Do you have too much to do? Here are six tasks that you can outsource
If you're overwhelmed by a long to-do list It's probably time to hire reinforcements. Below are six tasks that which you can delegate to a virtual or freelance assistant.
Being an entrepreneur, you're can never have enough to eat.
The tasks just keep increasing in number. Your inbox is full, you have 17,17 Excel spreadsheets open at the same time, you haven't looked at your social media alerts for a week, and you're constantly finding typos following the timeyou publish blog posts.
Your to-do list is too long for just one person to tackle. You can't do it all on your own -- and that's fine.
The time has come to bring in reinforcements. For example, Virtual assistants (VAs) as well as freelancers.
By outsourcing repetitive work, you can save the time you need to concentrate on expanding your company. From the entry of data to managing social media There's a myriad of activities you're juggling that can be outsourced to third party.
In this post this article, we'll discuss six jobs which you could outsource for time savings (and your sanity).
But first ask yourself if outsourcing reallyworth it?
Yep -- and here's why.
What are the benefits of outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant or freelancer?
And that's especially true when you consider this mind-boggling stat: Workers tend to be able to spend 2.8 hours per day doing productive work.
When you're a full-time owner of a business this number will be higher for the person who works full-time. However, chances are you're still working on some projects that aren't making the most effective use of your time.
If you decide to outsource your low-growth, repetitive tasks to freelancers or a virtual assistant (VA) You can free up your time to concentrate on more lucrative tasks.
Bring in an expert to tackle the tasks you don't have time for (or really don't enjoy doing).
Reduce costs and save time by not employing a full-time worker.
The benefits of this are the reason 70 percent of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMBs) report having hired a freelancer, with 81% of them saying that they intend to hire a freelancer again.
Employing a virtual team -- like freelancers and VAs -- has been found to improve efficiency.
Researchers have found remote employees are up to 13.5% more productive than office workers.
All in all outsourcing work to freelancers or a VA can help you take certain of your most unpopular work-related tasks that have the lowest growth potential off your plate, freeing up the time you can focus on expanding your business.
Now, there's just one question left to be answered which tasks you should delegate?
6 tasks to outsource if you're in a hurry.
1. Organization and administrative work
When people think of outsourcing tasks to an assistant virtual, they often think of offloading time-consuming jobs like data entry or transcription -- and those can be a significant part of VAs tasks.
But VAs can help business owners with a wide variety of tasks this is likely the reason they are so popular. The global outsourcing market -- which includes VAs -- was 92.5 billion dollars in the year 2019.
The most popular VA jobs include:
Management of calendars and scheduling
Data entry
Project management
Event planning
Email marketing
Outreach and follow-ups for PR
Invoicing, managing accounts payables, and expensing
Support for customers, which includes the ability to modify social media accounts
CRM software management
Analyzing competitors
Converting audio and video file
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 most flexible team members out there.
When you look for a VA, make sure you have a clear idea of what tasks you'd like them to focus on -as well as having the budget to compensate for them in a fair way according to their expertise.
Current prices of VAs on the market are:
$25-40 per hour for general admin skills
For advanced skills
$50+ per hour for skills that are specialized
As we are in the interim, we can proceed to more specific tasks to outsource -for example, bookkeeping and accounting.
#2: Accounting and bookkeeping
If you're anything like me -- you're nota number-oriented person, there are one hundred options you'd prefer to do rather than crunch numbers.
Now, if you're earning less than 5 figures for your venture and don't have a ton of expenditures to track then you're probably able to handle your business' finances using an application such as Quickbooks .
If your earnings are higher than that, working with an independent accountant could assist you in balancing the books off your plate and simplify your financial management.
Accounting is one of the most frequently outsourced business processes .
There's a valid reason for that. Accounting is one of the most important tasks for small businesses -- especially in light of the fact the fact that 29percent of start-ups fail because they run in cash.
Plan, organize your finances, and pay taxes for each quarter.
Make sure you control your cash flow
Follow and keep track of the
Unlike accounting software and accounting software, an accountant or bookkeeper can provide you with individualized guidance and address your questions in more details since they're aware of the specific tax issues you face.
Some bookkeepers even specialize in helping professionals in specific fields. Like, Friedman, Kannenberg & Company, PC specializes in providing accounting services to musicians and bands, as well as music equipment retailers, and music school.
If you want to find an accountant who understands the ins and outs of your particular industry, Google "accountant specializing in your industry".
If you're a small business owner, accounting services should be among the first areas that you ought to consider outsourcing (unless you are really interested in analyzing tax laws -- and I'm not going to make a judgement).
Alongside the tasks that require a lot of numbers such as data entry and bookkeeping You can also outsource your creative and technical work, too.
#3 Designing and developing websites
It takes people about 0.05 second to form an opinion regarding your website.
This is why having a reputable web designer in your corner is crucial.
Your site must appear appealing visually, simple to use, and also informative. Also, in this time of instant access your website should be fast.
26.9% of ecommerce website visitors will wait less than four seconds loading a website, and 45.4 percent of users said they would be less likely to buy things if loading speeds were slower than expected.
Also, you must ensure that your site is mobile-friendly. Mobile devices account roughly half the traffic on websites worldwide , and visitors are 5 times more likely to abandon your website when it's not mobile-friendly.
Plus, Google announced in 2018 that they'd be boosting rankings for mobile-optimized sites in their mobile search results So being responsive and mobile-friendly on your site can help your SEO, too.
(You can test your website's present mobile-friendlyness using Google's mobile-friendly checker tool .)
The outsourcing of your website's task to a skilled web designer and developer can aid you in designing a website that loads quickly, works flawlessly on mobile devices and is in line with your company's image.
Then, where do you locate web developers and web designers to help make your website shine?
The top sites to find web-based developers comprise:
The Website Builder allows you create a website to sell any variety of digital items such as online courses, memberships, and digital downloads -without ever having to enter a line of code, troubleshoot a finicky WordPress template, or even install a confusing plugin.
Have a look at the site Mallika Malhotra expert in branding and photographer, created using the site editor of's:
Mallika has customized her site to reflect her personal brand and design without the need for an architect or developer to build it from scratch.
Additionally, they take the care for mobile optimization, site speed, as well as all other technical issues also take care of mobile optimization, site speed and all the other technical issues. Mallika (and you can concentrate on creating and selling items instead.
A good-looking, easy-to-use website is essential, but without quality contents, it'll just take you so far. Luckily, you can also outsourcing copywriting and content writing.
#4: Copywriting, content and writing
The process of creating and managing a strategy for marketing through content takes a lot of time and effort, especially when blogs typically take three hours and 55 minutes to compose.
If you're looking to put up weekly posts, it's more than four hours every week, which most solopreneurs can't afford.
Plus, different types of content call for different styles of writing.
There's a wealth of skilled, professional freelance copywriters and content marketers on the market to help develop content that appeals to the audience and increases sales.
It is possible to outsource writing projects that are of any kind, which includes:
Blogging
Writing press releases
SEO SEO Services, such as search engine optimization, link building, as well as backlinks
To find competent freelance content writers Jodi Harris, who is the director of strategy and editorial content at the Content Marketing Institute, suggests these strategies :
Contact your professional network and ask if they have writers to suggest.
Place the job on a writers' job board that is focused on services for freelancers, such as upwork.com and LinkedIn's Pro-Finder .
Employ an agency for creative staffing or an online platform for content marketing such as Contently . (This alternative comes at a cost higher but it is worth the cost.)
And even if you keep written content creation in-house, you can be sure that the content on your blog and website are top-notch with outsourcing proofreading and editing procedures.
#5 5. Editing (writing videos, writing, and podcasts)
Your customers want to be able to access -- and hear as well as read and view -- great information from your company. People are awestruck by the content they consume.
Take podcasts, for example. 64% of Americans listened to some kind of audio streaming (like podcasts) in the year 2018, with weekly online audio listeners report an average of 17 hours listening time per week.
There's plenty of content viewers could get from you -- and plenty of information you can use to gain the trust of your viewers, their loyaltyand even dollars. But poor quality content is unlikely to convert viewers to customers.
This is where editors step in. An experienced editor can be the difference between good content and greatcontent.
In written content, editors can assist writers to sound at their finest, convey their message across clearly and steer clear of frequent writing errors .
You can also use tools such as Grammarly for an additional check However, it's not meant to entirely replace human editors regardless of whether you're proofreading your own work. Grammarly's AI often misses errors (or finds errors where there are none).
Based on the type of content you're seeking -- as well as the price you're willing to pay -podcasters can aid with everything from reducing background noise to offering an editorial perspective that can help the show tell a more compelling narrative.
The last but not least is that video editing is another task that takes a lot of time and outsourcing could relieve you of your responsibilities.
To find freelance editors for different types of content check out freelance marketplaces like upwork.com or Freelancer.com .
Keep in mind this old saying that you only get what you buy.
Do not choose freelancers who claim to offer the best rates and the highest quality, look for experienced editors. This will help you receive the highest quality service -- and help you save a significant amount of time (and the stress of) in the future.
As with audio and video editing, our final task of the list is one that takes lots of expertise and patience to master, which makes it the perfect candidate for outsourcing.
#6 Graphic design
Let's take this issue out of the way: Photoshop is hard. (And I'm not declaring that simply because I earned a C in my Graphic Design class.)
If you're a small business owner, chances are you're not in a position to be an expert in the art of graphic design. However, visual content is a key part of branding and marketing online.
Actually, as much as 90% purchases are influenced by visual factors as well as 40 percent of marketing professionals claimed that graphic designs have helped them achieve the goals they set for their marketing in this year.
A freelance graphic designer could help create a visual identity for your site, downloads, social media profiles, and beyond.
Freelance graphic design deliverables might include:
Logos
Infographics
PowerPoint templates
Ebook designs and formatting
In order to save time, you can create slide and ebook templates that you could use repeatedly, meaning it's not necessary to design these assets each time.
As an example, turning your data-heavy blog post into an infographic will make your content more accessible for the reader to comprehend -- and infographics are shared and liked on social media three times more than other types of content.
To find a graphic designer, check out design marketplaces like DesignCrowd and of course, UpWork's design section .
Both websites connect businesses to hundreds of thousands of independent designers with design projects ranging from web design and email templates, to packaging and T-shirt design.
The bottom line is: Like all of the things we've discussed in this article Visual content is a vital element of developing your business -- one that can be handled by yourself.
Let these six tasks be outsourced for a shorter list of tasks
"There aren't enough hours to fill a daily schedule" is a popular cliche with an reason. It's truthful in particular in the case of entrepreneurs trying to build a business single-handedly.
Utilizing a virtual assistant or freelancer can aid you to regain some of those hours. In case you're wondering, here's six tasks to consider outsourcing
Organization and administrative work, such as data entry, scheduling management, as well as transcription
The bookkeeping and accounting process keeps you in the loop about your cash flow and tax obligations
Web development and design for creating a UX/UI that people will enjoy
Copywriting and content writing, making sure your content marketing sales copy stands out from the crowd (and even Google results for searches)
Audio, video and editing of written content so you don't have to worry about typos or choppy audio
Design and content that is visually appealing for displaying your brand identity and grab potential customers' attention
Asking for help can seem daunting, and there's often a lot of pressure for entrepreneurs to handle it all by themselves. There's nothing wrong with outsourcing your tasks to focus on your best workdeveloping and expanding your business.