Are you overwhelmed with work? Here are six tasks that to outsource
If you're struggling with an incredibly long list of things to do It's probably time to hire reinforcements. Here are 6 tasks you could outsource to a freelancer or virtual assistant.
Being an entrepreneur, you're plate is always full.
The projects just keep on piling up. Your inbox is full, you've got 17,17 Excel spreadsheets open at the same time You haven't looked at your social media alerts in a week, and you keep catching typos whenyou post blog entries.
Your to-do list is much too large for one person to handle. It's impossible to do everything by yourself -- and that's fine.
Time to summon reinforcements. Namely, Virtual assistants (VAs) and freelancers.
The outsourcing of repetitive tasks will give your time to invest in growing your company. From the entry of data to social media management, there are plenty of tasks you're juggling that could be outsourced to a third party.
In this post this article, we'll discuss six jobs that you can delegate in order to cut down on time (and your mental health).
The first question is ask yourself if outsourcing trulyworth it?
Yes, and this is the reason why.
What are the benefits of outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant or freelancer?
This is especially the case considering this perplexing stat: Workers tend to spend 2.8 hours each day working on tasks that are productive.
As a full-time business owner, that number is definitely more for the person who works full-time. However, chances are you're still working on some tasks that aren't the best use of your time.
If you decide to outsource your low-growth, repetitive tasks to freelancers or a virtual assistant (VA) You can get back time to focus on higher-growth to-dos.
Hire an expert tackle the tasks you don't want to spend time on (or do not really enjoy).
Save costs and time over the hiring of a full-time employee.
This is why 70 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have employed a freelancer. 81% of them saying that they intend to hire a freelancer again.
Hiring a virtual staff -- like freelancers and VAs has been found to improve efficiency.
Research says remote workers can be up to 13.5% more productive than their in-office counterparts.
All in all outsourcing work to freelancers or a VA could help you get some of your least favorite jobs, and ones that are not growing as fast your to-do list and free up your time to concentrate on expanding your business.
There's one more question to answer which tasks you should delegate?
6 tasks to outsource if you're running out of time
1. Organization and administrative tasks
When we think of outsourcing work to an assistant virtual, they often think of offloading time-consuming work like data entry and transcription. These can be a significant part of VAs' jobs.
However, VAs are able to assist businesses with a range of jobs and that's probably the reason VAs are a huge part of the global outsourcing market that includes VAs -- amounted to 92.5 billion dollars in 2019.
The most popular VA jobs are:
Management of calendars and scheduling
Data entry
Project management
Event planning
Email marketing
Outreach and follow-ups for PR
Managing accounts payable, invoicing and recording expenses
Support for the customer, such as managing social media accounts
Management of CRM-related software
Competitor analysis
Transcribing video and audio files
Vendor management
Webinar management
Social media marketing
Phew. If the list of skills seems to span a wide range of skills, that's because VAs are some of the team members with the greatest versatility available.
If you're looking for a VA ensure that you are aware of the tasks you would like the VA to concentrate onas well as having the budget to compensate the VA fairly, based on their skills.
Current prices of VAs on the market are:
$25-40 per hour for general admin skills
Affordable rates of $30 to $50 per hour. skills
$50+ per hour for specialized skills
In the meantime, let's look at some other specific tasks to outsource -- like accounting and bookkeeping.
2. Accounting and bookkeeping
If you're anything like me -- aren'ta numbers person -- there are one hundred options you'd prefer to do rather other than crunch numbers.
If you're making less than five figures from your company and you don't have an abundance of costs to keep track of, you can probably manage your finances with a tool like QuickBooks .
If your earnings are higher than this, hiring an independent accountant could take the nitty-gritty of keeping the books in order off your hands and help simplify your management of finances.
Accounting is one of the most commonly performed business processes that are outsourced to a third party. .
and there's an excellent reason for that. Accounting is among the primary tasks required by small-sized businesses, especially in light of the fact the fact that 29% of startups are unsuccessful because they're in cash.
Estimate, manage the quarterly tax bill, and manage
Control your cash flow
Track and follow the
Unlike accounting software and accounting software, an accountant or bookkeeper can provide you with individualized guidance and respond to your queries in greater detail since they're familiar with your tax requirements.
Some bookkeepers even specialize in helping professionals in specific fields. For example, Friedman, Kannenberg & Company, PC offers the accounting and bookkeeping services needed by musicians and bands, as well as retailers of music equipment, as well as music school.
For an accountant who is knowledgeable about the specifics of your industry, Google "accountant specializing in the industry you work in".
If you're a small business owner, accounting services should be among the first areas you should consider outsourcing (unless you really enjoy analyzing tax codes -- I won't make a judgement).
Apart from the more numerical tasks such as accounting and data entry, you can outsource creative and technical work, too.
#3 Design and development of web pages
It can take people around 0.05 minutes to form an opinion on your site.
It's the reason having a reliable web designer in your corner important.
Your website needs to appear appealing visually, simple to navigate, and informative. And, in today's time of instant access the website must be fast.
26.9% of ecommerce customers will wait less than 4 seconds to wait for a page to load, and 45.4% of visitors reported that they are less likely to buy something if the page load speed was slower than they anticipated.
You also need to be sure your site is responsive to mobile devices. Mobile devices account for about half of internet traffic in the world Visitors who visit your site from mobile devices are five times more likely to quit your site when it's not mobile-friendly.
Additionally, Google announced in the year 2018 that they'd be boosting positions of mobile-optimized websites in their mobile search results making it clear that having a mobile-optimized or responsive website can aid in SEO, too.
(You are able to check the site's present mobile-friendlyness using Google's mobile-friendly checker tool .)
The outsourcing of your website's tasks to a seasoned web developer and designer can help you create a website that loads quickly, works well on smartphones, and fits your brand image.
Where can you find web designers and web development web designers to help make your website shine?
Some of the most popular websites to locate web developers include:
The Website Builder allows you create a website to sell an unlimited number of digital products such as online courses or memberships as well as digital downloads -- without needing to ever enter the code once or troubleshoot a shaky WordPress theme, or even install a confusing plugin.
Take a peek at the website Mallika Malhotra expert in branding and photographer. It was built using the editor for websites:
Mallika modified her website to match her branding and style without needing a developer or designer to design it.
Also, we take the care for mobile optimization, site speed, as well as all the other technical hassles, so Mallika -- and you -- can focus on creating and selling the products you sell instead.
An attractive, user-friendly website is essential, but without great information, it will only get you to a certain point. Luckily, you can also hire copywriting or content writers.
#4: Copywriting and Content writing
The process of creating and managing a content marketing plan is a long process and effort, especially when the average blog post takes three hour and 45 minutes to create.
If you're looking to put up weekly posts, it's an extra four hours per week that most solopreneurs can't afford.
Furthermore, different kinds of content call for different styles of writing.
There are a lot of talented, experienced freelance copywriters, content marketers and copywriters available to assist you develop content that appeals to your target audience, and boosts sales.
You can outsource writing tasks of all sorts, including:
Blogging
Writing press releases
SEO-related services like linking-building, keyword research and backlinks
To find competent freelance content writers Jodi Harris, who is the director of content strategy and editorial at Content Marketing Institute, offers these suggestions :
Connect with your professional networks and ask if they have writers to suggest.
Post the assignment to a writer's job board that is focused on freelancer-based services such as Upwork and LinkedIn Pro-Finder .
Use an agency that provides creative services or a content marketing platform like Contently . (This option tends to come with a higher price tag, however.)
Even if you manage written content creation in-house, you can ensure that your blog posts and copy is top-quality through outsourcing editing and proofreading procedures.
#5 5: Editing (writing, video, and podcasts)
Your target audience is eager to view -- and hear, read, and watch -- great information from you. Customers enjoy the content they consume.
Take podcasts, for example. 64% of Americans listened to some sort of online audio (like a podcast) in 2018, with the weekly listeners to online audio report an average of 17 hours listening time per week.
This is a huge amount of material viewers could get from you. It's plenty of information you could use to earn your readers' trust, loyalty, and dollars. However, poor-quality content is unlikely to convert viewers into customers.
That's where editors come in. A talented editor is the difference between good content and outstandingcontent.
When writing content, editors can assist writers to sound at their finest, convey their point across clearly, and avoid common writing mistakes .
There's also a tool like Grammarly as an extra check, but it should never entirely replace human editors regardless of whether you're proofreading yourself. Grammarly's AI occasionally misses mistakes (or discovers mistakes where there's none).
It all depends on what you're looking for -- and the amount you're willing to pay -podcasters can aid in a variety of ways, from cutting down background noise, to providing editorial input that helps your podcast tell a stronger story.
Last but not least, video editing is another tedious task that outsourcing could help you with.
For editors who are looking for freelancers to edit different types of content check out freelance marketplaces like the Upwork and Freelancer.com .
Just remember this age-old saying You get what buy.
Instead of choosing freelancers who promise the lowest rates, seek out skilled editors. They'll ensure you receive the best service possible -- and will save you lots of time (and the stress of) at the end of the day.
As with audio and video editing the final job on the list will require lots of expertise and time to master, making it the perfect candidate for outsourcing.
#6: Graphic design
Let's get this off the table: Photoshop is hard. (And I'm not declaring that simply because I earned an A in high school's graphic design class.)
If you're a company owner, it's likely you're not in a position to master the art of graphic design. But visual content is an essential element of branding and online marketing.
Indeed, more than 90 percent of purchases can be influenced by images and 40 percent of marketers reported that their original graphic have helped them achieve the goals they set for their marketing in last year.
A freelance graphic designer could help build your visual brand across your digital downloads, your website and social media accounts, and more.
Freelance graphic design deliverables might include:
Logos
Infographics
PowerPoint templates
Design and layout of ebooks
To save even more time You can also commission ebook and slide templates that you could use over and over, so you don't have to create these assets each time.
For example, turning a data-heavy blog article into an infographic can make it easier for readers to digest -- and infographics are liked and shared on social media 3 times faster than other types of content.
For a graphic designer to find look into design marketplaces such as DesignCrowd and of course, UpWork's design section .
The two websites link businesses with thousands of designers who are freelance, with design projects ranging from email and web design templates, to packaging and T-shirt design.
The bottom line is As with all the things we've discussed in this article Visual content is a vital part of building your company and one can be handled on your own.
Outsource these 6 tasks to reduce your list of to-dos
"There aren't enough hours to fill the time" is a cliche for a reason: It's true, especially when you're an entrepreneur who's trying to build a business on your own.
A freelancer or virtual assistant could help you get back some of those hours. To recap, here are the six things you should consider outsourcing
Administrative and organizational work such as data entry, scheduling management, transcription
Accounting and bookkeeping to keep you on top of your cash flow and tax needs
Web development and design for creating a UX/UI that people will enjoy
Copywriting and content writing to ensure that your content marketing and sales copy stands out from the rest of the pack (and even Google results for searches)
Podcast, video, and written content editing, so you don't have to be concerned about choppy or misspelled audio
Design and content that is visually appealing for displaying your branding identity and draw your potential customers' attention
It can be difficult, and often there's lots of pressure placed on entrepreneurs to do it all on their own. But there's no shame in outsourcing work so that you can get back to doing your best workdeveloping and expanding your company.