Rule #1 NEVER OUTSOURCE A PROBLEM
This article discusses what I consider to be the most important rule for entrepreneurs and small business to successfully use outsourcers or freelance labour. It is part of a series of articles I will publish over the next few weeks outline what I think the key guidelines are for outsourcing success.
My first rule of outsourcing is never, ever, ever, ever, outsource a problem! It’s the number one rule because it’s by far the easiest and most dangerous one to break. Early on I broke this rule repeatedly, without even realising what I was doing wrong. I kept thinking that I just couldn’t find good people, or that foreign providers just weren’t skilled enough. But the problem wasn’t (always) a lack of their skill; it was often my application of that skill. My expectations were in some ways too high and I was asking them to perform above/beyond their capability. I’ll explain what I mean.
Traps for new punters…
The first few times you engage someone to do specialist work for you, it’s easy to fall into the trap of giving them too much responsibility. It feels nice to ‘hand over the reigns’, and we’re conditioned to doing this. For example, if you take your car to a mechanic and you tell them that it needs a service; you’re trusting the expert to take care of the details. Here you’ve just outsourced a problem, that is, your car is worn and needs maintenance. You don’t know what maintenance and you don’t care! It’s up to the mechanic and you trust him to work out the details.
This mentality will lead you to disaster if applied to a foreign provider. In the mechanic example, if you were to outsource this properly you would need to say “change the oil, change the plugs, change the air filter, check the break pads for wear and tell me how worn they are…” etc. You are actively limiting the freelancer’s discretion, which forces you to consider your problem and work out a solution.
A practical example…
You have to be really careful that you’re limiting their decision making to a defined task. For a more relevant example; lets imagine you want to hire a freelance designer to do a logo. Who’s job is it to decide what the logo should look like?
Yep, that’s right, YOUR JOB!
You should already have a pretty good idea of what you want. Their job is just to draw it- to express your requirements. Now if you’re planning on using the argument ‘but that’s what I hired them for!’ consider this:
- they’re in a different country
- they have different cultural sensitivities
- they know little to nothing about you, your business, or your customers.
If you don’t know what you want, what chance does your freelancer have?
Does that mean you shouldn’t hire someone?
If you’re not sure what you want, ideally you should look around and work it out before you hire someone. Leaving it up to them is outsourcing a problem! But this is not always practical. If you really want someone come up with ideas or conduct planning, you can hire them to do just that.
Step into the shoes of the freelancer…
Imagine you’re a graphic designer for a moment, and that I told you to draw me a logo. I tell you my company name is ABC and I sell pigeons, and I’m going to pay you a flat $70.
Where do you start? It could be anything? I’d bet that you probably draw something with a pigeon in it :). That’s the most obvious thing to do. You’d probably look around for some stock images, and you’d keep things pretty generic. You’d have no idea what I expect from you.
So a week later you present the logo to me. To your surprise I tell you it’s not what I want, and flat out reject your pigeon picture. At this point I’m upset because I think you’ve done a poor job, and you’re upset because I’ve all of a sudden invented new requirements. After all, if I didn’t want a pigeon in it, shouldn’t I have told you before you drew it?
Even for ‘ideas’ you still need to provide a frame of reference…
If you aren’t sure of the specifics, break up the work, or use low cost concepts to help you develop your idea.
In the case of the logo, you might only have a vague idea of what you want. For example “it should have the company name ABC, the colours blue, yellow, green, feel ‘happy’, and a rat with wings chasing a ball”. The designer will now have a fair idea of my expectations. Any logos presented to must have those colours, and a winged rat chasing a ball. This loose frame of reference makes it easier for them to understand what you want.
The above description would probably only be suitable for a first stage concept, and then you’d have to refine it further. However, from this base you could start providing specific instructions about what you want changed and how.
Another way to express your ideas whilst is to use existing examples such as a website or logo that you like. You can tell your freelancer to ‘make it like x, but change it in these ways…’. Very specific instructions can be given, even though you haven’t developed your idea. Just make sure you don’t violate somebody’s trademark!
You get only what you asked for
As a side note, be prepared to adjust your expectations based on your request. It is rare for a freelancer to go above and beyond your requirements. In my experience, you nearly always get the most basic interpretation of your request. It pays to be specific (this challenge will be covered in detail in future posts). If you ask for a basic concept or model, that’s exactly what you’ll get. Don’t expect a high quality, polished output. There will almost certainly be more work required to develop a finished product.
Planning and brain juice solves problems
To avoid outsourcing a problem you, need to do your planning upfront, and clearly define your SOLUTION. Your solution for our purposes, is the very specific task(s) you want your freelancer to do to fix your problem. Easy 
Ok… I admit it can be hard work dealing with so many unknowns. But it’s your job to think about how it will all fit together before it even exists! Don’t give in to the temptation of leaving it to the ‘expert’. As discussed, you can outsource some aspects of your planning, but it is a difficult thing to do. No one knows you, your business, or your customers as well as you do.
‘But I’m not a details kinda guy/girl’
If you’re not a ‘details’ person, I’d suggest that you consider hiring a local full service provider. They are more able to ‘fill in the blanks’. They’ll cost more, but if you’re not prepared (or don’t have time) to develop a detailed understanding of what you want, a local firm will likely provide you with a better result. Save yourself the money and the aggravation
To wrap up…
When we hire freelancer, we do it to get access to a particular set of skills. We do not hire them to make our business decisions. They’re just there to perform a specified activity, and their independent decision making should not extend beyond the technical aspects of that. As you can see, the idea is to limit the outsourcer’s discretion- you are determining the solution to your problem. If you can master this discipline, then you will have unlocked a very cost effective and large labour force that will give you a competitive edge!