We’re not saying that it isn’t supremium important but you can get that outsourced and you can get people in an outsourced destination to know your product and know your customers just as well as you. And give them an even better Customer Service because they have the time to dedicate to that. So, outsource your customer services now.

Number three. Okay, number three is Accounting and Financial Duties. Hands down you should get your bookkeeping outsourced. Okay, at least your bookkeeping and it’s just a no-brainer. The higher-level accounting service can also be done very well here. You can get high-level accountants and they can work with your accountants back home, if they’re not fully aware of the jurisdictional implications and get the job done but at least start with a bookkeeper and it will make your life a dream. What’s number four Arnold?

Arnold: Number four is Marketing and it’s essentially the communication between the business and its customers. The reason why you should start outsourcing this today is to be able to focus more on running the business, how to step up your game in terms of marketing your product and service and let the nitty gritty of the marketing details be passed on to someone else.

Derek: Absolutely, yeah, a lot of marketing is very time-intensive. Okay, it’s not probably the marketing strategy that you outsource but a lot of the marketing which is also the social media aspects can be done over here.

So, number five is Human Resources and Recruitment. Recruitment and HR can be very time consuming and maybe even falls into administrative tasks but a lot of these things can and should be done and again it’s about breaking down your processes what exactly is it within the process that you were doing and get it done by someone who can specialize in that process. Do it more efficiently and work through it at a lot cheaper rate.

Arnold: Yup for Recruitment I just wanna emphasize that it should still be you as the owner who should have the final say of who gets hired or not but the actual process of screening initial candidates, having them take different tests, evaluate the exams should be passed on to someone else.

Derek: Absolutely, and what’s next?

Arnold: The next one is Content Writing. So nowadays people write stuff about anything, almost anything and this is a good reason why you should start outsourcing this today. There are a lot of different companies providing this specific service and they have a very detailed pricing plan for this one so they normally charge by the word. So, try to imagine yourself in their shoes. Would you pay yourself this amount of money for a few words that consumes x amount of hours in a day or would you just pass it on to someone else and then just wait and check the output.

Derek: Absolutely. Stuff about anything, I love that Arnold. There’s a huge race for content creation now. Rightly or wrongly it’s what google has made us done. If you look at it cynically it’s just about getting as much content on your website. If you’re not quite a cynical, it is about creating a lot of valuable content that help people. So, you develop a relationship with trust and of course they’re more likely to buy off you. But whichever way you lean content can be outsourced and you need to be selective and you need to make sure that the quality is there but people can pump out content for as little as 2 US cents a word. You might not want all of your content outsourced but certainly if you’re into mass production of this stuff then that’s definitely something that should be outsourced. Get your little calculator out and work out what 2 cents is worth. It’s getting pretty cheap.

Okay, number seven then is Graphic Designer. So, this is anything with pretty pictures. As you know, social media is full of it now. It’s Instagram, it’s Facebook post and of course, any of the images and assets for your website.

Arnold: Yup, that’s true. Number eight is Web Development or a Web Developer. I understand that running your business is also requires people to set up their own website. How this could take x amount of months for you to do all by yourself. That’s why you should get someone more experienced, more knowledgeable towards these types of things and outsource it to them. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have any knowledge about web development, of course you should also do your due diligence in understanding the basic concept of running a website. But the actual nitty gritty of coding or decoding should be passed on to someone else

Derek: Absolutely, yeah, it’s not about not developing your own skills but I have a rule that if you spend 15 minutes on trying to figure out a code at the backend site, you should put it aside and create a job and get someone else to do it. Because it’s about getting the best people to do the job so that you’re not spending a day trying to figure out something that a person can do in five minutes. A lot of opportunities there. And that segways in to the next one.

Number nine which is IT Support and once you’ve got everything set up. Then definitely outsource your IT support. You can have 24-hour cover and all variations of IT support. There is the very famous WP curve which offers WordPress support for $79/month I think. And I believe all of their backend is actually in the Philippines and you can then do that for a company like WP curve or you find your own very capable person that can support you themselves through Upwork of Freelancer. So, a lot of opportunities there but if you get good IT Support then you can sleep well at night knowing your website’s gonna be up in the morning.

Arnold: Yup, that’s true. Okay, and lastly, number ten is Legal Processes. So, it’s more of a very serious topic but it something that people can outsource and it’s not just about outsourcing it to a specific country. Again, it varies on what you need but for things like these when you to get a lot more background or experience it should be better left off to the professionals.

Derek: Absolutely, yeah, so this one’s a little bit of a prickly one but it depends on how big the company is but if there’s a lot of legal work done, there’s a lot of contract sorting then it can be a high-level or administrative job that can be done, that can be outsourced relatively, effectively by someone high level in the outside in the sort of legal outsourcing world. But at least it would still be a lot cheaper than getting someone to do it, possibly in your hometown. So, it depends on the bulk of the work. There is obviously things like contract drafting and aspects like that that can also be optimized.

Okay, so that’s our 10 tasks that you should be outsourcing today. And it’s about making your life more streamlined so you can concentrate on the better things to do. So, number one is Administrative Tasks, number two is Customer Service, number three is Accounting and Financial Duties, number four is Marketing, number five is Human Resources. And then what’s.

Arnold: Number six is Content Writing, number Seven is Graphic Designing/Designer, number eight is Web Development, number nine is IT Support and number ten is Legal Processes.

Derek: Nice, That’s great. Thanks for your time Arnold and see you next time guys.

Arnold: Thanks, Derek. Bye guys.

Okay, I hope you enjoyed that and reaching for your outsourcing telephone. If you want any of the show notes, go to outsourceaccelerator.com/podcast/episode19. See you next time.

Listen to more podcast episodes here:

1. Anthony Bowers – Inception of Tallant Asia
2. Top Twelve Tasks for your Virtual Assistant
3. Eileen Juan – Takeaways in Operating a Business in the Philippines