|
Chapter 14
)
We contracted with an outside printer to make our first run of maps,
and it was the best decision we have ever made. Our business would
literally not exist if we had tried to print the maps on our own. As
demand has increased, our printers have been able to provide us with
additional inventory. We never would have been able to print large
quantities of posters while maintaining our full-time jobs and tending
to a growing business. We are also happy that our business can support
the work of other artisans. —Jen Adrion and Omar Noory (read more
about Jen and Omar in
Chapter 6
)
These quotes are representative of others who have all said similar
things: Outsourcing increases freedom and allows a business to scale
without the owners doing everything themselves.
CASE 2: ANTI-OUTSOURCING
The camp opposed to outsourcing can be represented with the following
statements from business owners who believed that expansion would be
difficult, undesirable, or otherwise limiting of the freedom they had
achieved through the business:
I’m at the point where I need to find a way to grow my ability to
respond to customer demand, but I struggle with concerns over
reputation to the extent that I turn over bookings to employees or
contractors. I’ve been offered partnerships, but I turn them down
because either I have concerns over the quality of the partner or
because the partner wants a referral commission. I could easily raise
my price and provide the commission, but I know I wouldn’t be happy
working for less. And thus I haven’t grown further, though I’m
comfortable with that for now. —Gary Leff ( read more about Gary in
Chapter 3
)
I actually prefer not to work with contractors, employees, or assistants.
My business succeeds on the fact that it is intentionally small. I can fit
my whole business into a backpack and take it wherever I go—no
office, no stationery, no administrative staff. Keeping my overhead to
zero has lowered the risks and kept profits high. —Adam Westbrook
( Adam operates a design services business from the United Kingdom)
I’m big on keeping the company lean and mean. I’m the only
employee, and I work out of my home. We used to own a retail
business where paying rent, insurance, and twelve employees came
ahead of our own paychecks. Those days are over. Simply put, I don’t
like getting paid last. —Jaden Hair ( read more about Jaden in
Chapter
2
)
My experiences with outsourcing work to remote contractors left me
spending nearly as much time managing the work as it would to
actually do it myself. I’ve yet to find a nice balance of being able to
hire someone to work on a project and making a reasonable profit
without spending too much time on it myself. —Andy Dunn ( read
more about Andy in
Chapter 11
)
My motto: Never have a boss and never be a boss. Since age twenty-
two, this has been my situation. I have an accountant, because number
crunching is my biggest weakness. Otherwise, I am a company of one.
I can always vouch for my own work, and my integrity means the
world to me. —Brandy Agerbeck ( read more about Brandy in
Chapter
7
)
As with the pro-outsourcing camp, these quotes are representative of
many others. Lee Williams-Demming mentioned that her importing
business formerly had five employees and hundreds of overseas suppliers. It
now has only one employee and a smaller supplier network. “Trust me,” she
wrote in an email, “we’re better off in every way with a much smaller
team.”
Although I know it’s not the best fit for everyone, I tend to fall into the anti-
outsourcing camp in my own business. Instead of sending out projects to
everywhere, I’ve chosen to keep a very small team and do only limited
contracting with outsiders. The first argument for outsourcing is that it
allows you as a business owner to “do more of what you love” while
assigning unwanted tasks to someone else. But outsourcing can create
greater problems, and you can construct your business in a way in which
few of these tasks are actually needed in the first place.
More than once, I’ve heard from colleagues who say they have a fantastic
virtual assistant they’d be happy to recommend to me. Then, weeks or
months later, I hear they’re looking for a new one. “What happened to so-
and-so?” I ask. “Well, they were great … at first. But then the process broke
down, balls were dropped, and we had to part ways.”
This is a recurring story, told many ways but with the same end result.
There are certainly exceptions, but many capable people who work as
virtual assistants often end up deciding they’d rather be running their own
show. If you have to spend your time correcting problems caused by the
team created to support you, the team hasn’t really improved your life.
Meanwhile, it’s clear that others have definitely benefited from harnessing
the “get other people to do your stuff” wave.
With such divergent opinions, how do you know which path to follow?
Thankfully, it’s not that complicated. The answer to the question of whether
outsourcing is a good fit depends on two things: (1) the specific business
and (2) the personality of the business owner.
Many of the problems people experience with outsourcing (on both
sides) can be avoided by having a clear understanding of the responsibilities
that a contractor or assistant will have. In a business that relies on a series
of relatively mindless, repetitive tasks, for example, outsourcing may be a
good option. A business that relies on customer relationships, however, may
not be a good fit.
Your own personality also matters, because if you’re building a freedom
business, you want to find the best possible solution to match your vision of
freedom. For some people, that involves traveling the world on a low-
overhead operation, with the money from the business primarily going to
support the owner. Other people want to stay in one place and build a team,
creating a business that will outlast themselves. In the end, the best answer
to the outsourcing question is the same as many others: Do what makes
sense for you, not for someone else.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: | 
