Product Creation – Part Twelve – Outsourcing

If you don’t have the time or the energy or the desire to create your product, but you do have some extra money, then outsourcing may be the perfect path for you.

In the simplest language possible, outsourcing is when a company delegates the completion of certain tasks to an outside firm or an individual not directly employed by the company. This individual may be an independent contractor or an employee of another company who is subcontracted to complete these tasks. In exchange for the individual’s services, he or his company receives monetary compensation and/or other considerations as negotiated.

Benefits of Outsourcing

Outsourcing is popular because there are a great many benefits. Some of these benefits include:

Reduced labor costs
Increased workforce
Greater flexibility

That’s all fine and dandy. However, the primary reasons you want to outsource is because you don’t want to do the work yourself, to save time, and to save money.

Although there a number of scenarios where outsourcing is a viable option there are other scenarios when outsourcing may not be the best idea. This include: when outsourcing is too expensive, when it cause a loss of control, when it will take too long, and when the work is poor. In these situations it’s best to keep the work in-house.

Protecting Yourself

Before you outsource anything, you want to do a good job of screening potential candidates. Here are some suggestions for you to consider:

1. Verify Candidate Qualifications - screen all applicants carefully before deciding to outsource the work. Verify all the information on the resume before awarding the project. This may entail contacting previous employers as well as references to determine the capabilities and work ethic of the individual. Ask to see samples of their work.

2. Thoroughly Outline Project Requirements - be very clear in stating the project requirements. You’ll want to include all the topics to be covered, the order they’re to be covered, the deadline, the form of the final product, and anything else you want to include. Preparing a contract stating the exact project details and compensation to be provided is a good idea as well.

3. Schedule Periodic Milestone Meetings - schedule regular progress meetings to ensure the project doesn’t fall too far behind schedule during any one phase of the project. These meetings can be helpful to both you and the independent contractor. You’ll benefit because you’ll remain in control of the project and can intervene if the independent contractor is heading in the wrong direction. The independent contractor benefits because they can prevent him from being caught by surprise at the conclusion of the project if he misinterpreted the project requirements.

We gave you a list of possible resources for outsourcing earlier in this series. If you need additional resources, just run an online search for “outsource services.”

The next session will be our final session in this series. We’ll offer you a list of possible products.

In the meantime, you can get a head start this way:

Stop Trading Your Time For Dollars
and Start Trading Products For Dollars!

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