I love outsourcing. I think it’s an amazing process. Being able to hire someone from the other side of the world, being able to integrate someone from a different culture, a different time zone, a different country into your business just opens you up to bigger possibilities and fresh ideas that you otherwise would not have thought of on your own.

Outsourcing is the most win-win situation I have ever encountered in business. You get the best talent out there, you cut down on costs, you have more time to spend on your passion, and your team gets to experience the international culture and earns better than their current wage. What’s not to love, right?

Sadly, not all business owners realize how much a blessing outsourcing is. Either they don’t believe in outsourcing, or they have tried and got a bad experience from it. But why is that? Here are a few reasons why outsourcing doesn’t work for some people.

Not having an outsourcing process. Hiring your in-house staff is different from hiring outsourced talents. There are a lot of things to consider such as language barriers, time zones, and communication methods. You cannot just post an ad on Craigslist for a Superstar VA and expect everything to go smoothly from there. Neither can you just send a task list for your chosen Upwork worker and expect them to do their magic.

Having an outsourcing process is crucial to having a smooth outsourcing experience. This will help you target the right people with the right skill set and credentials to join your team. This will also help you avoid time wasters and any potential retention problems in the future.

We have provided a full step-by-step guide to the hiring process. If you’re interested, you can download our full guide here.

Making your outsourced team expendable. Sure, there are hundreds of freelancers and outsourcing companies that you can choose from, but treating your team badly because you think you can simply hire a new person to fill their position is the best way to spend thousands of dollars on talent acquisition. Outsourcing may be cheaper, but it is not nothing. Your pockets will definitely feel the cost of head hunting, recruiting, interviewing, hiring and on-boarding someone new! Your outsourced team is just as important as your in-house employees. Do not discriminate.

Only using outsourcing for one time projects. Many people outsource simply because they have a single task that no one else in the team can do. Once the task is done, they go back to being a full-time in-house business, only to outsource again once the need arises.

While this is a good strategy for one time jobs like, say, designing a website, this strategy won’t be as effective for other types of projects. For example, if you will outsource a social media specialist because you have a live event that you need to promote, then you are most likely going to get better engagements for that period of time. However, once that project is over, you will simply go back to your current social media stats, therefore losing the progress you’ve just made! Wouldn’t it be better to just get someone to handle your accounts full time?

I have been in the business for more than 15 years. Outsourcing works. Anyone who says otherwise have just done it incorrectly. If you are still cynical about how great this process is, I highly recommend giving it a try first!