[LRUG] Running a business, and outsourcing non-coding tasks to others

Fri May 22 14:31:23 PDT 2015

Hey Asfand,

I would not recommend outsourcing any of those, especially at the start.
In fact if there's anything you should outsource it should be your code.
That's almost certainly not what you want to hear so allow me to explain:

When you're starting out you're looking to get a MVP out the door.  With
most products I see lauch the M is really quite substantial.  The idea here
is to work out if it's worth spending more time on the idea and move on
quickly if it's not.  I validate business ideas in two stages.  Firstly
hire a designer to create a 1-3 page site and put it up on free hosting
with Google Analytics plugged in.  In fact with some of the templates
available nowdays on SquareSpace etc I doubt you'd even need a designer.
Add a signup button but take it to a mailing list signup form instead.  You
can then spend £100 on Adwords and drive targetted traffic there and check
the click through rate for signup.  If it's above 1% you've got a potential
business on your hands, above 2.5% and you're looking sweet.  This is
straight out the 4 Hour Work Week book if you want to read more.  A quick
warning here: you have to be harsh on yourself here.  If you're getting
less than 1% then it's either not that great idea or you need to evalute
your offer.  I'd especially recommend look at copy as small changes in
phrases can make a big difference (and reveal what people are really after).

The next step is creating a MVP.  This is quite an investment so you'll
want some good results in the first part plus lots of other evidence it's
going to be worth it (asking potential customers to pay in advance, other
competitors playing in the space etc).  For both my businesses I got them
out in 750 hours or approx 20 man weeks each for all the disciplines (dev,
design, copy, sysops, basic marketing etc).  With a bit more experience and
some of the tools around now I'd be shooting for much less if I did
another.  You can go really minimal here and I encourage you to do that -
the first version of SendOwl didn't have the ability to bill customers,
close accounts and countless other "essential" features.

On Sales & Marketing I'd use Twitter to look for people moaning about your
problem domain/your competitors.  Send them a tweet and direct them to your
site - look to start a conversation not sell.  I picked up my first 10
customers this way for 5 minutes work on Twitter search every morning.  It
doesn't scale but it does prove your business.  Once you've got a few
customers I'd highly recommend the book Traction for how to research and
scale this side of your business.  Once processes are established you could
then potentially pass this on to somebody to manage (eg an Adwords
specialist)

If you get this far you've done really well and customer support is your
lifeline for taking your business from a small seed to something more
substancial.  Metrics provide a good story but a customer that's paying
(this does not apply to free) will let you know about features they want to
see and things that are broken.  You know the annoying little bug you never
got round to fixing?  When you get 10 emails about that per day you get it
fixed pretty quickly.  The number one reason SendOwl has been so successful
is we really know our customers, their problems and their goals.  This is
due to spending a lot of time in support reading their emails and asking
questions.  As such our product is a perfect fit for their needs and as a
result they refer us lots of new customers without us having to ask.

So to summarise I'd see market research as too important to outsource,
marketing as something you need to understand yourself first (intially at
least) and customer service as the cornerstone to growing your business.
So the best thing to outsource in the early days?  The code.  Why?  Well
firstly the customer doesn't see this so as long as it works it doesn't
matter (I can hear the cries from here).  And secondly as you're an expert
in this area you can keep on eye on developments and stop things you don't
like.  Only once you've got your MVP created, your Sales & Marketing
channels estasblish and your first paying customers in, would I look to
bring development back in house.  You can then get things setup the way
you'd like them and then start outsourcing the stuff you don't want to do.

Of course this all assumes you want to maximise the chances of success of a
new business idea.  If you just want to write some code in a domain you
enjoy then you'd probably pursue a different route.

George

On 22 May 2015 at 19:20, Sam Livingston-Gray <geeksam at gmail.com> wrote:

> The one thing that seems like it could possibly be outsourced would be
> customer support—a virtual assistant might be able to help with at least
> routine inquiries (e.g., recurring billing).  However, it's probably still
> better for you to deal with the annoying ones yourself, so that (if it
> comes to that) you know which customers to issue refunds to and politely
> send on their way.
>
> -Sam
>
> On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 10:13 AM, Evgeny Shadchnev <
> evgeny.shadchnev at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Asfand,
>>
>> If you're looking to start this way, then, I'm afraid, it's hardly
>> possible. These tasks are the core of what a person starting a business
>> does: deciding what to do, selling it to customers and interacting with
>> them to improve the idea. While there are people who will take your money
>> to do market research, generate leads and provide customer support, I can't
>> think of a single business that was successfully started this way. Once the
>> business is off the ground, it'll be possible to get help in all these
>> areas but not in the very beginning.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Evgeny
>>
>> On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 5:59 PM, Asfand Yar Qazi <ayqazi at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I was wondering if any the people here running their own businesses
>>> have outsourced some business activities to other companies? I've been
>>> considering getting others to do things like:
>>>
>>> * Market research - is my idea actually going to be used? Will it
>>> actually generate income?
>>>
>>> * Sales, marketing and promotion - telling people about the business
>>>
>>> * Customer service - dealing with annoying customers
>>>
>>> Is it feasible to do this? Thanks!
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>      Asfand Yar Qazi
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>>
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-- 
George Palmer
@georgio_1999
http://www.sendowl.com
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