Why Most People Are Afraid To Use An Outside Source

Let’s face it, it’s arguably a better choice to outsource any and all of your work that can be supplied by other means. There are a great number of businesses in the world that simply distribute other people’s work. You’ve heard about OPM, right? You know, Other People’s Money! Well how about OPW? Other People’s Work!

One of the smartest things I did in my business was to hire people smarter than me. (Okay, those that know me well are thinking, gee that wasn’t hard to do)! Seriously, one of the best ways to grow your business is to find others who possess the skills and/or talent that fill our weak spot (or void).

Most of us are good about hiring people to doing the things we don’t want to do. You know, maintenance, cleaning, trash, menial labor type jobs. We even look to certified public accountants (CPA) to handle our books at certain times of the year. However, many times when it comes to our main source of revenue (our business) we tend to keep matters close to the vest.

Don’t get me wrong, we need to protect our lively hood and should police our endeavors well. Many times I’ve found it necessary to have certain potential “work for hire” individuals, sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Believe me, this is simply a good business practice! It protects you and your prospect from possible trade secret leaks. In many cases signing an NDA prevents private information from getting out in the first place.

It’s been my experience that most people have the false impression (a hallucination process) in which they believe it will “cost too much” to outsource it or “I’ll save money” by doing it myself (showing they may not value their time). When in fact it would “cost less” and “save money”, plus give more time to place towards other needs. In twenty years of creating and reproducing logos for the trade, there have been countless times I hear excuses for not outsourcing. Invariably it seems to always center on time and money!

It’s interesting to know some people would rather spend three, four or five hours scanning, digitizing and cleaning up their artwork as opposed to instantly emailing or faxing their need to an outside source. Blow’s me away! Why spend an entire afternoon or evening doing something you could spend three minutes of your time and $35 of your budget to get completed? Surely three to five hours of your time is worth more than $35!! I know some people just enjoy the process of creating whatever they’re creating. However, did you start a business to make money? You’ve heard it before “Treat it like a hobby, get paid like a hobby. Treat it like a business, get paid like a business!”

I encourage you to consider using third party suppliers to fulfill your needs. You may be surprised at how easy matters can be facilitated for you. Freeing you from always having to do everything yourself. It’s been reported that 70% of the senior citizen’s that have retired have agreed upon one thing. That one thing is this, if they had it all over to do again, the one thing would they do different is … take more risks!