10 Strategies to Prepare your Company for Outsourcing

11 min read

10 Strategies to Prepare Your Company for Outsourcing

Imagine launching your dream business, only to find yourself buried under a mountain of tasks. The temptation to outsource everything can be overwhelming. But before you dive in, let's explore some strategies to prepare your company for outsourcing. These insights stem from my own entrepreneurial journey, filled with trial and error. Let's dive in and set your business up for success.

Start by Owning Your Operations

Do not start outsourcing for at least 1-2 months from your launch date. This is crucial, yet many entrepreneurs procrastinate over it. You’re already doing a lot, why not outsource this, that, and before you know it – you’re outsourcing your entire operation. This may sound ideal, but it can impact your relationship with your business. When you start a company, you need to be the mastermind. If it’s your own company, then it’s better to do as much as possible from the beginning so that you can tweak the infrastructure and fix any issues.

Remember, your India or Filipino techs won’t always have the insight to connect the dots and recognize when a part of the infrastructure needs to be modified to increase customer satisfaction. For example, say there’s a common issue or question people are asking. Your support techs may not think to create a canned reply for your customers that answers all the questions or concerns they might have. This means some customers may receive inadequate or half-witted responses that just lead to more customer frustration, which leads to more support tickets, which leads to a higher churn rate.

Identify Your Weak Points

Determine your weakest strength, and outsource the rest. We’re not all superman. So it’s understandable that we will always have a mammoth amount of things we need to do but don’t have the skills for. So unless you have a massive amount of capital to start, it’s important to learn what you can on your own. For some things, it may only be an hour or two of reading or watching a video, so do a quick cost/time analysis to determine if it’s really better to outsource your PPC management for $600/month.

Whether you find one-time-only freelancers from sites like freelancer.com, it’s generally the best bang for your buck to hire for one-time setup jobs. While you're at it, you might as well buy a $15 template from ThemeForest instead of paying a web designer $3,000 to make one. It’s always cheaper to pick a template and then hire a designer to customize it for you.

Implement a Project Management System

Working with a virtual assistant online can be quite disorganized if you don’t establish an organization system. Sending emails back and forth just isn’t going to be great for everybody due to the increased likelihood of forgotten or missed emails.

On a side note, this is why I love Boomerang for Gmail. I can set an email to bounce back to my inbox if I don’t receive a reply. This solves that problem of having a task that relied on another person, and then them forgetting about it – leading you to forget about it. I refuse to accept the possibility of losing tasks and have greatly decreased the odds of missing any emails.

A more efficient method is by using a project management system. The most popular being Asana, Basecamp, and TeamworkPM. Alternatives that I love are Azendoo and Redbooth.

Choose the Right Support Software

If you run a company, whether software or service-based, you will inevitably need to outsource the support depending on how involved you are. It’s important not to skimp out on a good support system which will do everything you need it to do.

I look at branding and integration first. I ask questions like how easy it is to customize the software or integrate it into our website and service. Or simply ask your web developer to log in and check it out for you if you have one. Most importantly, you need to understand its features and what you will need for your business 3 years from now. It may be cheaper to start with the built-in support system, but it’s easier to grow when you have all the right systems in place for your future growth.

Keep in mind, the easier it is for you, the easier it will be for your employees – and likely customers. In terms of my recommendations, consider Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Desk.com.

Invest in Quality Support Staff

Many small and independent business owners shop based on price thinking that every support company is the same. This is a fatal error that can have devastating impacts on customer loyalty with your business. If you want recurring business, you sincerely need to invest in reasonably good staff. This may be common sense, but I’m going to go as far as saying you shouldn’t outsource until you have enough money to pay for good coverage.

The customer experience DEFINES your business, and what’s at the center? The staff who man the phone, the chats, the tickets. I know a company that provides Unlimited Chats / Tickets for only $25/month. This being for a web hosting company is an insane offer. I was commonly getting several thousand tickets a month. Not to mention he advertises “US” based support when in fact I know he hires random freelancers on web forums. The cheaper guy, or the cheaper company, may not always be what’s best for your business. So keep that in mind before you pick simply based on price. It’s much harder to repair your reputation than it is to grow your company.

Final Thoughts

Running a business can drain your willpower with the sheer amount of decisions that need to be made. The methods I proposed above were things I discovered through trial/error and personal experience. By creating a functionally efficient organization, it’s much easier to get set up on the path to success, well in advance of success. The foundation on which you start your business is the most important one of all. This is why that initial dedication is extremely important as only you fully understand your business and what your customers’ needs are.

While by no means is this a conclusive list, I hope I provided some ideas on functional ways you can structure your company and do outsourcing around it.

Have any other ideas? Let me know in the comment section below.