These resources will help you get control of your business! You don’t have to do everything; in fact, if you are, you’re making a mistake! Let’s take a look at some of the best ways you can grow your business and get more done with outsourcing.
TRAINING OUTSOURCERS
Replace Myself
This is an incredibly clever system developed by John Jonas, who also happens to be the guy that actually taught me outsourcing. Sure, I’d hired plenty of folks, but John’s free audios actually gave me something of a paradigm shift in the way I was working with people, hiring, training and paying them. I had lots of disappointing experiences with outsourcing (flaky people, shoddy work) until I learned what John teaches.
At the Replace Myself homepage, you can get access to a video on outsourcing, but if you opt-in, he’ll also give you an MP3 of an OUTSTANDING call he did covering every element of outsourcing. I strongly recommend you listen to this call if you’re considering outsourcing, have had problems outsourcing or think outsourcing is too expensive for you.
Now, the extra clever part of John’s system is his paid member’s area. Here, he releases a new training module each month that you give to your employees and have them implementfor your business. Social media tactics, search engine optimization, Adwords training, etc. Basically, John trains your people for you. He also just added a project management tracker to the system so you can assign work to specific people, continually see where each task stands, what’s completed, what still needs doing, etc. I really love this whole package as the answer to how to hire and then what to have people do once you do so. You can access the Replace Myself free training here.
HIRING OUTSOURCERS
Odesk
Odesk is a marketplace where people from all over the world list their skills and resumes and folks like you can hire them. You’ll can negotiate pay, search contractors, list jobs you have available, etc. Good for both short term and long term work.
What I really like about Odesk is that they ask all contractors to install a little piece of software on their coputers that takes screenshots of what they’re doing at random intervals. You then get access to those screenshots. You can quickly see if they’re actually working on your project, and you can see that they’re doing it correctly. I’ve found Odesk workers to be pleasant and motivated, and I think the screenshots that are taken keep them on task. Odesk folks have consistently performed tasks very quickly. It’s the first place I stop when I need a new contractor, and I think you’ll enjoy the service as much as I do.
RentACoder
This service is the old standby, what I used for years before odesk became available. And I still use RentACoder all the time. The difference? RentACoder is project based, so folks bid how much they’d like to get paid to compete your project. Odesk is more hourly-rate based (although they’ve added project based bidding recently). So, I still use RentACoder for projects that are short, quick or very specific in scope. I.E. web design, script fixes etc. Although Odesk has a lovely interface, for project based jobs I often lean towards RentACoder. I think it’s important to have an account at both, and oftentimes, you’ll find a job that wasn’t filled at one will be filled at the other.
Guru.com
If I’m looking specifically for native english speaking folks, I go to Guru.com first. I’ve found a top notch virtual assistant and my customer service team at Guru. I have not had luck with them for coding or technical jobs. You can find writers here as well.
