Outsourcing The Right Way, For Success In Your Creative Business
If you’re like me, your creative business is both your child and your significant other. You’ve built it yourself, and you’ve spent more time with it than most other people. That passion and deep personal connection to their work is characteristic of creative entrepreneurs. It’s admirable, but can often get in the way of getting help when you most need it. There’s a better way than working yourself exhausted: outsourcing.
Outsourcing doesn’t have to be scary. In fact, developing processes for outsourcing can make your whole system flow so much smoother and help you grow your business when done right. These tips will simplify outsourcing in your creative business.
Start by mapping out your processes.
Before you even hire service providers, sit down and write out how each task in your business is done step by step. Write down everything from your daily workflow, to your marketing and sales processes. How do you plan social media? What platforms do you use to manage clients? If you’re a visual person (like most creatives), try mapping it all into flow charts.
Now that you have everything written down, make everything as simple as possible. Aim to make it so clear that a child could understand it. The idea is that no matter what happens in your life, someone could come in and navigate each task without an issue. These detailed, clear workflows are the foundation for outsourcing in your business.
Record tutorials for systems you’re outsourcing.
The next step is to translate your processes into tutorials for the people with whom you outsource. Short Loom tutorials are easy to record, and accessible ways to walk people through your processes. Even if a task seems simple, don’t take it for granted that people will know how to do it. You can take this to the next level by embedding your Loom tutorials in Notion or Clickup boards with checklists.
Doing video tutorials has several perks. If the person with whom you’re outsourcing has questions, they can refer to the video instead of emailing you constantly. The point of this is to take work off your plate, not add more emails to your inbox. Having video tutorials also makes it easier for the service provider to hand off the tasks to a colleague if they’re unable to complete it. Things keep running smoothly, and disruptions to your business remain minimal.
Streamline processes with automation.
Nothing makes outsourcing more efficient than having everything and everyone in one place digitally. You can set up automations with Airtable. Again, this saves you from constant email follow ups so fewer things fall between the cracks. It requires a little more work upfront but will save you time and energy in the long run.
Airtable has so many helpful features. This platform allows you to build custom workflows that you can trigger for different team members. You can insert links to Google Drive for easy file access and retrieval. Once a task is done, it’s uploaded to Airtable or Excel, and the next person can pick up their task seamlessly.
Outsourcing can take a lot of stress out of your creative business, and it can let you get back to the things that you need to do, like create for your clients or sell your services or product. In the end, it can make your business more profitable.
Want more information on outsourcing? Listen to my podcast episode “This ONE Change Made Me $100K Last Year,” where I share my outsourcing mistakes and the outsourcing wins that doubled my income in one year.
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