The world is certainly a smaller place now with access to platforms online that offer global reach to marketplaces full of skilled and cheaper labour.

Perhaps you have heard about ‘virtual assistants’, offshore graphic designers, offshore web developers, and many other options to send work overseas.

It can come with some risk, but with the right selection process and quality control you can absolutely reap the rewards of sending some work overseas.

If you have ever considered outsourcing please read on to see how you can make it work for you and your business.

Firstly, sign up to a few outsourcing platforms such as Freelancer.com and Upwork.

With Freelancer, you can post a project and have people bid on your project. With the bidding comes the opportunity to review their work portfolio and their ratings. Freelancer also has an inbuilt chat function, which means you can chat to the freelancers before hiring them. This is great to do to understand their level of English reading, writing and comprehension. From that point you agree on a price for the work and proceed with the briefing.

Upwork is similar, however the difference is where you can filter out your preferences for your outsourcing opportunities. This is great if for example you wish to target a native speaker, or would like someone with a specific set of skills.

Next is to get your brief right. The most time is often spent explaining to the freelancer what it is you are after. The more information, examples, and visual cues you can give them to get the job done right is most effective. Don’t be afraid to provide feedback to them as you are going along the process, and don’t feel pressured to pay a milestone or finalise a project until you are absolutely happy with your output.

You can always Skype with the freelancer to have a face-to-face conversation. Consider if you are having a regular person doing some work for you, to use a shared project management tool like Asana or Trello. That way you can easily communicate your progress with each other. You can also create workflows for your freelancer to follow, to allow you to step out a process you’d like them to follow.

Overall, offshore freelancing can be an excellent tool for your business to keep costs down, increase productivity and drive a project further faster. Just spend the time filtering through your options, briefing your freelancer as effectively as you can, and communicating regularly. Before long you will find yourself loving the benefits outsourcing brings!