How to Make the Most Out of Outsourcing

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar.

You and your team are underwater, with an urgent project that absolutely has to get done, so you make the tough decision to bring on a freelancer to help out with the workload. A few weeks later, after hours of email back-and-forth and endless hand-holding, the freelancer sends the project back — and it’s totally unusable.

Or maybe, instead of the project, you’re greeted by yet another email explaining that “something” has come up, and asking for yet another extension on the deadline.

Or maybe you don’t get anything.

Maybe the freelancer completely disappears on you with no explanation whatsoever.

If you’ve ever worked with freelancers, chances are you have at least a handful of stories about times when outsourcing has gone horribly wrong.

Hiring an outsourced employee is a huge gamble. You close your eyes, point your finger and, depending on how lucky you are, you either hit the jackpot — or you’re out a couple hundred dollars with nothing to show for it.

This is why “outsourcing,” in the traditional sense of the term, is almost never the best route. If possible, it’s better to find a trusted, proven partner, like an interim CMO, who can not only provide the added bandwidth you need, but bring an extra layer of expertise, experience, and infrastructure that most individual outsourced employees simply can’t bring to the table.

That said, budgetary restrictions and time crunches happen. Sometimes, outsourcing really is your only option to get what you need, when you need it. For those cases, here are some tips to make your outsourcing experience as smooth and as positive as possible.

Have detailed information ready ahead of time. One of the hardest things about outsourcing a project is that there’s only so much you can control. That’s why it’s essential to control the things you can. Before you reach out, plan as much as possible. Try to anticipate and answer any questions about the work in advance. The more information you can give the freelancer up front, the more friction you can take out of the process, and the easier it will be for both of you to start strong.

Originally published at medium.com on January 22, 2018.

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