Outsourcing for freelancers: how to save time

This article originally appeared at FreelanceFolder.com and is republished here with the permission of the site.

If you've been freelancing for a while now I'm sure there are tasks you totally dread or even hate, or things you're simply not good at.

See, I don't like accounting and invoicing, I find it's boring as hell and it's time-consuming and I know I could use that time to focus on more interesting and more creative activities.

I freelance because I love to create things. And I'm a musician for the exact same reason. So, what do you do when you finally figure out what you really want to do and what you're good at?

You outsource the rest! You get someone else to take care of that stuff you don't want to do.

Outsourcing means you still have to work and get things done
I thought it would be a good idea to get this out of the way first: outsourcing doesn't mean you will get to sit on your ass all day, not work and let other people take care of everything!

Sure once you start outsourcing it'll definitely clear your schedule up a bit, which is very nice, but don't forget you have clients, and they hired you probably because they like your work and your personality! It all depends on how you position yourself, but that's a different topic altogether.

What should you outsource?
That depends on your workload. Do you feel totally overwhelmed? Or do you feel like only a couple hours a week of free time would be just great? I suggest you make a list of everything you usually do in a day.

I'm a web designer, I write articles and I manage some blogs. A normal day usually look like this:

• emails: 1 hour
• social networking: 1 hour
• reading blogs and keeping up to date: 1 hour
• writing: 1 and a half hour
• designing, coding, fixing bugs and stuff: 5-6 hours
• accounting, invoicing: half an hour
• tech support: 45 minutes

Remember that this is just an average per day. Now, I'm sure many of you have a similar schedule! What would you outsource? Accounting, invoicing and support maybe?

Jon Phillips is a full-time freelancer and blogger. To read his article in full visit FreelanceFolder.com.

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