Should You Outsource That? 4 Questions to Find Out!

Outsourcing has been a regular topic on my Instagram lately and I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I know that in order to get to where I want to go, I can’t possibly do everything on my own. Nor do I have the breadth of talent to do all things well. Because, reality…

I’m a publicist. I’m good at PR and teaching people about PR. The rest is not my specialty and can, in theory, be handed over to someone who knows what they’re doing to free up my time for what I’m really good at.

Why only “in theory”? Well, I would be lying to you if I said it is easy to outsource work—especially from a financial standpoint. It’s hard to know if outsourcing will pay off unless you’re already seeing the benefits. There is always a risk that you might lose some money on work you don’t like. I’ve had to fight through that discomfort.

Over the last two years, I have slowly started to outsource more parts of my business. It’s been a process, but I’m slowing getting more comfortable handing things over. I started by hiring an intern for a few hours a week and now have a team of freelancers.

It’s going well! The proof is that I’m invoicing more than I ever have before, all while trying a bunch of new things and reaching larger audiences.

So, if you can relate to the discomfort but want to push through it and see results, here are a few questions to help you feel more comfortable outsourcing.

Will someone else do it better?

I know you are great at a lot of things, but we can’t all be great at everything. Sad day.

Fortunately, there are a lot of specialists out there who are more than happy to give you hand. If you have a task that will take you a long time to do just okay work, you can feel comfortable handing that task over to someone who can do it better than you, and in less time.

You should have the best of the best, so don’t let yourself get in the way. Find talented people to give you the best quality work possible.

Will someone else push me further?

Similar to hiring specialists, hire people who can actually help you. I hire freelancers who can add their expertise to my mission, people who can point me in the right direction when I am not sure what to do.

Find people who know more than you that can push your business further than you could go on your own.

Will I make more money doing something else?

This is a big one for me. I try to only outsource things that I am not directly being paid for.  

After slowing building trust in my freelancers, I am outsourcing a lot of the things it takes to actually run my business, like bookkeeping and marketing. This way, I have more time to serve my clients.

It’s a matter of opportunity cost: the less time I spend on non-PR related tasks, the more time I can spend on what brings me the most revenue.

Does this outsourcing get me where I want to go?

If you are going to invest in a freelancer, make sure it’s worth it to you. It’s easy to think of all the little chores and task you don’t want to do. But it’s better to stick with the tasks that take you closer to your goals.

I try to only outsource tasks in line with my overall strategy. This way, I know I’m not just being lazy about something, it’s actually something that will play a role in getting me where I want to go.