For those of you in the US, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. To everyone else, I hope your weekend was just as memorable and filled with family as mine was.
I had the pleasure of hosting my husband’s family of 12 for Thanksgiving - they were here Wednesday through Sunday. As you can imagine, I had to take all that time off work completely. We had guests sleeping in every square inch of our home, including my office! They actually got here a day early and departed 2 days later then I thought they would too.
As unsettling as 12 unexpected houseguests and an unplanned vacancy from work can be, I was able to weather the storm knowing my business was still running smoothly in the background. Why?
Because I have a team of folks working behind the scenes for me - building sites, building links, writing content and basically growing my little empire.
What’s even more interesting and surprising about outsourcing is that you can find workers for DIRT CHEAP (I recently hired someone who speaks perfect English for $1/hr).
But, you have to know where to find them. And you have to know what to have them do for you once they are hired!
I’m part of a private mastermind group with John Jonas, and I’ve learned more from him about outsourcing then I’ve learned from anyone else - and I’ve learned more from him then I learned doing my own trial and error (hiring folks, having it not work out, trying again, etc.) He’s MY outsourcing “guru.”
John put up a couple of videos about outsourcing - where to find good workers, how to qualify them, how to pay them, how MUCH to pay them, what kind of work they should do for you.
You can watch those videos here. (Opt-in for the second one).
It’s a content-fest, stuff you can watch, take a few notes on and immediately get started on.
If your time is worth more then $1/hr, you OWE it to yourself to check these videos from John out. I took the time to do so, and have him to thank for all the work that got done in my biz this thanksgiving, while I schmoozed with the in-laws.
John also offers a program to train your outsourced workers for you. It eliminates the hassle of figuring out what to train them in, and gets them focused on the most important tasks to grow your business right now. This is GREAT for sending your new workers to to learn from, but it’s excellent info to look at yourself as well, if you’re looking for some direction on what tasks you can and should be doing for your business.
With this link, you (and your workers) can get access to this training for 14 days for just $4. Enjoy!
Because I’m lucky enough to be in a mastermind program wtih John, I have the pleasure of talking with him each and every week. John is one of the good guys, and I think he’s a bit like me - no beating around the bush, just tell it like it is info. I know you’ll get as much out of the videos as I did!
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December 3, 2008
I’d like to outsource, but is it really socially responsibly to pay as low as $1/hr? Would love to hear your thoughts.
December 3, 2008
@Sharon: Good point. Generally, I hire people on a provisional basis at a starting wage and then, after a month or so, they receive a raise. I’m not comfortable paying $1/hr long term. What that raise is really depends on the skills required for the work they are doing - i.e. a person entering captchas is paid less then a person who’s programming, obviously. I highly suggest you listen to John Jonas’ info, he covers wages thoroughly.
I think outsourcing/replacing yourself is one of the most important things about working online and yet most of us, me included, don’t put a solid plan together for it.
I think a large part of the problem is people are not exactly sure what they would have the people do.
I am off to take a look at the videos and maybe make 2009 the year of outsourcing efficiency..
Paul
December 5, 2008
@Paul Forcey: Agreed Paul - and that’s what I like about john’s thing; he gives your outsourcers work (and training) so you don’t have to. Training is my nemesis, I continually think, “I could train them, or I could just do it myself, probably faster if I just do it myself…” And that’s NOT a good position to put myself in. Am learning to let go. And it forces us to create systems rather then just doing stuff haphazardly, which is important as well.
Wow! Thanks Michelle,
This was something refreshing and useful for me at this point in my internet marketing. Sometimes there is so much to do that you simply cannot do it all by yourself, or if you do, it would take forever… and that’s not we have chosen to market online 
Thanks again,
Narek Gabrielyan
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