101 Tasks You Should Outsource (Immediately)
How to outsource using a Virtual Staff (VA) to Grow Your Business (FAST)...
In this post you’re going to learn how to free up your time and what tasks you can source TODAY
In fact:
This same approach helped me reduce my week to just a 2 day week
And today I’m going to show you what you can outsource…
…for just a few dollars an hour.
Let’s do this….
Lower Costs is Where it All Begins!
In an ideal world, our working day would revolve around doing the tasks that we enjoy, excite us and/or have a direct impact on revenue
We would then delegate all the stuff we don’t like…
I did say ideal world 🙂
But the reality is 80% or more of our day is spent doing things we don’t like, that frustrate us or we struggle doing, sound familiar?
BUT:
It doesn’t have to be like this…
Welcome to outsourcing!!!!!
Virtual assistants (VA) from developing countries such as China, India or the Philippines are paid a lot less than workers in developing countries due to the lower cost of living.
Outsourcing means that you can focus on the other important areas of your business, like the money making activities, knowing that all the STUFF is being done, while you sleep 🙂
As business owners we often try and do everything ourselves to cut down on the costs but it doesn’t have to be this way, for just $3 per hour you can hire a VA fo do anything from marketing to accounting.
Imaging how much this will free up your time….
Think about how much money you will save, in staff costs, equipment, such as desks, computers and even reduce your premises costs by downsizing.
No more health insurance, sick pay and vacation pay.
Any smart entrepreneur will tell you, and one of the SQF principles, if you want to improve your profits….
…start by managing your costs.
The biggest Misunderstanding.
You may have tried using a virtual assistant (VA) or know someone who has and not had the best experience, we’ve all heard the common problems that comes with the territory of the outsource world….
- Quality of their work;
- Not tuning up to work;
- Disappearing all the time;
- Incompetence;
- Poor communication;
- Not delivering on time;
- Etc etc etc
The biggest issue is in fact is us, and our expectations, we think one virtual assistant (VA) can do everything.
It isn’t possible.
Not in the real world, and not in the VA world.
Now I know what you are thinking, “OK then Shane, so how do we go about this and outhouse all our tasks to a Virtual assistant (VA).”
I’m going to tell you…
“Hire for the role, not the task.”
That’s it, simple, right?
Build a team, a team of virtual assistant (VA) based on the roles you need within your organisation to achieve your business goals.
With that in mind, below I’ve listed the 101 tasks that you can and should outsource to virtual assistant (VA)
You’ll see below that I have broken the tasks into categories and roles…
Outsourcing Categories
Nowadays, most outsourcing freelancers and virtual assistants (VA) typically fall into one of the following categories, regarding the services they can provide to their clients. Some can offer several of these:
- Inbound Customer Service
- Outbound Telemarketing
- Web Design & Development
- SEO and Online Marketing
- Back Office / Admin Support
- Virtual Assistant Services
- Accounting and HR Management
Marketing & Sales Support
Outsourcing takes on many cloaks, you can go use websites like upwork, fiver, freelancer or organizations such as Genpact, geek chimp, value coder or find a full or part time VA from places like onlinejobs.ph.
Each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Let’s check out the Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing…..
Top 8 Outsourcing Advantages
1. You Gain Access to Other Experts
Your core team might be amazing at select things, but nobody can be perfect at everything. By outsourcing certain tasks, companies are able to significantly improve performance by pulling in certain ‘niche’ skills of other experts in certain fields.
2. Things Get Done a Lot Quicker
The main reason that a small business looks at outsourcing work is so that it gets done a lot quicker. If you have a limited number of staff, time-consuming tasks will get finished a lot quicker by an external agency or a freelancer.
3. You can Focus on What Matters
Another great benefit to outsourcing tasks is your enhanced freedom. By outsourcing, you can concentrate on improving the core processes that make your business tick.
4. Sharing the Risk
In any project, one of the key factors is risk assessment. If you outsource certain projects to experts in their field, you will benefit greatly and mitigate any potential risks.
5. Reduce Your Costs
Outsourcing certain projects is always going to be cheaper than if you were to hire a full-time member of staff. It will also save you both time and money with the recruitment process.
6. Work Around the Clock
Another advantage of outsourcing, especially if it’s to someone overseas, is the different time zones and holidays. This allows for more effective running of your business, even when you’re asleep!
7. Efforts Are More Targeted
By outsourcing, you can plan and execute much more effectively, giving you the chance to take on new risks and experiment with different things.
8. Peace of Mind
If you decide to outsource your projects to either an agency or a reliable individual, it will give you peace of mind that the task in hand is being handled by an expert. You don’t have to worry about doing anything. That sounds great!
Disadvantages of Outsourcing
1. You Lose Some Control
It’s to be expected that when you do outsource your work, you will to a certain degree lose control. As long as you are confident in who you have hired and there is an element of trust, this shouldn’t pose as such a problem. Just tread carefully.
2. Hidden Costs
Outsourcing is a lot cheaper, but it’s important not to get ripped off. If you are asked to sign lengthy contracts, be sure to read the small print, as you could get stung with unexpected costs.
3. Security Risks
It’s essential that you are cautious whenever you use customer data, especially nowadays. If any of your projects you outsource do require personal data, you could be placing both the security of your business and the privacy of your customers at risk if you pass on that data.
4. You Reduce Quality Control
A lot of freelancers are motivated by profit, so they will want to get the job finished as quickly as possible. Be mindful that although, the work might come back quickly, it might not come back of a high standard or quality.
5. Sharing Financial Burdens
Yes, it’s great to bring in expert agencies who can share the risks, but it’s very dangerous to tie in your business to the financial well-being of another company. Just be mindful and make sure that any terms and conditions are explained fully as you don’t want to suffer financially if they don’t deliver.
6. Shift in Time Frames
If your freelancer is working in a different time zone, it can be difficult to synchronize your schedules to ensure that what has been promised is delivered on time.
7. Things Get Lost in Translation
If something is lost in translation, this could not only cause you stress, but it could also waste time and money.
8. You May Face Moral Dilemmas
One of the biggest disadvantages to outsourcing is that you could be denying your staff development opportunities, and as a result, you could lose them.
101 Tasks to Outsource to Virtual Staff to Grow Your Business!
- General Virtual Assistant (GVA)
- Graphic / Web Designer
- Content Writer
- Web Developer
- SEO / Web Marketer
- Audio / Video Editor
ROLE:
GENERAL VIRTUAL ASSISTANT (GVA)
Email & Schedule Management Tasks
One of the biggest things that takes up time is email. I used to be trapped in Outlook for 8- hours a day! Crazy!
Getting your GVA to deal with your email and your calendar is crucial to becoming more productive as a modern-age entrepreneur.
1 – Filtering your Emails and managing spam
2 – Updating your Contacts
3 – Answering Customer Service Emails /Tickets / Chat Support
4 – Sending of Event Invitations, Greetings eCards, etc.
5 – Managing your Calendar
6 – Scheduling your Appointments
7 – Planning and Arranging your Travel
8 – Reminder Services
File Storage & Organization Tasks
Being organized is just as important as being productive. Your GVA will be able to systematize as well as put processes in place so that both you and your business is more organized.
9 – Dropbox / Google Drive Organization
10 – Data Entry in Word, or Google Docs
11 – Creating / Managing Spreadsheets
12 – Preparing Keynote or PowerPoint Presentations
13 – PDF Conversion, Splitting and Merging
Administrative & Blogging Tasks
Your GVA can manage your blog and help with marketing it. But also, with the administration tasks and helping you with the day to day managing of your products and marketing.
14 – Online Research
15 – Simple eBook Layout / Formatting
16 – Preparing Online Meeting Minutes
17 – Forms Creation
18 – Report Creation
19 – Document Template Creation
20 – Receptionist Duties
21 – Data Mining & Development / Lead Generation
22 – Blog Publishing Management
23 – Moderating Blog Comments
24 – Adding Tags & Images to Blog Posts
25 – Transcription of Video and Audio Files
26 – Sending out Invoices to Clients
27 – Checking your Voicemail
28 – Basic Accounting
29 – Personal Tasks (Purchasing Gifts Online, etc .)
30 – Project Management & Training Tasks
31 – Project Management of Staff
32 – Preparing any Training Materials
33 – Training new Virtual Staff
34 – Deadline / Deliverables Tracking
35 – Social Media Management Tasks
36 – Creating Facebook Fan Pages / Groups
37 – Scheduling and Posting Facebook Insights
38 – Promoting your Facebook Pages
39 – Collating and Interpreting Facebook Insights
40 – Creating a Twitter Account
41 – Managing and Increasing Your Twitter Following
42 – Scheduling of Tweets and Track Mentions and Hashtags
43 – Creating and Managing your LinkedIn Account / Profile
44 – Creating Pinnable Images on Pinterest
45 – Scheduling and Tracking Pins
46 – Creating and Managing YouTube Account
47 – Uploading Videos onto your YouTube Channel
48 – Moderating YouTube Comments
49 – Uploading of Videos to other Video Sharing Sites / Social Media
50 – Answer inquiries and Messages on All Channel & Profiles
51 – Create Slideshare Presentations
Email Marketing
If you’re not growing your email list, then all of the above work is pointless. Why not get your VGA to help with the following:
52 – Adding or Removing Subscribers from your Lists
53 – Creating New Lists
54 – Creating and Scheduling Broadcast Emails to Promote Content
55 – Editing Follow-up Emails and Auto-responders
56 – Creating Email Newsletters
57 – Editing and Proofreading Emails
ROLE:
AUDIO / VIDEO EDITOR
This role is relatively new for virtual staff. However, from experience it’s saved me so much time and meant that I can spend more time developing things like content, and not having to worry about the little details.
58 – Basic Editing of your Audio Files
59 – Removal of Background Noise from both Audio and Video
60 – Adding the Intro’s and the Outro’s to your Videos
61 – Basic image editing / Photoshop /
62 – Powerpress (Podcasting WP Plugin) Installation
63 – Setting up Podcast on iTunes
64 – Podcast Insertion on Blogpost
ROLE:
CONTENT WRITER
If you can find great virtual writers, then it pays to save time creating all of your written content.
65 – Creating Content & Posting Blogs
66 – Guest & Ghost Blogging
67 – SEO Writing
68 – Writing Press Releases
69 – Writing Newsletters
70 – Copywriting (some things)
71 – Directory Submission
72 – Spinning Articles
73 – Article Marketing
ROLE:
SEO / WEB MARKETER
The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) world is ever changing and if you have a great SEO/Web Marketing Virtual Assistant, all of your content will be positioned and also marketed in a way that brings in long-term traffic (constantly!)
74 – Analysis of your Websites
75 – Keyword Research
76 – Competitor Analysis
77 – Setting up and Creation of Landing Pages
78 – Web Master Submission
79 – Submission of Sitemap
80 – On-page optimization for a post / page
81 – Off-page optimization for a post / page
82 – Social Bookmarking
83 – Blog Commenting – Off Page Optimization
84 – Link Building
85 – Forum Participation / Moderation
86 – Creating a Social Bookmarking Tracking Sheet
87 – Weekly or Monthly Google Analytics (GA) & Traffic Reports
88 – Monthly Keyword Ranking Reports
ROLE:
GRAPHIC / WEB DESIGNER
We don’t have the time to be wasting in Photoshop…right?
Pay those who know what they’re doing. It will not only look much better but means you can spend doing the things that you’re good at.
89 – Designing Headers, Logos, Icons, Banners, Icons and eBook Covers
90 – Designing Infographics Images (you provide the Content & brief)
91 – Creating Mock-Ups and Designing Websites,
92 – Designing Sales /Landing / Opt-In Pages
93 – Basic Editing of Videos
ROLE:
WEB DEVELOPER
You don’t want to spend days customizing your website theme, or adding in content…..do you? You need a web developer virtual assistant who has coding experience and is able to customize things for you.
Simple right?
94 – Develop you WordPress (PHP) Websites (and offer support)
95 – Install all of your WordPress Themes and PlugIns
96 – Customize your WordPress Theme
97 – WordPress Functionality and PlugIn Enhancement
98 – Site Security and Maintenance
99 – Integration with Social Media and CRM
100 – Integrate with Payment Gateways
101 – Install and Support an Email Ticketing System (eg. ZenDesk)
Just Start – Now!
Regardless of what area of your business you might be thinking about outsourcing, the bottom line here is that taking part in this extremely worthwhile activity will give you the opportunity to expand your business at the same time as saving costs.
As someone who has been involved in the outsourcing industry in one way, shape or form for close to a decade, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have on the subject – regardless of content. So, feel free to comment below, join me on Twitter – or email me directly if you would like to keep things a little more ‘private’. Cheers!
