This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Outsourcing is a mythological concept in some circles, depending on what you read about starting an online business. Some people are just very passionate about it. They're like, outsourcing is gonna change your life. It's a miracle. And in some cases it can definitely make things better, easier, more efficient, et cetera.
In other circles, depending on who else you talk to, it's kind of a disaster in the making. Lots of people end up hiring contractors and virtual assistants. They end up with all sorts of negative experiences. And I've been in this world for a while and I'm somewhat in the middle. Like I've worked with lots of contractors.
Some are good, some are not so good. Sometimes in the not so good experiences, it's not always the fault of the contractor. Sometimes they are set up to fail because of the platform, because of the system, the manner of interactions. And other times there are just bad contractors, just like, you know, in any field. So for the purposes of this episode, here on "Side Hustle School." And by the way, welcome my friends.
So glad you're tuning in. Today we've got a caller who's starting a second side hustle. The first one is going well enough to give him some profits to work with. That's great. He wants to know where to find the best virtual assistants and other contractors.
So let's talk about it. Where's the best place to do this? And maybe along the way, maybe a couple of tips or best practices to avoid some common pitfalls. All right, that detailed question and my answer coming right up. [Music]
What's up, Chris and team?
I've been enjoying the show and I'm making steps towards my second side hustle. My question today is about hiring contractors. Where's the best place to do that? I think you've mentioned Fiverr and at least one other one, but I'm not sure of the ideal starting point. Also, any tips when contracting my first virtual assistant?
I know this is important to get right, so I don't want to mess this up. Thanks, have a great day. [Music]
All right, all right, you got a few options, all of which can be good depending on your needs. And I'm going to talk specifically about contractors that do virtual work of some kind. If you need something different, there's probably some other platforms.
But the most common place is to go for administrative, admin work or tech work, building a website, doing some basic design and lots of other jobs as well, but basically all online kind of virtual work that can be done from anywhere. Two most common that we talk about a good bit are Fiverr and Upwork. So Fiverr with two R's, F-I-V-E-R-R.com, Upwork.com. Upwork is, I want to say a bit more professional. I don't know if that's the right word, but on Upwork, you're more likely to find higher skilled people who are doing fewer jobs, but for more money typically.
Whereas Fiverr is just a huge global marketplace, people from all over the world. Well, Upwork is also all over the world, but Fiverr just tends to have more of a low cost model. Their initial model was $5 for every service. Now a lot of them cost more, but still pretty affordable. Fiverr is great for really quick things, really quick and simple things.
Upwork is good for something medium term, something like a more extended project. Or it could even be something that turns into long-term. A lot of people have established long-term client relationships through Upwork. And then there's also onlinejobs.ph, which we've talked about as well. I think we profiled them at some point.
For a long-term virtual assistant who can actually work full-time for you at a rate that's not too expensive for most people in the Western world, onlinejobs.ph can be great for that. So as for some tips, I think the number one thing I would suggest is to be really clear on what you want this person to do. And a lot of mistakes or missteps in the world of outsourcing come down to a lack of clarity, not being clear about your deliverables, your expectations, what exactly is required. It doesn't work so well to just kind of have people go and figure stuff out. If you need a higher level of creative work in terms of figuring out, solving problems and such, then that's gonna require more investment on your end.
But if you just need something done and you can provide really clear specs, like here's what I need, do it this way, here's what success looks like, then that's gonna be a much better experience almost all the time. And then if you have a bad experience, sometimes that just happens. But if you have repeated bad experiences, and I've experienced this myself, sometimes I have to step back and say, what am I doing wrong here? Maybe it's not that every one of these contractors is bad. Maybe I'm not giving good instructions.
Training goes a long way in these kinds of roles. It's best to not just throw somebody in the deep end and expect them to know how to swim or know how to do whatever it is that you want to do. That's probably my number one tip. We've talked about some more, of course, throughout the history of the show. If you go to sidehustleschool.com and search for outsourcing, delegating, fiber, Upwork, you can probably find a bunch of other episodes.
So hopefully that's helpful to our caller and somebody else out there. Take care of yourself, my friends. I hope you do something today to get closer to a goal that's important to you. And of course, please continue to listen. The show comes out every day.
It's always free. Wherever you get your podcasts. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
