Outsource Management.

You outsourced to save you time for the more productive work. But here you are, stuck in trying to manage all the outsourced projects themselves. Management becomes an important process as the scale of your company grows, and lack of it can be the biggest hindrance towards greater productivity and efficiency.

Delegating the daily tasks to your VA s can become a tangle of different tasks both for you and the freelancers. Imagine a freelancer spending half an hour just to dig out from your company page his to-do list. Managing this aspect of outsourcing saves time and effort, increasing efficiency.

A task management software for your company can help you sort out all the task, delegate them to different VA s and freelancers, and keep track of the progress and deadlines. My choice for task management software is taskpro.com. Once you have successfully cleared the free trial version, it’s time to get upgraded and integrate it into your company setup.

Read more in Management
« Overloaded? Not About Time Management
Decision Engineering »

Even with a task manager system, you have to delegate things on your own. If you are assuming the characteristics of a hectic CEO, you can have an outsourcing coordinator who can do these tasks for you.

Typical tasks for a coordinator include managing and delegating tasks, make sure that deadlines are met, and that no freelancer works less than what he/she should. You can also make him/her plan for further outsourcing, or finding better freelancers.

Today, outsourcing departments are increasingly making their place in firms having scales neighboring millions of dollars of revenue; having one embedded in your company can be a great add-on.

One tip:
Know who you can trust and who you cannot.

Take it as a rule: freelancers are never to be completely trusted. Don’t be surprised if you wake up one morning to know that half your freelancers are gone. NEVER give control of sensitive information, like Paypal accounts or business contacts to your freelancers. Better entrust such information, if you have to, with your regular
partners and employees who you can chase.