I got this question from my blog on which is better: hiring employees from a service like Brickworks or hiring a full time employee?
Is one actually better than the other? Not really. Which type of outsourcing would work best for your business? The answer to that would depend on 2 things. First, what type of tasks do you intend to outsource? Second, what are your plans for your business in the future.
When To Outsource To Contractors
This type of outsourcing was recommended by Tim Ferris, writer of the “4 Hour Work Week”. He talks about how hiring workers from a service or hiring contracts is ideal because you won’t have a single point of failure. Because out outsource different tasks to different contractors, if one contractor fails, your entire business isn’t affected.
Another great thing about outsourcing to contractors is that there’s always somebody who’ll do the work that you gave them to do. If the person who usually does it gets sick or can’t work for some reason, there’s always somebody who’ll replace that person so basically the work doesn’t stop.
Outsourcing to contractors is also ideal if you’re the type of entrepreneur who wants to micromanage everything and do most of the work yourself. That’s because you can only assign simple, specific, repetitive tasks when you outsource to contractors.
Contractors can only be given be given simple, specific tasks because you have no idea who’s going to be doing that job for you that day. Contractors assign tasks to anyone who is available so the guy who did your task yesterday may not be the same guy who’s going to do that work today.
Because of this, contractors then have no idea how their work would affect your business. You’ll have to make sure you’re getting what you want by always checking the quality of their work or making some changes in their output. Let’s say you asked a contractor to regularly submit to you articles about a certain topic. They’ll deliver these articles consistently but the quality won’t be. You’ll always have to check their work, to make sure it it’s what you wanted and if it fits the image of your business.
When To Outsource To Full Time Employees
Like Tim Ferris, I was able to build a business that bothers me the least thanks to outsourcing. But, I do things a little differently when it comes to outsourcing because I eventually want my employees to run my business for me. That’s why for my purpose, I prefer hiring full time employees over outsourcing to contractors.
When you hire employees, you become an employer and with that comes certain problems. The most obvious of which is sometimes my people can get sick and there will be days that not a lot of work gets done. But what I like about having a full time staff is that I get to take advantage of a group’s growing skill set.
They have this growing skill set because I train them to do different things. This way, I can eventually let go of the reins and let them run my business for me. After that, I can just sit back, relax, and check in on them every once in a while.
So how do I get around that “single point of failure’? I look for employees that can do one thing really well. I work with them and train them until they master that skill. Once they master that skill, I train them to do other tasks that are related to what they already know to do. I continue to train them, adding to their skills until they have enough skills to run my business works. Eventually, they’ll know enough to do in on their own. They know what needs to be done and when to do it. They only need to consult with me every once in a while if they encounter problems that need my input.
You can use one or both types of outsourcing, whatever suits your business. You could try outsourcing to contractors in the beginning as you’re starting your business and get a full time staff once you’ve established your business. You an choose to hire a contractor for easy, simple tasks while getting a full time employee for more complicated tasks.
Before you decide on what type of outsourcing that you plan to use for your business, make sure that you know exactly how much of your business you want to outsource and you have to have ways of keeping track of your contractors, employees, and their work.