Introduction
Do you need help with getting a lot of things done? Well, in this lesson, we’re learning all about outsourcing for small business training. So that way you can get more productivity, you can have more free time, and you can work on higher value things.
We’re going to learn what it is, why use it? How to use it. We will go over a couple of examples. Then finally, we’ll summarize with our top tips for expanding your team and trying to get a little help so you can do a whole lot more.
Challenges course creators may face if they don’t outsource for training:
- Course creators may not be as productive
- Their business may not progress faster if they don’t outsource
- They may not be able to perform other valuable tasks
- They may not optimally perform tasks they’re not good at
Who Can Use?
Almost any kind of teacher, professional, or coach can utilize outsourcing for training to reduce workload, get specialized skills, and to create more time to do valuable tasks.
Here are some examples of how teachers can use outsourcing for training to help their businesses:
- Improve their online course business by using specialized skills to get a better outcome for a project
- Get more tasks done within a particular time frame
- Make processes faster by create room for other projects and saving time
This can work for a wide range of educational businesses like teaching sketching, metal making, costume design, script writing, juggling, and songwriting.
What Is It?
It’s about getting part-time or full-time paid help, usually remote. These are contractors, not employees. Employees are a whole nother world and it gets a lot more complicated, but these part-time paid remote contractors can help you with a bunch of your tasks. So that’s kind of the beginning of thinking about outsourcing.
Why Use It?
Well, you need help to get stuff done. That’ll help you get time back. You can get expert help that knows different specific things that you only know as a generalist because you’re not able to go deep because that’s not your niche.
So, that way you can focus on really big goals for your training business that only the owner can do. You can basically delegate all these other things to helpers.
Go step by step, you don’t have to outsource a whole team in the beginning. You can start one by one, getting your basic helpers to help you so that you can focus on other things that only you can do.
How-to Guide
Let’s get into how to guide. So first of all, what are the benefits of outsourcing?
Benefits of Outsourcing
Boost productivity and do more
First, you will be able to boost productivity and do more. You’re maxed out. There’s only so much one person can do. You’re going to get somebody else to help you with some of your tasks.
It could be recurring tasks every week or every month or every year, and you’re going to get help so that you and your small mighty team can get more done.
Get More Free Time for Fun / Fam
Secondly, you’re going to get more free time and you could use that for fun activities.
It could also be fun work. Simply creating more family time. So you’re going to get back some free time once you get some help.
It’ll take a little bit to train them, but once you get the procedures going, and once they’re available to cover those tasks, then you know that your time is back. And you could do all sorts of stuff while you’re going to be able to focus on more valuable tasks.
Let’s just say you’re doing 5 or 10 tasks an hour. As the CEO, you’re not going to be able to focus on 25 tasks or 100 an hour tasks. As an example, you might be creating a new product or figuring out how to make your landing page convert more or do coaching, high level coaching that gets paid a premium instead of doing something that you can outsource to other people.
Go Faster with Expertise
You’ll also be able to go faster with expertise. So once you get experts, they can really go deep. As an example, if it’s technical stuff, like the stuff that Artsy Course Experts help with, well, we can go deep on PHP and plugins and servers and HTML and CSS.
Where that might not be your expertise. You need to quickly move on to the next thing. So getting a tech expert can really help you with the same thing. With video I might be able to do some basic video, but if you really need some advanced after effects and graphics and a particular animation scene then you may want to go get an animator or video designer expert and they’re going to do it way faster.
Increase Quality with Experience
They’re going to have more fun and then you can simply provide the high level direction and move on to the next task that only you could do as that business owner. You’re also going to increase the quality. You’re going to get an experience. So if you outsource to whatever that person is, whether it’s a video or graphics, you’re also going to increase the quality with experience.
That’s what these people do, so when you go get a graphic designer. They’re going to really know fonts and colors and all this sort of complementary stuff that you’re not going to know because you just part time it here and there.
As you have so much to do as a business owner. So when you’re getting that writer, you’re getting that graphics designer, you’re getting that video editor, that technical expert, they’re going to have deep experience doing lots of similar projects over the many years.
Create Repeatable Processes
Finally, with outsourcing, once you get some training done and you write down your procedures and everybody knows how you want things done, well, then you’re going to be able to have repeatable processes. So, there’s a little bit of a cost if you will, to set up and train and get alignment and get all the right tools like the Google drive. You’re going to upload the file here. Here is your template.
But once you get those things going, then from there on, your outsource help is able to go a lot faster without you. They’re able to repeat this. By the way, in the future, if that outsource person moves on or you need to get another person at a higher quality higher level.
You already have all your training, your job description, all that stuff and you can keep going for years to come. Without you getting into the weeds of all those different tasks that you shouldn’t be doing as a CEO as you move up and onto bigger strategic things or focus on that special gift that you have as a creative teacher.
How to Start Outsourcing?
So how do you start outsourcing?
Think about Hours and Cost
Well, first of all, you’re going to think about the hours and the cost, how much time do you think is required? How much time are you currently using? What’s your budget? Also thinking about that cost, what can you do later to earn more money because you’re not doing those lower end costly things.
Create a Job Description
Next, you’re going to create a job description. What are the high level duties? What is it called? What is that person called? What are some of the things that are going to help you with? What are some of the requirements and what are some of the tools that they might need?
So, all of this stuff you’re going to document doesn’t have to be very long. It could be a couple of bulleted lists. What are their duties? What do you need help with? The key skills that they need, including tools, and maybe a couple of other bonus things. Bonus point if they speak a certain language bonus, if they’re in this time zone.
Find a Freelancer Website & Post
Then you’re going to find a freelancer website, something like Upwork, but there are many websites, especially some that are very specific to niches. So it could be a virtual assistant. It could be a freelancer website focused on design. So you’re going to find one or two of these websites.
You’re going to find that freelancer website that makes sense for you and it has the kinds of people that you’re looking for. You’re going to upload that job description. You’re going to find that freelancer website that makes sense for you with pricing, flexibility, and the personality you are looking for.
You’re going to go create your profile, set up as an employer there, and then you’re going to post your job.
Interview & Chat with Candidates
You’re going to an interview. You’re going to get a whole bunch of candidates that apply, then start talking to them.
Before the interview, you’re going to chat. Some of them you might get on Zoom so that you can get a feel of the candidates. You’ll get some people that will come on strong, some people that really don’t do exactly what you need, but they’re available.
Others that have a lovely personality, but maybe don’t have the skills. Some that are coming in very premium and they want this very high amount. They want this very high dollar per hour amount. Others that are very affordable, but maybe have raw skills that you’ll have to train. So that’s going to be part of your learning experience.
Hire for Small Test Job, Then Extend
As you begin your outsourcing journey, as you’re going to hire. Eventually you might start off with a small test job instead of just promising them. You might want to start with a small project, like can you fix this page for me? Can you edit this one video?
Can you fix this one thing on my website? Whatever it is, get that one small job. So you can really see how they work. If they deliver, if they communicate well and all that sort of stuff. Again, think about kind of a small test job before you lock in. Over time you’re going to start to develop for each of your roles.
Provide Docs, Training, Feedback
Provide documentation and training. Here’s the procedure. Here’s the template. Here’s our voice guide. Here’s the golden standard. This is the main video that I want to keep doing again and again. And then you’re going to be providing feedback. As you’re learning and working with your new helpers, you’re going to take that feedback and you’re going to put it back into your docs and training and procedures.
So, the next time around, your training goes even faster and better and your quality goes up. Now, you know, some of the benefits of outsourcing. The high level plan to get started with outsourcing.
Examples: Outsourcing for Training Businesses
Let’s go over some examples for outsourcing for training businesses. These could be courses, communities, and coaching. You’re teaching creative stuff writing, design, fashion, A and B, et cetera.
Let’s pick out two different examples and let’s go over a high level job description and some of the benefits that you would get.
Example 1: Online Course Helper
First of all, let’s talk about an online course. So you’re an online course teacher and you need some help. Let’s just say in this case, you need some video editing help.
Job Description:
Some of the things in your job description would be, “hey, I need part time help with video editing”. You would want them to help you edit mistakes, right? Maybe fix your ‘ums and uhs’. Maybe you do a couple of takes on some particular lessons. So you need them to pick out the best takes or to fix the sound or even add overlay graphics to your lessons.
So, as you’re doing your lessons, maybe there are subtitles. Maybe it’s a graphic that shows up on the top right of your video. Those are all these different kinds of things that you would want in your job description.
You would want them to understand some basics. You would want your video editor to understand some video stuff, encoding, formats, mp4. You might not even know what you need. So you might just say, “hey, I need my video editor to create lots of different formats.”
So, just put that in your job description as a high level of what you need. During your interviews or looking at resumes and profiles, you might get smarter and come back and tighten up your job description.
In your job description, you might also say, “Hey, I need you available for Discord chats and Zooms every other week. You’re going to just put that out there and that will help them self select if they’re a good fit for you or if they’re not able to zoom or they’re working during nights and it’s your day so that all these little things in the job description will help you find the right candidate.
Once you do find your video editor helper that’s going to help you save about 10 hours per week on a video lesson. Maybe video editing is not your expertise, or maybe you’re not using the most advanced tools using some very simple video editor. So, it’s going to take you longer.
Think about what you could do if you had 10 hours back on every single video lesson in your online course because you have a video editor that allows you to focus on marketing. Now you can sell more, you can think about affiliate programs. You can think about the hero image and the bonuses that you’re going to add to your online course. You can think about all these bigger things that will help move your business forward because you’re not in the weeds.
They’re editing the video lesson and back and forth. Finally, because you’ve got professional help, the output is going to look better because they’re using advanced tools.
They’re pros. It’s going to look better than maybe you doing something that’s not your expertise. Maybe you’re a dance teacher and video editing is not your jam. So, if you do get that pro video editor, they’re going to just make it look amazing. You could just keep focusing on your dance routines and all that other stuff. So it’s a real win-win.
Example 2: Community Forum Helper
Now let’s look at example two, a community forum helper.
Let’s just say you run a community for singers and you need help in this community. You teach about singing and dancing, getting jobs and different techniques and you have this whole community with these different rooms. But you need a helper because you have too many people in there. You have different kinds of questions.
Sometimes the questions are in the wrong place. Sometimes new people post inappropriate stuff or whatever. So, you need some help with the community forum because you’re spending so much time in your community and then you can’t spend it creating coaching. You can’t focus on your coaching business and other stuff this way.
Job Description:
You write up a job description for some sort of community forum helper, similar to a social media helper, but you want to get specific on what you need. You write stuff like, “I need somebody to monitor my community discussions”. They’re going to enforce rules and policies. So, you write those.
You’re also going to want your community forum helper to encourage relevant chats with prompts. So, maybe every Monday, your community forum says, “Hey, what’s new?”
What are some of the problems that you guys all have? Maybe it’s very specific like “hey, l what are you all working on this summer? What techniques are you working on this summer? You might have a collection of questions that your community forum helper could use in these different rooms. Your helper might also help you with new members who have questions, but these are standard questions that happen all the time.
They’re almost frequently asked questions. You might have a web page with it. You might have a video. You just have to direct them to the right place, but that takes time. You would much rather have a helper do this dozens of times every month.
Now as a community leader, you’re going to get a bunch of benefits by getting help. You might be saving 15 or more hours a week by hiring a helper and that extra time you can earn more money from coaching either one on one or with a group or other things that you can do with that time that you get back.
Maybe your helper is even better at certain things than you are. For example, maybe they have better grammar or maybe their charisma is higher or maybe they’re in the right generation and they use fun emojis with their audience. Maybe you are really an excellent dance teacher, but your grammar isn’t as awesome as the helper that you’re getting.
Business Benefits:
These are some real benefits that you can see in these two examples, you were able to put together a pretty quick job description and get some help that’s going to save you real money. In addition to that, you might be able to generate even more money with that time off and the quality is going to go up.
In order to level up, outsourcing can help you get more work done, better work, and you can even earn more, even though you’re spending a little bit of money.
FAQs about Outsourcing for training
Summary – Outsourcing for training
You’re going to be able to go faster and faster because you’re outsourcing. It’s not too hard to set up once you find one or two freelancer websites. You can then have these job descriptions quickly on board somebody and you could do that a couple of times a year.
Once you get started with outsourcing, you’ll have a couple of freelancer websites that work for you. You’ll have a couple of pre-made job descriptions that you can reuse every year.
That’s it. Suddenly you’re going to start saving time going faster and creating more awesome stuff and creating more awesome stuff for your creative training business.
Tips for creative online course creators when using outsourcing for training:
- Outsourcing can help you be more productive
- Online teacher can use free time for other valuable tasks
- Course creators can have family time
- Your business will progress faster as you outsource
You should be a little more smarter now. Thanks for hanging out!
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