How to Outsource Client Work in 3 Steps
Client work comes in waves. Sometimes you can’t seem to catch a new client even if your life depended on it, while at other times, you have so many new projects lined up that it seems impossible to complete all of them on time.
This is where outsourcing can help. In this post, we’re going to go over the benefits of outsourcing client work and then show you how to do it in three easy steps.
Benefits of Outsourcing Client Work
While you might be looking to outsource client work for a number of different reasons, most agencies experience the following benefits from outsourcing:
Improved turnaround time
Outsourcing client work can help you deal with the feast-or-famine nature of the agency business. Instead of needing to hire more people when things get busy (or worse, having to fire someone when there’s no work to be done), you can simply outsource the work to a freelancer.
This will help you improve the turnaround time for your services and ensure you meet deadlines consistently.
A faster turnaround time, in turn, will increase client satisfaction and improve your client retention rate.
Reduced overhead costs
By outsourcing some or all of your client work, you decrease the number of full-time employees you need to run your agency. This means less money spent on salaries, benefits, and other costs associated with employing full-time workers.
Reduced overhead costs, apart from being a benefit in and of themselves, will also allow you to improve your profit margins while offering more competitive pricing at the same time.
Expanded service offering
As great as your team is, they can’t be good at everything. Outsourcing work will allow you to expand your service offering by enabling you to offer services your internal team doesn’t have the expertise for.
By expanding your service offering, you’ll be able to attract more clients. If you bundle these new services into your existing packages, you’ll provide more value to your clients, and, as a result, get the opportunity to charge more.
Better quality service
Outsourcing client work means you’ll be able to offer more different types of services, have them provided by specialized experts, and improve your turnaround time. All of this will result in you offering better quality service to your clients.
Offering better quality service, in turn, means that you’ll be able to charge higher rates and retain clients for longer. You’ll also have an easier time getting new clients thanks to your improved reputation.
How to Outsource Client Work
Sold on outsourcing? You should be. Keep on reading to learn how you can start outsourcing client work.
1. Determine your needs
The first step to outsourcing client work is to determine your needs. Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you looking to outsource work temporarily, or will you need outsourced help on an ongoing basis? This will help you choose between different freelancers and allow you to potentially negotiate better rates.
- Do you want to outsource the entire project or certain parts of it? The answer to this question will determine what kind of skills and expertise you should look for in a contractor or freelancer.
2. Find the right freelancer
There are millions of freelancers out there. How do you find the one that’s the best fit for your needs? Look for these things:
- Project-relevant skills and experience – You’ll want to make sure that the freelancer you hire has skills and experience that are relevant to the project you’re looking to outsource. They should have completed a few similar projects successfully in the past.
- Communication skills – Since you’ll likely be collaborating with the freelancer remotely, it’s imperative that they have excellent communication skills. This will help the project go smoothly and ensure both you and the freelancer are on the same page when it comes to project requirements.
- Responsiveness – The freelancer you decide to work with should also reply to your messages within a reasonable timeframe. You don’t want to outsource a project to someone who’ll go days without replying to your email.
3. Use the right software to manage your freelancer
Uncertainty is one of the main reasons why agencies refrain from outsourcing projects. When you outsource work to a freelancer, you have no idea what they’re doing at any given moment and how they’re approaching your project.
If they’re charging you by the hour, you also have no way of knowing how many hours they’re actually spending on your project.
This is where tools like Hubstaff and Hubstaff Tasks can help. You can use Hubstaff to track the time a freelancer spends on your project and pay them through the software directly. App and URL tracking, as well as optional screenshots, will help you see what the freelancer did during the hours they billed you for.
Hubstaff Tasks, on the other hand, helps you manage all the work you outsource to a freelancer. You can create tasks and projects, assign them to freelancers, and track progress easily. Task checklists, comments, mentions, and daily stand-ups ensure everyone stays on the same page when it comes to task and project status.
Don’t Wait — Start Outsourcing Client Work Today
Outsourcing client work will help you improve turnaround times, reduce overhead costs, expand your service offering, and allow you to offer better quality service.
With all of these benefits, there’s really no excuse not to outsource at least some of the work you do for your clients. Start by outsourcing a small project and see how it goes. Make sure to leave in enough of a time buffer to account for your new freelancer potentially being late with project delivery.
