With a growing business comes greater responsibilities. One strategy for business owners to handle more responsibilities is to outsource some of their business activities. As long as you don’t drift away from your core competency, businesses can outsource any business activities. While cost saving is one of the top reasons to outsource, outsourcing can be done for any reason.

Some of the largest companies in the world like Facebook and Google outsource many of their business activities. These companies are very profitable and have been taking advantage of outsourcing for many years. However, this is only possible if outsourcing is done properly. Many business owners have negative or frustrating experiences with outsourcing because they could not do it properly. To save you from ruining your business and help you do it the right way, we have brought a checklist that you can refer to while outsourcing. 

Outsourcing Checklist

1. Create a Detailed Project or Contract Requirement

Create a concise paper that thoroughly outlines your project and all of its components. You can evaluate, prioritize, and shortlist outsourcing providers with the aid of this document. A clear project requirements document will make it easier for you and the outsourcing agencies to understand how things will function when they work with you. It provides the outsourcing agencies with accurate information about the project and your requirements. It helps these service providers when they propose deadlines and costs.

Some important components of this document are:

1. Background and overview

2. Goals and objectives of the project

3. Target market and audience

4. Product/service description, etc.

2. Choose the Right Outsourcing Agency

For business owners and entrepreneurs, selecting the ideal outsourcing agency can be tricky and difficult. Before making a choice, consider what you want from the outsourcing firm. Here are some crucial criteria you should consider while shortlisting agencies:

1. Technology expertise and industry experience

2. Strengths and weaknesses of the agency

3. Familiarity or ability to use the latest tools and technologies

4. Competency and experience of team members of the company

5. Success and failure rates with other companies

6. Confidentiality and security procedures, etc.

3. Define Standards for Design and Content 

The success of your business is greatly influenced by design, content, and aesthetics. Thus, having consistent design standards becomes necessary. It helps create effective images but also keeps your internal team and the outsourced staff on the same page. So, all of the design guidelines should be included in your design documents in a clear and detailed manner. 

To be more detailed about your needs, you can give some examples. You could also include some examples of finished work in addition to this. Detailed notes would help this much more. You might also mention some of the websites your team frequents for ideas.

Similarly, the writing guidelines ought to be included in the writing guidelines. Detailed documentation keeps internal and outsourced teams on the same page, whether you want the authors to write in a conversational or official tone or to transmit the structure for creating blog pieces.

This paperwork, which discusses the voice and tone of the material, will aid businesses in producing content that is consistent across all platforms. Businesses can also offer brief instructions on how to write different types of content. For instance, email newsletters for onboarding new users can have a conversational tone, whereas emails for product updates might be more official.

4. Create a Task (Progress) Tracking Document

Include all of the tasks assigned to everyone in a document, along with their due dates. Request that your internal team keeps an eye on this document. This will make it easier for you to monitor the status of the task and its outputs from the outsourcing employees. You can even use various tools like Trello, Jira, Basecamp, Microsoft PLanner, etc. to manage the tracking effectively.

5. Schedule Update Meetings Including Both Teams

To discuss the ongoing projects, make sure you hold update meetings with your outsourced team. It is even better if they can be in the same meeting as your in-house team. During these sessions, you can also discuss any additional projects, requirements, or changes you may have with the outsourced team. These gatherings will also be an excellent opportunity to clear up questions and discuss fresh concepts.

6. Have a System to Handle Project Scope Changes

It frequently happens that the project's scope of work needs to be updated or that new activities need to be added as business relations progress. You could need to modify the project scope to account for such changes, in which case you would also need to inform your outsourcing team. If you don't have a pre-defined system, changes like this can cause chaos and interrupt your business activities.

Negotiating and outlining the additional scope of work with an ad hoc invoice or payment arrangement would be the best course of action. It will guarantee that additional work is finished and maintain your project on schedule.

7. Overcome the Differences in Culture

Misinformation about other cultures might frequently lead you to think that working with your outsourced staff would be difficult. Overcoming these cultural differences, though, can improve your partnership. Recognize any difficulties you might experience when working with outsourced employees. Try to connect with the team by having open conversations with them.

You can always start with a smaller task and scale it up once you understand their working methodology. Be specific in your requirements, and give the team the necessary training on time. Additionally, make sure you offer productive feedback and that it is well-received.

Conclusion

Without a question, outsourcing business functions can aid businesses and startups in accelerating their operations and achieving success. However, keep in mind that while outsourcing, entrepreneurs may encounter some difficulties. To overcome these difficulties, adhere to the checklist in this blog or refer to other best practices in your industry.