Outsourcing is one of the essential elements to lasting online business success. It’s also the only way your business can grow. Let’s face it; you can’t be the person who does everything if you want to grow your business. You’re only one person and living a balanced life is essential for ongoing happiness and success. Contractors make lives easier.

So Why Make Their Lives Easier? What’s the Payoff?

When you take these simple steps to make your contractor’s life easier, they’re more productive. It’ll take them less time to complete your projects. That saves you money. They’ll also be able to generate the results you want the first time. Imagine how much time and energy you’d save if your contractor was able to complete the task 100% correctly each and every time? So, by making your contractors lives easier, you’re saving money and time.

Step #1 Create SOPs – Standard Operating Procedures

An SOP is a step by step blueprint for how a task is to be accomplished. Now, not all contractors will benefit from this step.

For example, if you’re outsourcing your content writing then you’re not going to tell your writer how they’re going to write your content. You will tell them what you need the content to accomplish and we’ll take a look at how to do that in the next step.

For now, focus on creating SOPs for any task that you can. Some tasks that are SOP friendly include:

Customer service

Answering email

Invoicing

Article marketing

Blog post scheduling

Step #2 Creating Samples and Templates

The next step you can take to make your contractors’ lives easier is to show them what you want. Let’s head back to that content writer example. If you outsource your content then be sure to tell your writer:

What you need the content to accomplish

Who they’re writing to – audience

And how you want the content to sound – for example, should it be authoritative, friendly, or humorous?

One easy way to accomplish this is to provide samples of your own writing or writing styles that you would like them to emulate.

Templates are an effective tool if your contractor is going to be repeating a task. For example, if they’re answering email messages for you or invoicing then invoice and email response templates make the task a simple cut and paste. They save time, you save money.

Finally, make sure to give your contractors feedback. Let them know what’s working, what they’re doing well, and what you may want to change. Feedback is the surest way to keep the lines of communication open and your relationship positive and productive.