You’ve probably at least heard of the “4 Hour Work Week.”
In it, we’re told about the exciting new life you can live by outsourcing your work, your errands, and even your love life to faraway lands at rock bottom pricing.
And while it is a great book, most people find the reality of outsourcing isn’t as smooth and carefree as it sounds.
For some reason, website designers have a habit of being flakey. They do incredible work. They do several projects for you.
Then they disappear. They’re doing projects one day. Then they’re gone. Phone calls not answered. Emails go into space.
It’s almost like there is a psycho killer out there targeting website designers around the world.
And unexplained mass disappearances are just one of the problems you run into.
What about the communication gap?
You’re often dealing with someone halfway around the world. They work while you’re asleep and they’re asleep when you’re working. They come from a different culture.
And you need to provide them with VERY clear directions and specific steps.
Otherwise, you’ll end up doing their work for them. And who wants to pay someone else for the privilege of redoing all their work?
I discovered the value of training videos and written checklists by necessity. You show in detail each of the steps they need to follow to accomplish the work on video. Then you provide a checklist where they need to check off each item to make sure they’re doing it correctly.
Remember this. If you don’t provide exact instructions of what to do, it will be your fault when it’s done wrong. And you can pretty much expect it to be done wrong…if it is done at all.
How do you track their results?
In the beginning you can use email. But once they’ve done a dozen or more projects for you, it starts taking a lot of time to find each of the responses.
And unless you provide them with very clear instructions on how and when to contact you, they won’t keep you updated sufficiently.
Let them know at what intervals you want to be contacted. And what they should contact you about. Also tell them that if they have any problems, to be willing to ask you questions.
Many overseas workers are often shy to ask you questions about what they’re having trouble it. Let them know you expect them to have questions.
How do you organize all your projects?
While internet marketing is pitched as being so easy that anyone can do it, it has a LOT of moving parts.
Let’s say you sell information products. You need to create new products. You need to create sales copy. You need websites. You need customer service. You need a way to deliver the products.
All these moving pieces means there are many projects going on all at once. How in the world do you keep track of it all?
An Excel spreadsheet is one of the ways you can manage it. Or you can use project management software.
