One of the best decisions you can possibly make for your business is to outsource some of the work to freelancers. The more work you outsource to freelancers, the more time you have to commit towards other opportunities.
Some people turn away from outsourcing because of the costs associated with making the switch. Others want to outsource as much of their work as possible but find themselves limited by their budgets. Regardless of your current status, you need to expand your freelancer army. The more tasks you delegate, the better.
Here’s how you expand your army of freelancers:
Everyone Gets A Legit Part
Before you even think about hiring another freelancer, you must ensure that you have legit tasks available. A legit task is a required task but also a time-sucker that you don’t enjoy. Scheduling social media posts, creating pictures, and editing podcast episodes were some of those tasks I needed to outsource.
While I outsourced those tasks the moment I got the chance, I have never thought of hiring a ghostwriter, outsourcing training course creation, or outsourcing the email broadcasts. I enjoy those tasks. If you don’t enjoy any of the tasks in your business and are desperate to outsource everything, then you are in the wrong business.
When I want to hire another person to make my life easier, I assess everything that I do in a given week. What are the tasks that I enjoy? What are the tasks I want to get off my back? Which of those particular tasks take up most of my time?
These are the questions I ask myself before I post a job and eventually look through the job applicant’s cover letters. With clarity on my requirements, I can rest assured that my life will be made easier.
If you don’t have this clarity, you risk hiring a freelancer for the wrong reason or hiring someone who won’t meet your expectations. The result is an intense level of stress that will suffocate your “extra time” you got from hiring the freelancer.
Gradually Grow The Freelancer Army
If you go right out the gate and hire a dozen freelancers, you’ll get overwhelmed. Gradually growing the freelancer army means growing it at a consistent pace that makes sense for your brand. If you hire too many freelancers at once, you’ll have a difficult time communicating with everyone and getting on the same page.
Outsourcing different tasks will save you time, but hiring too many freelancers creates a new problem. Now you have to manage them and ensure that your freelancers are as effective as possible. Outsourcing management to a manager will make your life much easier as your freelancer army grows, but when you start out, you are the manager.
Once you feel comfortable with every freelancer you’ve hired, you can then expand and look for other options. The more comfortable you become with your freelancers, the quicker you can look for someone to fill your next job.
Don’t Rely On One Freelancer
A common mistake people make is to assign a super VA. This “super VA” can apparently accomplish any task you give him/her. Most people who find themselves in the super VA position will take on any task you give them to please you and make more money.
Relying on one freelancer to get everything done in your business is like relying on one musician to play all of the instruments at the concert. It won’t end up well.
Instead of relying on one freelancer, you must hire more freelancers who specialize in certain areas. I hired my first freelancer to help grow my Pinterest account. I didn’t hire that freelancer to edit my blog posts. I needed a different freelancer for that job.
People can do anything, but not everything. Don’t act like your freelancers can do everything because they can’t. Putting that unnecessary workload on an individual freelancer will create more stress for both of you (subpar work combined with your recent hire desperately trying to please you in so many ways).
Reinvest Your Time Wisely
Here’s how you actually get to grow your freelancer army. Every other tip at this point has been laying the groundwork for this one moment.
If you hire someone to schedule your social media posts, you need to know and remember two things:
Cost per hour
Number of hours this person will work for you each month
Let’s say I hire a social media manager who gets paid $10/hr. This social media manager works for two hours per day.
I pay this social media manager $600 every month.
To continue working with this social media manager, I MUST make at least $600/mo to balance out my expenses. If I make $595/mo with my extra time, then I’m losing money and my current path doesn’t make sense.
At this crossroad, you have three options:
Fire the freelancer
Look for a less expensive option
Reinvest your time more wisely
When you hire a freelancer to save yourself time, you must be prepared to make more additional money than you’re spending on that freelancer.
Look At Costs And Results
Not all freelancers are created equal. Some do the job to near perfection while others miss a few things. Every month, I make it a point to assess all of my freelancers.
I identify what work is getting done and how much it costs me.
If I’m happy with the work and am getting a good ROI from reinvesting my time wisely, I keep that freelancer. If a freelancer strains my budget or doesn’t get the job done, I have a decision to make.
If the expensive freelancer does a phenomenal job, keep that freelancer if your business still aligns with that person’s work. Never give up good freelancers because those are the ones you don’t have to worry about. If you feel like your freelancer would catch you during a trust fall, keep that freelancer on your team.
In Conclusion
Growing your freelancer army is a numbers game. If the decision makes financial sense and you make more money with your extra time than you spend to save that same amount of time, then you made the right decision.
Each month, monitor your freelancers’ progress to determine whether you’re still making the right decisions or if the landscape has changed.
What are your thoughts on building a freelancer army? Have any tasks you’d like to outsource? Have any tips on acquiring more freelancers? Sound off in the comments section below.
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