Outsourcing your projects

You don't need an in-house coder to code your website, an in-house graphics designer to design your logo or a highly-paid employee to handle your accounting. These days, you can outsource almost everything -- even your core business operations.

You should think of outsourcing everything you can, as it is more economical than full-time hiring. This way, you get to focus on your core business while getting access to skilled expertise from all over the world, increasing your efficiency at doing what you're really good at.

You need some activities so infrequently -- such as web design -- that it makes no sense to hire someone permanently. Some essential, but simple and boring repetitive task are most likely a waste of your valuable time. The solution is to outsource.

Outsourcing usually means contracting a freelancer who works independently, although it's certainly possible to outsource an entire team. You can find professionals and gig workers to outsource in many places, including through job agencies and on job sites. However, one of the best places to look is outsourcing websites. These allow you to search for freelancers having the exact skills you want, that charge a rate that's within your budget.

Outsourcing websites facilitate and streamline the process of hiring virtual or remote workers. Each of these sites have their own approach, but in essence, all of these companies allow you to do more or less the same thing: post a job description, have people bid on the work, negotiate the price, look at freelancer's previous ratings and work history. In general, your money is held by each of the websites in an escrow account, and they release the payment to the freelancer when the work is complete while keeping a small amount (typically 10-20%) for themselves. That's a small price to pay for the peace of mind.

Here is a small selection of the top outsourcing websites on the market:

Upwork

A few years ago, the largest outsourcing platforms (oDesk and Elance) merged and rebranded as Upwork, so there's a wide variety of talent on the platform, ranging from freelancers who are just starting out, to experts with years of experience.

If you write a detailed job post explaining what you need, you'll receive a large amount of interest. Also, you can invite specific freelancers to apply to your job. You can choose to pay by the hour or a set rate for the project.

Upwork's Work Diary software allows you to see each of team members activity levels (keyboard and mouse activity), and feedback, as well as web cams and screenshots of their computer to make workers more accountable.

The fee is 10% of the employer's payment to Upwork which equates to 11.11% on top of the amount paid to the contractor.

Freelancer

Freelancer is the second-largest platform on the market, a direct competitor of Upwork. They have absorbed many of the smaller platforms, such as Rentacoder, which was an IT outsourcing website. This has helped Freelancer build up a large network of professionals.

You can choose a freelancer yourself or post a job to attract candidates. You can pay by the hour, project, or by milestones. The system works much the same as Upwork.

Freelancer.com is better for small one-off jobs. The average job is under $200, making outsourcing for the first time extremely cost effective.

Guru

Guru was founded in 1998 (as eMoonlighter.com). The majority of freelancers on Guru are based in the US. Working with a native English speaker is sometimes a good idea if you need to be able to verbally communicate your project's requirements. It's also convenient to work with someone in the same time zone as you.

Guru's greatest focus is on IT services, programming and development. The platform sends you a list of "gurus" that you may want to consider for your project. This eliminates the need to search yourself.

The platform has safe and easy payment options. You can pay by milestones, by task, by hour, or using recurring payments. Memberships are available from $29.95 to $99.95 per quarter. The Escrow Fee is 2% of the escrowed amount. Only charged when SafePay Escrow is used.

Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Amazon's Mechanical Turk provides developers with access to an on-demand workforce, featuring a flexible UI and a simple API.

MTurk is based on the idea of taking a job and separating it out for many different people to work on -- in pieces. You can leverage crowdsourcing via MTurk for things like microwork, human insights or AI training.

You will decide how much to pay the person you hire. There is a 20% fee on the reward and bonus amount you pay the Workers. HITs with 10 or more assignments will be charged an additional 20% fee on the reward you pay. The minimum fee is 1 cent per assignment.

Fiverr

Fiverr is an outsourcing platform that allows you to hire freelancers for a minimum of $5 and a maximum of $500 per task. All prices are in multiples of five. You can browse through a range of set services like graphics, programming, digital marketing, data entry or legal consulting.

Professional freelancers post "gigs" and buyers can review the gig, contact the seller, and see the price. The buyer will pay full price of the gig, the seller keeps 80%, and Fiverr keeps 20%.

Fiverr is best for simple standardized services, especially when quality is less important.

Which outsourcing platform is best? Well, it depends on the type of work that you are doing, on your budget, preferences, goals, and how you like to work with remote workers. For hourly work, Upwork is possibly the best option. For one-off project based work, Guru and Freelancer.com are great options. If you are looking for a specific type of work, MTurk is a better option for you. Guru is great if you are looking for a US based freelancer.

Each outsourcing website is different, and you'll get different features, different quality of remote workers, etc. Check them all out and see what works best for you.

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