When and How to Outsource

Panel Response: When and How to Outsource

Grow From Inside Out

Congratulations to the correspondent for successfully making the transition to  his own business! Many have tried and failed so it’s a tribute to the perseverance and providence of the ones who succeed. Figuring out how to scale up is the best kind of business problem to have but it needs to be considered carefully so as not to jeopardize the success you’ve enjoyed so far.

My suggestion is to start by identifying those business functions that you do best and that you most enjoy doing (usually they are one and the same!) Those are the functions you delegate last, since they were the keys to your current success. You don’t want to kill the goose that laid those golden eggs! Let’s assume that you excel in business development – identifying good leads and using your persuasive skills to convert them to customers. For now you want to hold on to those functions.

Now, identify the other things that are taking up your time and keeping you from business development. Those could be customer service, bookkeeping, and other non “core” but still necessary business functions. My suggestion is to first hire someone in-house and offload those functions to them. Be very choosy in whom you hire and pay them fairly – you want them to be dedicated and loyal to your business long-term. Now, it may sound odd for a guy who runs an outsourcing firm (me!) to suggest that you hire someone in-house but I believe that a business should always have a microcosm in-house of all skills that it needs to function smoothly, before it considers outsourcing.

Train this person yourself, mentor them and oversee them closely until they are fully up to speed. This is a primary advantage of keeping your “understudy” in-house – they will be learning your skills by watching the master at work, directly and not second hand.

In time you will probably find that even after offloading the non-core chores, even the ones that you kept for yourself are becoming too much for one person to handle – of course, that’s also a good thing! When that happens follow the same advice – find someone who has a similar skill set to your own and carefully train them in business development, as you did your first assistant.

NOW, when the three of you start becoming overwhelmed, is the time to think about shifting some of the work out-of-house, to an outsourcing firm. This can be the non-core functions but if you want to continue to grow it will have to include the core business functions, like business development, as well. The transition has to be managed carefully but you now have two reliable in-house assistants who are intimately familiar with those tasks and can handle the transition for you.

Look for a firm that has been in business for a while, has performed similar functions for other clients and which is staffed only with educated Americans (right or wrong, people resent foreign accents and non-Americans simply do not understand American culture and business practice like Americans do). As for references. Start small and ramp up with your outsourcing partner gradually to assure that you are satisfied with their work before making a major commitment.

Best of luck and feel free to reach out to me directly if you have additional questions!

Eli Willner is Founder and President of Trebuchet Outsourcing Services (www.trebout.com), a multi-domain outsourcing firm with a workforce consisting of Americans living in Israel. He has managed outsourcing companies in several countries for over fifteen years and can be contacted at eli.willner@trebout.com.