Outsourcing A Complex Task When You Have Control Issues
I will be the first one to admit that I have had a hard time delegating tasks in my business. Like many people, my need to control the quality at all levels of the business was actually holding me back from expanding my company.
Over the past few years, I have worked hard on my control issues and actually reached a point where a large percentage of the low level work is no longer controlled by me.
Obviously this is a very good thing because it allows me to focus on the bigger picture so I can effectively make sales, do business development and anything else that contributes to overall company growth.
Today I want to share an example of how I was able to outsource a task that I never thought I would be able to delegate.
There are 2 main reasons I believed it wasn’t possible:
1. The task was so complex that I wasn’t sure how to explain all of the steps.
2. I was afraid of things going drastically wrong if that task was not done correctly.
Can you relate?
The task I’m referring to is setting up special offer campaigns. This is basically the equivalent of a “product launch” but at a smaller scale. When we do special offer campaigns with our PLR products, we basically have to setup an entire sales funnel with one or more offers, a download page, buy buttons, etc…
A typical campaign looks like this
Main Offer – A New PLR Product On Sale For A Short Introductory Price
Upsell Offer – An additional offer that extends the value of the main offer
Download Page – Custom page(s) that deliver the product(s)
The Delegation Issue…
Setting up a campaign like this involves a huge number of steps that would seem very complex and potentially overwhelming to the outside observer.
After years of experience, I could personally build a campaign like this within a few hours. The problem was, I was always doing it from memory and never following any kind of plan or system.
Earlier this year, after reading a book called Work The System, I decided it was time to COMPLETELY document the process with the intention of fully delegating it to a virtual assistant. In my case, the VA was well trained and someone I would be able to trust (just wanted to make that part clear).
The Hard Part
Once I made the decision to document the process, I used my next special offer campaign as my development grounds. Here’s exactly what I did:
– Created a new Pages file (like MS Word on the Mac) to document each step of my process
– Planned a special offer campaign in my notepad
– Literally typed out every step as I executed it
– The resulting document looked like this…
The result — I now had literally captured everything that was in my head and put it down in a document. This is the first step to replicating yourself.
BUT… it is not the last step.
Once I had this document, I had to go through it a few times to actually turn some of the chaos in my process into order. I did this by organizing the process into major STEPS.
In my case, the major steps were as follows:
1. Funnel Overview
2. Front End Sales Page
3. Upsell Sales Page
4. JVZoo Front End Buy Button
5. JVZoo Upsell Buy Button
6. JVZoo Sales Funnel
7. DL Guard Entries
8. Download Pages
From there, I was able to create a spreadsheet that easy to read and easy to navigate for my VA. Here is a partial look at the actual spreadsheet we use to systemize our special offer campaigns:
Once this template was created I was able to send a test campaign to my VA. Luckily for us, on the first pass through the system, he was able to setup an entire campaign with almost no help from me (other than a few little tweaks here and there that took maybe 10 minutes of my time).
Now, I simply fill in this spreadsheet template every time we want to run a special offer campaign and my work load has gone from 3-4 hours down to about 20 minutes.
In the end I am freeing up TONS of time that I can now use for higher level, business building tasks.
In Summary…
– You CAN outsource and delegate even the most complex tasks
– You MUST release your need to control and focus on freeing up your time for business growth
– INVEST the time to document the entire process of the task you want to delegate. It may be a bit painful but well worth it
– Test your new systems thoroughly to make sure there are no holes in the process
I hope this gives you a bit of insight and help into a process that you can copy and put to use in your business today. ESPECIALLY if you are a bit of a control freak like me 🙂
Fantastic post Justin. 🙂
I do not have even one VA yet, but am about six – eight weeks away from hiring my first one.
My major glitch about hiring a VA is worrying about getting my work stolen. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks.
Robert
Hey Robert
Great question. It has never occurred to me that my work might get stolen. Having said that, I had my VA for at least 1 year before I started assigning tasks that involved access to sensitive materials like products, passwords, etc… So maybe start small, develop some mutual trust and grow to a level where you feel comfortable with it.
Great job Justin! I love creating and tweaking these systems to make life easier! Here’s to more time… 🙂
Thanks Howard! Absolutely… more time to do the important business building stuff AND/OR time with the wife and kids 🙂
Justin, I can relate to what your saying here. I also thought that giving up control meant giving up the quality of my work but then finding a great VA took that fear away from me. Obviously, finding someone you connect with and can trust doesn’t happen overnight. What helped me was asking others who had VA’s for recommendations and looking for someone who had the specific skill set that I needed.
Sounds like we think a lot alike Wanda! Great tip about asking around for recommendations. Good old word of mouth is still among the best ways to find people/resources you need
Justin you have my attention. I spend at least 50 hours a week working from home promoting my main entertainment business and then at least 25+ hours a week working on my internet businesses projects. And that is not counting the hours spent on learning from mentors etc.
And when you factor in time for family, friends etc it doesn’t allow much sleep.
In my FREE time I do 400 magic shows a year with the bulk of them being several hours away.
Outsourcing even10 hours a week to begin with would be a huge relief.
Any suggestions on the best place to look for a V.A?
Is your VA from North America?
I will start my search for a VA.
Great post my friend.
Hey Claude,
Wow that is a crazy schedule! Good for you for being able to keep that momentum going. I found 2 of my best VAs on EasyOutSource.com
For all of my other staff/contractors I found them all through my personal network and word of mouth. You would be surprised how quickly you can find potential candidates when you start asking around.
Make a list of the specific tasks/skills you need to delegate first and go from there. Let me know how it works out for you
Hello from beautiful Montana,
This coming today was one of those “God winks” or coincidences that cannot be ignored. I have been intending to find a consistent assistant, but not think a VA is a better choice.
Thanks from center of my artichoke heart, Judy Helm Wright aka “Auntie Artichoke”
Hey Judy
Montana is definitely a place I’d like to visit in the future! There are definite advantages to having a personal assistant who works alongside you. But obviously the cost is much higher. VAs can do a lot of the work you need for significantly lower cost. Both have huge value… just depends on your needs. If the tasks are not location based, then you might want to try a VA first for sure!
Thanks for sharing, Justin!
I’ve always wondered where to begin looking for a VA but will move faster on that now.
For those wondering about passwords being stolen, I suggest signing up for Lastpass. I can’t work without it at all. Does a great job at allowing your VA to login without knowing your password. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for ftp passwords…Any work around for sharing FTP passwords would be welcome!
For more time (sigh!), rescuetime.com does a great job of reporting how you spend time on the PC.
Hey Guarav
Great call about Lastpass! I don’t have a workaround for FTP passwords but I’ll keep an eye out for someone who does! I’ve also heard about rescuetime but have yet to test it out. Thanks for the great comment, tips and feedback 🙂
Hi Justin, I read a good portion of that Work the System book and follow Sam Carpenters work. I understand that if you want to grow, you have to delegate. No way around that. Thanks for the recommend on where to find a VA (easyoutsource.com) and thanks for the inspiration on how you went about documenting those processes. One extra idea I have is that once you document your processes – you could now use them as baseline material for some higher-level coaching. I’d think there should always be people willing to pay higher prices for learning the detailed process.
Take Care,
Dan Tredo
Hey Dan
Sam’s book is really excellent! Good point about the coaching. In fact in my product creation training program ProdCreate.com, I give away some of my pre-written system templates to my students to use as a baseline. So far it has been well received 🙂
thanks
Justin