Magma Music

Outsourcing

May 1st, 2009

Outsourcing has been a bit of a four-letter-word with how the US economy is doing, but it mostly relates to offshore outsourcing.

What I’m talking about is delegating repetitive tasks to others, preferably others who will do it free or cheap.  I’ve tried hiring interns in the past, but I didn’t have the volume of work to make it a regular gig for them.  I’ve used the site Elance.com for finding web development projects, but I was tipped off after reading the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss to the breadth of outsourcers available on Elance.

I decided to give it a shot with some press kit mailings.  I posted a project on Elance for someone to print press kits, package them with a CD, print labels, customize cover letters, and take it to the post office to ship.  I immediately received over 10 bids on my project and I quickly picked one.  It was a woman who has 3 kids and works from home on many projects of this type.  Her rate was very reasonable and she was excited to work on the project.

I sent her a box of CDs, using the cheapest shipping possible.  I wrote out all the instructions in an email and I gave her permission in Google Docs to view a spreadsheet that I keep contacts in.  She completed the entire job within a couple days and about 50 packages were on their way to their destination.  Before shipping, the cost was about $50.  So $1 per package.  At higher volumes, it would’ve likely been cheaper per package.

Being able to hand this task off and simply send a few emails was a HUGE weight lifted.  And now I have a trusted contact and I can go back to her with future projects.

Check it out: http://www.elance.com

I’m hoping to outsource more tasks in the future, if it’s not cost prohibitive and it can free me up to attend to more creative pursuits.

Entry Filed under: Techniques