Should You Outsource Tasks as a Freelancer?

In this week’s episode, we’re tackling the question of whether freelancers should outsource tasks or not.

Burnout is so real when you're trying to do it all as a solo freelancer or VA. But is outsourcing the solution?

Here’s what we’ll cover:
☕ The difference between working at an agency vs being an independent freelancer
☕ Why you shouldn’t outsource client work to an agency without their knowledge
☕ How to be transparent with clients about who is doing their project
☕ Reasons to outsource tasks for your own business - social media, email, calendar management
☕ Finding reputable assistants and being cautious of sites like Fiverr
☕ How outsourcing your least favorite tasks can help you avoid burnout and grow your business

If you are ready to start leveraging help so you can stay focused on your core freelance services. Tune in for a raw, honest chat about the pros and cons of outsourcing!

💾 Check out our favorite Project Management and daily digital planner - Sunsuma! Sign up for a 30 Day Free Trial and make work-life balance a reality so you can feel calm and stay focused.

Just ask one of our VA besties who we turned onto it:
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Transcript

LaTara Dunn: [00:00:00] Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Burnt Out Freelancer. This is 

LaTara Dunn: your host, LaTara, and 

LaTara Dunn: I'm here with my co-host Molly Block. And today we're talking about a topic that is very important to us and can have a lot of questions out in the freelance space. And it's about outsourcing your least favorite tasks in how delegating these items can really help you in the freelance world.

LaTara Dunn: Along the lines of not becoming burnt out or having fatigue over mindless. Tasks that don't require your skillset and your creative juices. And we're gonna talk about the different types of outsourcing. Whether you are outsourcing work that someone has hired you for, or if you're actually outsourcing work that has to do with your business. And we're gonna talk about what we actually hire Other vass for and what we have them do. Get ready for this one, and we [00:01:00] really hope that you enjoy it. Take it away, Molly. I'll let you jump off on this one.

Molly Block: , gosh, I think I wanna preface that, you know, there's not really a timeline on . When this is gonna pop up in your business just to put that out there. So no one's like, oh my God, at six months I should be this far along and I should have this, this happens differently for everybody and I have done both.

Molly Block: Meaning I have hired people to help with my client load. I've also hired people to help me with my personal business. Because not only do I do freelancing, but I also have a small art business. And so I've hired people for, for both. And, one of the biggest things that has been beneficial for me is those smaller tasks that I don't wanna do.

Molly Block: For instance, one of my clients, . I schedule emails every month for their group calls.[00:02:00] it's just a routine task. It's something that takes time, but my time could be spent somewhere else. So I actually hired out for that. Now, when I first hired out for it, I was nervous because it's the first time I had used a, VA freelancer kinda as a team member And I got lucky with them in the beginning, . 

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: Yes.

Molly Block: In the beginning and something that we can talk a little bit more on, but I do wanna just mention it here, is I did tell my client that somebody under me was going to be logging into their MailChimp and doing this for them. again, transparency is the best and being honest. And , I told my client, like my client was actually happy about it because she wanted me to focus on the more [00:03:00] important things.

Molly Block: Yes, those reminder calls are obviously super important, but she wanted me to focus on building landing pages and beautiful banners for her landing page and setting up stripe and things like that. . And when I asked her if she would be okay, if my assistant logged into her MailChimp and scheduled the emails, I did tell her that the first round I would do live on Zoom with the my assistant, which I did to make her feel a little better, that I'm not just, you know.

Molly Block: Giving her this task and not helping her and making sure it's done right and you know, yada yada. She was actually really happy. She was like, oh my gosh, this is awesome. Okay, well you can have her do that and then I'm gonna have you do, A, B, and C it was received really well now that won't happen all the time, so, , just be mindful of that. And, you know, something I would like you to talk about for a minute, lat Tara, [00:04:00] is, I know you do a lot of you have a small team, 

Molly Block: but they more so help you than your clients.

LaTara Dunn: Right, exactly. . I'd love to share about that. , I've had a total of three different assistants, and right now they, their services are on pause right now, and that is because I have them help me. So I, a lot of the work that I do for my clients involves design, tech, and a lot of strategy.

LaTara Dunn: these aren't really things that I can outsource because it really does require my creativity, and that is why my clients have hired me and I have a certain level of service that they expect and the I want to provide for them. And so. [00:05:00] If I have all these clients and I have all these projects that I'm working on, that then means my personal business.

LaTara Dunn: So me posting on social media, me responding to emails, me ordering my groceries, all of those things are gonna be ignored, right? I'm not gonna have time for any of that. The biggest problem freelancers face is, well, we have a lot of problems, but one of them is our businesses. But unfortunately that means we're spending so much time helping our clients grow their businesses. Ultimately, we ignore our own. We don't work on our website, we don't work on our freebie offer. We don't send out emails, we don't post it on our social media. We don't engage in comments Like we don't do any of those things because come the end of the day, we're getting paid for a job that we have to do and we complete it. But then you're just so drained that you never get to work on your [00:06:00] business and you have to keep working on your business because that's the only way you are gonna continuously receive income, right?

LaTara Dunn: Like if you're not always

LaTara Dunn: marketing yourself when you need to fill a space, you're not going to be able to do that because you haven't been marketing yourself on social media. You haven't been starting a waiting list or you know, growing some leads, right?

Molly Block: Right, like I social media for people and for like six months I didn't post on my own 

Molly Block: because ,

LaTara Dunn: right.

Molly Block: I would do everyone else's, and I I'm like, oh God, I don't even, I don't even wanna permit my fucking art or anything. I'm not getting paid for this yet, so I 

Track 1: don't ,

LaTara Dunn: 

LaTara Dunn: right.

LaTara Dunn: And 

LaTara Dunn: so, and that's another thing it's hard 

LaTara Dunn: to do, right? 

LaTara Dunn: you're not, you're not making money marketing yours. Well, you are when you get a client, but you don't see an instant ROI posting on your Instagram, right?

LaTara Dunn: and so that's what [00:07:00] I like hiring people for. Even though I'm not seeing an instant ROI, if you don't know what that means, it means return of investment. When I hire a VA and she's posting on my social media, or she's responding to emails in my inbox, I'm not seeing an immediate. Return of investment, but long term I am because she has been helping me nurture my people and my audience and keep all the backend things rolling for me so I'm not getting behind. And so I truly believe it is best to, if you are going to be a solo freelancer and you don't have an Agency. If an agency isn't your plan or if you don't publicly market that you have a team of ladies that you know you have come together to collaborate. I think it's best to hire out services for your own business, not to hire out services for someone to do the work for your clients because you are not an agency and the

LaTara Dunn: reason why is because they're gonna know that it's not your quality [00:08:00] of work. Especially if you've been doing it for a long time.

LaTara Dunn: And two, it's just being honest. So Molly, she did the right thing. She said, Hey, I would love to be able to use more time to work on this without you having to pay any more money or hire anybody else. I'm going to have someone from my team take care of these tasks. I'm gonna manage everything. You don't even need to communicate with them. Now a client's probably really gonna like that, and Molly went about it. In a super professional way, so therefore it's good, but if you're not being professional about it and you're not telling your client that someone's else is doing the work and not you, that's 

LaTara Dunn: not okay. 

Molly Block: No, it's not. And 

Molly Block: my VA has done, , a variety of tasks for me, and if you've been following us for a while, you know that I kind of do a little bit of everything . LaTara is a little 

Molly Block: more niched. 

Molly Block: So, I've had 

Molly Block: my VA 

Molly Block: help me with graphics and stuff like that, but the client [00:09:00] always knows, the client is always aware that my team member's helping me.

Molly Block: So much so that when I, I had to go out for surgery not long ago, and all my clients were like, is your assistant available? Can they help me with this? \ beCause I was transparent, I would not have my assistant build somebody's landing page or. Build their website or write a funnel for them 

Molly Block: not that my, VA doesn't have the skills, although that is something that she doesn't offer.

Molly Block: But there are VAs that, , would be able to help with that. However. That VA is just kind of coming in the mix and helping you. They don't have the relationship you have with your client. They haven't had the communication, they don't understand the business like you do. You know, the one client that I do have a VA help schedule those emails.

Molly Block: I worked with her almost my entire freelance career, 

Molly Block: And. I know her business inside and [00:10:00] out. Like if she tells me to do a landing page, I know before she even sends me the details, what vibe to go for, the feel, the style. If I had somebody else do that, no matter how skilled they were, I can guarantee you it'd be wrong because they haven't had that 

Molly Block: connection with 

Molly Block: the client.

Molly Block: With that being said, as far as when to delegate tasks, again, just being open and honest with your client. If you do have a va, do any services for them. Don't recommend it unless you have that upfront conversation, like I definitely would not give a VA your client's logins. To anything, even if you don't think, even if it doesn't have any financial information attached to it, like that's their personal platform.

Molly Block: Do not give them the login 

Molly Block: without 

Molly Block: talking to your client. Social media, email, website, anything like that. You wanna keep private because as a working professional, your client has entrusted you [00:11:00] with that information.

Molly Block: Not 

Molly Block: whoever's helping you. AnD I know La Tara touched on this a little bit an agency, so, 

LaTara Dunn: , 

LaTara Dunn: Yeah, I think it's super important that we, I think it's 

LaTara Dunn: important that we talk about,

LaTara Dunn: you know, what is an agency? Are you an agency? How do you explain that,, to an a new potential client. So, yeah, I would love for you to talk about 

LaTara Dunn: that, Molly. 

Track 1: Yes, 

Molly Block: I worked at an agency one time and I would 

Molly Block: never do it again. Um, 

LaTara Dunn: Same, same.

LaTara Dunn: I I tried it as well, you know, and it's a good way to, it's a good e. So, so what I wanna add before we bash any agency, is I wanna say. VA and freelancer when you're trying to find new clients and you're really, really new and you're not seasoned yet. And you're just not sure what kind of skills you have. Starting at an agency is [00:12:00] not a bad idea, and it's because you don't have to look for any clients at all. and you receive work from the agency owners team. If you're brand new, you're probably not gonna be talking to the actual client unless if that's, you know, worked out individually, but it's pretty rare in the very beginning, you'll just do like random things and you don't have to be marketing yourself. , you don't need to be worrying about showing up on Instagram and talking about what you do.

LaTara Dunn: You don't need to have a. Service guide or anything like that. So it is good to try out in the beginning. And, and, and to give you some perspective on agency life, if maybe you think that you're gonna wanna have an agency someday, because that might be what you want. You might want to have an agency, you 

LaTara Dunn: might 

LaTara Dunn: just wanna be the face of the company and not do any of the work.

LaTara Dunn: But. 

LaTara Dunn: Yeah, it's not for me, I tried it just like Molly and I quickly learned that an agency is not the place for me. And the reason [00:13:00] why is because the rates. The rates are usually a low hourly rate, which is why I say in the beginning it's good because you're still trying to just get out there and get some testimonials and work 

LaTara Dunn: experience, but.

LaTara Dunn: You have to run on very tight timelines and you don't get to control your schedule as 

LaTara Dunn: much. 

Molly Block: Boom. That's what I didn't like about it. I went with an agency last year, And at the time 

Molly Block: I was 

Molly Block: in one of those lulls where I started panicking. Where I went from having, you know, nine clients to four clients because of A, B, and C, nothing in my control.

Molly Block: Some of it was not even my client's control, and I just, I was networking myself and revamping my website and no one was biting. And I saw, , an ad for this agency and . I literally got the job the next day. , Not only that, I got the job managing [00:14:00] a project. I had not even met the client, known anything about the client, and then I was thrown into an admin meeting.

Molly Block: It was kind of a clusterfuck to be honest, because they just heard manager from my . Background and just put me in charge of this team who had no idea who 

Molly Block: I was. 

Molly Block: I had no idea about the business at all. so I didn't really like that part, but the main part I didn't like is the hours. It was Monday through Friday, nine to five.

Molly Block: I had to be available and with. You know, the diagnosis I've had over the last year, I have to go to the doctors pretty often and I have infusions and this and that, and 

Track 1: that 

Molly Block: schedule didn't work for me. It stressed me out. But I will say that the, the plus I did like about the agency is if I wasn't really feeling a client or a, a niche that maybe I was like, oh, let me try this.

Molly Block: I've never done it before. And then realized I didn't like it. I could switch and I got a new client like [00:15:00] the next day in something else. So it is a good way, one, when you're you don't have to network yourself, but two, , it's also a good way for you to test your, your skills or even test what you think you would like to do.

Molly Block: And see if you actually do like doing it. Because trust me, when I first started, I thought there were aspects that I was gonna love, and it turned out those were my least favorite things to do.

LaTara Dunn: now that we've explained, you know, what it's like working in an agency, let's bring it circle back to how, if you are not an agency, why you need to know about it and what they do, and be transparent with your client 

Track 1: a conversation came up the other day and it has many times before with me and clients when I'm have on a discovery call, and it sounds like this is a reoccurring problem that's happening in the industry and I'm not really liking it how that, I'm hearing this.

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: So I think we need to talk about it.

Track 1: Yeah. 

LaTara Dunn: You are a [00:16:00] seasoned freelancer and you've been doing this for a while, you probably have outsourced things, right? It's just happened, right? You're like, crap, this is due asap. I need it done. I'm gonna jump on 

LaTara Dunn: Fiverr and I'm 

LaTara Dunn: gonna go find someone to do this logo designer, whatever.

LaTara Dunn: So that's not always the best practice because you are not an agency. If you're an agency, your, your client knows you have a big team and they're gonna be working on a lot of stuff. But if you're a solo freelancer, you can't be doing that. So for example. I have this client that I work with and she wanted to have a website redone and she wanted to have a logo done 

LaTara Dunn: It was on Kajabi, so I was capable of doing it, but she had too many other projects for me that she wanted done at the same time, and I was like, look, I can't do all of this for you. With the budget that you're providing for me and the timeline, it's just not gonna happen. You gotta pick which one you want. She wanted both done. So I said, why don't you hire out this part that does not require my skill, and we can do [00:17:00] additional edits later 

LaTara Dunn: down the road 

LaTara Dunn: and they can get the base of the project done. Redo your website, , and the basic pages and redo your logo. She was like, okay, great. Let's do that. So she hires someone off from Fiverr, so not an agency.

LaTara Dunn: She hired someone off from Fiverr. They said that they could do a bunch of work if things were going great. Then we would ask for edits, and edits would take a really long time. So that was kind of weird that edits were taking a while. Like, why are you taking so long to respond to me? Why are these edits taking a long time? Why are you not knowing the answers right off the bat to my questions? Turns out this person that we hired to do the work hired it out 

LaTara Dunn: themselves. 

Molly Block: Oh my God. 

LaTara Dunn: Yeah. And so what they're trying to do is they're trying to make a lot of money and they're trying to bring, do a bunch of little side hustles and they're, you know, the face of their business, but they're not doing any of the work and, and they're hiring other people off from Fiverr. 

LaTara Dunn: So.[00:18:00] 

Track 1: Oh

LaTara Dunn: That's not okay.

LaTara Dunn: And so when I asked for a logo edit, I said, Hey, I want you to do this. is there any chance that you would be able to make that change and get back to me within the next 48 hours with it? Because it, I understand making edits. There's no such thing as a quick edit. I know that world, but what I really was asking was literally just a color change.

LaTara Dunn: So that wasn't a time consuming thing at all, and I

LaTara Dunn: was like, if you want share the file with me and I'll just go ahead and do it. , are you doing this on Adobe? Are you doing this in Canvas? Share me the file and I'll take care of it for you. If you can't do it within the next 48 hours, I wanna be able to show the mock up to the client. And the person was honest with me and said, I can't because I actually outsourced this 

LaTara Dunn: And we were

LaTara Dunn: like, what? 

LaTara Dunn: Wait a minute, what? We didn't, we hired you to do this. And so then my client got upset. The website wasn't coming together, finding out [00:19:00] there was that person wasn't really building the website, and so then my client wanted a refund and because the, he was the person, the freelancer was hired through Fiverr. so first we were trying to be nice to the person and my client was like, I'm very unsatisfied with the work. I'm unsatisfied with you not being very transparent. I feel like you're being dishonest with me. I need our work to stop.

LaTara Dunn: I'm very unsatisfied with what you've done so far. 

Molly Block: Right. 

LaTara Dunn: met any of the timelines. I would like a refund. And then the person then said again, I cannot give you a full refund because Fiverr takes a commission, which that we know. We understand that, but then another 15% I can't give you because I use that to pay for outsourcing the logo. And 

LaTara Dunn: we were just like,

Molly Block: But you lied. Straight 

Molly Block: up, dude. 

LaTara Dunn: Yeah. You 

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: said 

Molly Block: Oh my God.

LaTara Dunn: it. And so my poor client was really upset all that time and money was wasted, right? She never got her money back, and because by the time she [00:20:00] would've gotten Fiverr legally involved, it, she was just like, whatever, it's $300. I've learned my lesson on Fiverr.

LaTara Dunn: so this. Unfortunately is not a rare situation. This does happen and clients they've been burnt. So when they're hiring you and they're asking like, you know, do you have a team? You need to be honest, you need to be transparent. 

LaTara Dunn: I was on a discovery 

LaTara Dunn: call earlier this week.

LaTara Dunn: Someone just hired me to, go over their website analytics and she asked me, If I 

LaTara Dunn: had a team 

LaTara Dunn: and I told her exactly what I said at the beginning of this episode, I, have VAs do work for me personally, not for my clients. And she loved that because she had been burnt before in the past as well, and she didn't like how the person she hired wasn't being honest.

LaTara Dunn: She would've been more than happy. If the, if the freelancer just said, yeah, I ha I'm gonna have someone helping me on this project, is that okay with you? She would've [00:21:00] been totally fine with it, but because the freelancer didn't tell her, and then she found out after the fact, it just left a bad taste in her mouth.

LaTara Dunn: So be kind to your future freelancers when you're done with these people. You know, like do it right? So then when they hire somebody else for another project, your future freelance community also is being treated properly and has a good name going for them because you're representing not just yourself, your representing freelancers in general. And if you're gonna do those slimy things, you're not really helping us. And the freelance space is growing true. Tremendously. I can't get over the stats. I read about how many people are gonna be freelancing in the next, like two years alone. It's insanity. 

Track 1: I can't even 

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: is, this world is just continuously 

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: growing.

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: It's not going to stop. So don't be 

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: sketchy. 

Molly Block: Yeah. And the main thing with that, and thank you for sharing those [00:22:00] because,at the end of the day, this is your reputation and if a client hires you to do a landing page. You tell them you can do it and either you can't because of time constraints or you can't because of your skillset and you outsource, that's a bad reputation you're putting on yourself because you are putting somebody else's business that they entrusted to you in someone else's hands that you really don't know unless they're.

Molly Block: Somebody that you've been working with a long time and, but even still, you need to tell the client somebody's helping you. But a personal story with me is I was working 

Molly Block: with a VA 

Molly Block: who I had been working with on and off for a while. , And we all have things going on in our life and I'm knows that all too well. I know, you know, lat Tara, uh, can attest to that as well. But 

Molly Block: we all have things, right. We all have things that come up and we all have moments [00:23:00] that we maybe need to take a step back or reevaluate and, , set priorities. But I had asked 

Molly Block: this person 

Molly Block: to help me edit some videos.

Molly Block: one of those more routine 

Track 1: tasks. 

Molly Block: I edit videos for a client, on a consistent basis. And I was doing a few other bigger things for that client at the time, and I didn't have a deadline with the video editing, but still, I like to get things done in a timely manner. Right. And I asked my VA if they could help me.

Molly Block: Of course they said yes and. About a week goes by, and mind you, this is like an also like manic week for me. And there was like homecoming going on and all this stuff and deadlines from all my clients and personal life a little wonky. And a week goes by and I message her and she had only done like two clips out of like 25 that needed to be 

Molly Block: done.[00:24:00] 

Molly Block: I. And 

LaTara Dunn: Oh my God. Oh my God. Molly two.

Molly Block: and just like wasn't answering me. And again, I did not have a deadline for this client, so it didn't end up biting me in the ass. Meaning it wa well, it did bite me in the ass because then I had to go in when I'm super busy, had already scheduled out my week to, I mean, this week I had, everyone had a launch that same week, like, and that's just how it happens.

Molly Block: I know Latta has been in moments like that. 

Molly Block: Where it goes from 

Molly Block: zero to a thousand. And so I'm sitting 

LaTara Dunn: It's like I feel like my clients always 

LaTara Dunn: launch at the same time.

LaTara Dunn: I'm 

LaTara Dunn: like, come on guys. 

Molly Block: and mine like all kind of know each other. So I'm like, did you guys conspire together to do this all 

Molly Block: at the same time? 

LaTara Dunn: I would be internally grateful.

Molly Block: Um, bUt you know. Even without a deadline, it's still, [00:25:00] and I was able to, you know, make up for it. But like I had to, I, I stopped working most at two or three in the afternoon because I start working so early. Um, anD that's another plus of being a freelancer. You can make your own schedule.

Molly Block: But I had to at my desk till like seven o'clock that night doing these videos because it was bothering me that they weren't done, even though I didn't have 

Molly Block: a deadline, I 

Molly Block: had entrusted this person. I gave them my deadline, my deadline on when I wanted to have this done for my client. So 

Track 1: it just, it, it stressed me out so bad. 

LaTara Dunn: Yeah. That is not, this is not, that is not helping with your freelance fatigue when it comes 

LaTara Dunn: to outsourcing 

Molly Block: No, gonna make your fatigue even stronger because now you're gonna to be up more hours making 

Molly Block: up for the work that you outsourced. Um,

LaTara Dunn: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Totally. All so let's re let's recap. 

Track 1: we want you 

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: to outsource things that are your least favorite [00:26:00] tasks so you can continue to grow in your business. Because if you don't outsource, you won't be able to scale to the level that you want. Now, maybe you don't wanna scale, but you probably have a certain income goal you need, right? If you don't outsource . Something along the lines, you're not going to be able to hit that goal because you physically can't do everything by yourself. So again, my favorite things to outsource is to hire somebody for me, for my business, to do my social media, to respond, To manage my inbox. Right. Um, to keep things on track in regards to my tech my invoices for HoneyBook, my bookkeeping.

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: Um, And then I have said before, I'm actually, I'm not sure if I've said it before or not, but another thing, what is like a personal assistant and I'm outsourcing things like ordering my groceries or housekeeping or, you know, managing my bills on my calendar and setting [00:27:00] reminders for me. Stuff like that. So those things are specifically to keep the needle moving in my business, that is not a reflection of the work that I provide for my 

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: clients. 

Molly Block: Yes, 

Molly Block: But hire, hire 

Track 1: a VA 

Molly Block: to help with your business because that, uh, you know, inevitably is going to grow your income in long run because you're gonna be able to focus on growing, nurturing those leads, growing Your client load and also, you know, um, extending your training and learning more of those skills that you might not have time to do if you're focused on posting on your Instagram and your TikTok and checking your 

Track 1: email 

Molly Block: and things like that. So, I. We really, um, hope you love this episode today. This was a really fun one for us.

Molly Block: And at as always, you know, we're on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, please go on rate review, comment, follow us. We would love you forever. [00:28:00] It really just helps push us up 

Track 1: the 

Molly Block: charts and that way we can reach a broader audience. Um, Make sure to follow us on Instagram. We'll have that linked in our show notes below and

Molly Block: Again, thanks for a great episode today, 

Molly Block: And 

latara_1_11-02-2023_105203: don't 

LaTara Dunn: forget to join our email list, um, at, I'm tired at the. Uh, Burnout freelancer.com. We would love to have you join that, where We will be sending you an email every once in a while popping up in your inbox to provide you with some more fun behind the scenes freelancing insights. Okay? Thank you so much everybody, and we cannot wait to talk to you 

LaTara Dunn: next week.​