How Do You Fix Five Mindsets That Won’t Allow You To Outsource?

Outsourcing has become a game-changer for entrepreneurs and businesses looking to scale effectively. While it is very effective, people are still highly challenged by the process of outsourcing task delegation. The roadblock more often than not is not about the potential for feasibility but the mentalities that shy them off from embracing it.

In this article, we will explore five common mindsets that prevent people from outsourcing and give actionable strategies to overcome these mental barriers. By fixing these mindsets, you will open new doors for yourself, save time for more important activities, and have the time to focus on growing your business.

1. The “No One Can Do It Better Than Me” Mindset

This is due to the aspect of perfectionism and fear of losing control. You’d most likely think your standards are too high, and nobody but you could ever grasp how complex your work is. So, you’d be the one to prove yourself as a bottleneck that restricts the growth of your business.

While no one certainly knows your business like you, there are places where other specialists excel in something that is an area you need help with. Virtual assistants, writers, designers, or even some sort of expert within their area all undergo education so they may execute a product far more to scale with industry expectations. Outsource and enhance the quality of output

How do You Fix it

• Start Small: Teach someone to do one thing at a time – handle your email or schedule social media posts – to get a feel for how it goes.
• Set Clear Expectations: Document step-by-step instructions or templates so the work will meet your standards. Tools such as Loom to leave video instructions or Notion to document will help.
• Measure Results, Not Tactics: Outcome trumps process. Meaning that if the deliverables are what you want, whether or not you micromanaged getting there doesn’t matter.

Example: Outsource graphic design to a professional and save yourself hours trying to do it all yourself and the results will be far more likely to be good than you can achieve.

Also read: What is an E-commerce Virtual Assistant or E-Commerce VA?

2. The “I Can’t Afford to Outsource” Mindset

Many do believe that outsourcing costs money, especially for small business owners or those working alone. This mindset tends to look at short-term costs and forget about the long-term return on investment (ROI).

Outsourcing is an investment, not an expense. The time you save by outsourcing low-value tasks goes into high-impact activities like acquiring new clients or developing products. The saved time usually leads to more money.

How to Fix It:

• Do a cost-benefit analysis: figure out how many hours you’re wasting on things that could be outsourced. If you spend 10 hours a week on things that can be done by a $15/hour virtual assistant, you’re undervaluing your own time.
• Start from as low as Fiverr or Upwork to make the professional affordable to access for whatever purpose intended. This is not to say that one would want to hire them full-time to outsource. Spend that saved time in generating revenues. Time and again, save some for a long time so you can earn extra or reinvest back to get ahead faster.

Investing in a $ 200-a-month virtual assistant to clean your email inbox so you don’t have to can save you countless hours that you’ll otherwise spend making pitches to customers who might pay thousands to hire you.

Also read: How Do You Hire a Shopify Virtual Assistant or a Shopify VA?

3. The “Outsourcing is Too Risky” Attitude

Some people think that you’ll expose yourself to problems like missing deadlines, poor outputs, or even possible data breaches, all of it rooted in mistrust and fear of the unfamiliar.

The risk that is involved with outsourcing can well be mitigated if proper planning and precautions are taken. Most of the outsourcing platforms have safeguards protecting both parties like payment escrow services and reviews for freelancers.

How to Fix It:

• Begin with Low-Risk Tasks: Outsource low-risk tasks involving sensitive information like scheduling social media posts or conducting market research.
• Vet candidates: Review portfolios, reviews, and references before hiring anyone. Interview them to check your communication skills and dependability on the task.
• Use secure tools: Portals that share access to accounts without revealing the password minimize data breaches.
• Set milestones and deadlines: Break down the project into smaller milestones with defined deadlines. Hence, you can check which is going amiss and correct it early.

Rather than hiring an outsider to redo your entire website, begin by engaging a designer to do a home page. If you like what he produces, then you can extend it to the entire project.

4. The “I Can Just Do It Myself” Mindset

This attitude is usually driven by frustration or a lack of delegation experience. It may seem quicker to do something yourself rather than explain it to someone else. However, this creates a vicious cycle wherein one is always dealing with heavy loads of tasks.

Training someone on how to accomplish a task takes time, but it eventually pays off in the long term. Once the person is trained on your process, they will be able to handle the entire task, so you can dedicate more time to strategy work.

How to Fix It:

• Documentation of Processes: SOPs or tutorial recordings by tools make training much easier and keep the processes more consistent.
• Start with Repetitive Work: Those including data entry, responding to emails, or scheduling of appointments do not demand heavy training and can easily be outsourced.
• Think Long-Term: Remember that your hour or two of time now will keep you from hours or days of work sometime in the future.

If you spent 30 minutes per day programming your social media schedule, you have devoted 15 hours every month. Do that and hire a manager to do it so you no longer waste this amount of time; repeat for a never-ending number of hours.

5. “I Don’t Know What to Outsource” Mindset

Some feel that there is an upside to outsourcing but feel overwhelmed at the number of things they are juggling. They never know where to start or what to outsource.

The truth is, you are not better at everything. You might be way more productive in some areas and would add tremendous value. All those low-value or repetitive tasks can then free up your time in areas requiring personal attention.

How to Fix It:

• Do a time audit: Track where you spend your time for one week. Identify what you are doing too often, that consumes much of your time and is not within your core competencies.
• Group the tasks: Put the tasks into three categories only: those that you can do, those you like doing, and those you hate or are not good at. Outsource the last two categories first.
• Seek Professional Outsourcing Guidance: Websites like Fiverr, Upwork, or virtual staffing agencies can suggest what tasks you might want to outsource.

Sample Tasks to Outsource

• Administrative tasks (email management, calendar scheduling).
• Content generation (blog post, social media captions).
• Customer support (answer queries and troubleshoot).

Recommended Reading: How Can We Run A One-Person Agency With the Help of Remote Staff? Explaining the Economics involved 

Conclusion

The best way to scale up your business is through outsourcing but will require a change in mindset. Knocking away these five common mental roadblocks to fixing them: no one can do it better, worrying about costs, the fear of risks, finding it easier to do it yourself, and having no idea where to outsource-will unlock new opportunities and work efficiencies.

You start small, use technology to your advantage, and look at long-term benefits with short-term pain. By outsourcing, you free up your time and allow yourself to do what’s most important in the business and make things happen.