ZUL’S SPACE

When your freelance business is growing, it will probably be inevitable that some day you have to find that ‘extra hands’ to help you out with your work. This is especially true when you are chasing the deadlines.

Some of you might say that you should not do that as the work needs to come from your own self.

How wrong. Off course you can outsource some of your work provided you establish strict quality guidelines for the work produced by that someone else. Also, you can do so as long as you understand that you will take full responsibility for the end result. You cannot simply say to your client,

“I know you are not quite happy with the translation part, but that is not my work. I actually asked somebody else to do it as I was running out of time.”

You say that, and you can forget about repeat orders.

Also, in the process of outsourcing some of your work, you need to know exactly how well the person can do your work. Often, freelance work and freelance outsourcing involve a great deal of trust. If no trust is formed than you should never ask someone to do the job for you.

Where do you find the extra help?

First, find someone who you have known for a long time. It is even better if that someone is from your local area i.e. a person that you can meet up easily. If that someone is from the cyberspace, track the person’s performance track record. For example, many freelance websites provide rating for the freelancers’ past performance, comments and testimonials. Choose those who possess proven record.

Another piece of advice is that, only outsource those work which is not your strongest point while you focus your time doing the work within your core expertise. For example, if your main skill is English writing but the job requires you making some research, then you can outsource the research work and focus your job on the write-up.