2020 Blog Post Covers

9 Tasks Consultants Can Outsource and Delegate

Statistics show that 57% of businesses use outsourcing in order to focus on their core business, while 47% use it to solve capacity issues. This is especially important for small companies and solopreneurs, who often lack the space and resources to hire more permanent employees. Cost-cutting is the number one reason why 87% of businesses outsource part of their operations.

Whether you’re just getting into consulting or you’re a seasoned veteran in the industry, time is of the essence. Your CEO hours should prioritize CEO-level work. Growing a successful business requires building a team. When you can’t hire a full-time, onsite team, don’t be afraid to share some of the load by outsourcing, which will give you more room to think and work on the big picture of your business. Spend more time with paying clients and start outsourcing these small tasks.

1. Social media management

Roughly 45% of the world’s population use social media, with an average of 2 hours and 23 minutes spent per day on various social media sites. Social media is a necessity in today’s marketing world, and consistent posting can build brand awareness or drive traffic to your website – though creating good content can take up a lot of valuable time. By outsourcing your social media management, you stay on top of your online presence. A social media manager can share blog posts, exclusive offers, and other content via social media in just a few hours per week.

Your social media manager can take the following things off your hands:

  • Content Creation
  • Content Scheduling
  • Page Interaction
  • Engagement/Interaction on Social Media

2. Menial in-person tasks/administrative tasks

Hiring an administrative assistant can take care of small and time-consuming but crucial tasks like invoicing, scanning, filing, and scheduling, and so help prevent these things from falling through the cracks. This will free up your time so that you can focus on strategic leadership and high-stakes work.

Your admin can work on the following:

  • Scheduling, booking appointments, and arranging meetings
  • Setting up and organizing your software and technology programs, like Google Suite, Quickbooks, Last Pass or Calendly
  • Planning events
  • Maintaining databases and creating paper/electronic filing systems to keep accurate records

3. Content marketing

 Content marketing consultants are writers who work with the kinds of content that will get eyes on your products and services, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, social media posts, and more.  Effective content marketing will increase your web traffic, generate more newsletter signups, bring people into your store, and achieve many similar goals that drive your business’s  growth.

Outsourcing your content marketing means that you have quality content being produced regularly. It’s worth outsourcing because it’s time consuming,  it won’t work without consistency, and it requires careful, strategic messaging. It’s also worth noting that both you and your content marketing consultant must thoroughly understand your ideal customer and brand in order to do this work effectively.

When these elements are clear to you both, then your content marketing consultant can do the following for you:

  • Write/edit your email newsletters, promotional emails, and automated email series
  • Write/edit your daily social media posts
  • Write/edit the content for your ebooks and webinar presentations
  • Write/edit your blog posts

4. Graphic and document design

If you’re a micro-business or solopreneur, then having a full-time graphic designer on staff is probably not possible. However, you  can outsource this kind of work on a project-by-project basis, which will help you save costs while also giving your business the look it deserves.  Bringing in an outside designer can breathe new life and bring new eyes into your project. Not only can they monitor and ensure that your visual brand is consistent, professional and accurately presented, but they can also create visuals that attract your ideal customer.

Your graphic designer can do the following for you:

  • Create or beautify social media posts and infographics
  • Manage design for proposals, presentations, newsletters, and more
  • Create custom graphics for your website or documents
  • Design packaging and labeling
  • Develop giveaway and promotional items (shirts, pens, other paraphernalia)

5. Recruitment and Onboarding

Most business owners agree that their employees are their most valuable assets. As such, managing human resources has become a critical role in managing a business, although the various functions of a full  HR department may be too complex to maintain in-house for some small businesses. HR can be beneficial to consultants that have a growing team.

Here are a few HR tasks that can be outsourced:

  • Managing payroll
  • Providing benefits administration
  • Coaching
  • Creating/updating employee handbooks and policy manuals
  • Developing and implementing a compensation program
  • Writing and updating affirmative action plans

6. Accounting services 

It takes a special person to love bookkeeping and 99% of the time, that person is not you. Do you spend countless hours trying to make sense of your spreadsheets and receipts, or just avoid it altogether? Are financial errors costing you extra money? Can you admit that number crunching is your weakness? Are you worried about leaving money on the table? Are you uncertain what qualifies as a business expense?

If you need help with your numbers, try outsourcing these accounting tasks:

  • Accounting system installations and upgrades
  • Establishment of preferred banking, legal, payroll, benefits, and HR relationships
  • Paperless online bill payment and bookkeeping
  • Financial reporting and advice for management and investors
  • Financial statement audit management
  • Sales and use tax compliance

7. Legal services 

You don’t have to run it all and know it all. Outsourcing legal services is a great way to make sure that you’re crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s.  This can also help your business to protect itself legally and to make sure you aren’t missing any fine print in contracts that you enter.

Here are a few services you can outsource:

  • Contract templates
  • NDA templates
  • Copyright and trademark support
  • Document drafting by lawyers
  • Legal research
  • IP legal work, substantive or administrative
  • Review of discovery documents
  • Paralegal services

8. Membership or community management

Do you have a membership program or an online community? Overseeing these groups can be a whole job in and of itself. Outsourcing the management of these groups will take a large weight off your shoulders, if you can find the right person to make sure your customers are satisfied and well taken care of.

Here are a few membership tasks that can be outsourced:

  • Social Strategy
  • Content Programming/Conversation Calendar
  • Engagement
  • Monitoring, Reporting, and Business Insights
  • 24/7 Moderation, Escalation, and Crisis Management

9. Lead generation and client check-ins

Use a freelancing platform such as Upwork to hire a salesperson or virtual assistant. A salesperson can help you acquire a great list of leads that you can reach out to, while a virtual assistant can spend even an hour a week just to reach out to your current clients. While you can and should automate these tasks via your email system, an actual person can provide a more personalized and intimate experience. (Note: This is much more manageable if your clientele is smaller!) Write a sample letter and let your admin or sales person send it out to clients and leads.

Here are a few types of correspondence that can be outsourced:

  • Initial introduction to prospects
  • Free session offer to prospects
  • Client satisfaction check-in
  • Holiday or birthday greetings to current clients
  • Client testimonial or referral request