Outsourcing and Delegating: what to hand off, and to whom

Whether to hand off a project, and who should take it

You've decided you need help with something. The harder question is what kind: a pair of hands for the tasks, or someone to run the whole thing. Pick the wrong one and you end up managing the help on top of everything else.

Often it's a piece of work that has waited on the list far longer than anyone meant it to, while the people you'd give it to stay busy with their own jobs. Nobody doubts that it matters. The open question is who should carry it.

A task list and a project need different kinds of help

Handing over tasks keeps the plan with you, and handing over a project moves it to someone else. To hand over the plan as well as the work, start with how to delegate a project, not just the tasks.

When the work is a project, handing out tasks quietly makes you its project manager. That's on top of your actual job. If you've ever brought in help and then spent your evenings writing instructions for it, that's what happened. More hands didn't fix it, because hands were never the scarce part. Holding the whole plan was.

Three questions tell you which kind of work you're holding:

• Do the parts depend on each other?
• Do decisions have to be made in a certain order?
• Is there a picture of done, rather than a list that keeps refilling?

If the answer to all three is yes, it's a project. If most of the answers are no, you're more likely holding a list of tasks that happen to share a deadline, and lighter help will do.

Signs it's time to get help with a project

Knowing it's a project doesn't mean you need outside help. These are the signs that you do.

Something needs handling now, while you build something else. You're launching a service or reworking part of the business. The work that keeps everything else running can't wait until you're done.

The work is new to your people, or they have no room for it right now. Both happen in a growing business.

It's a one-time pile that won't repeat. Launches, Rebrands, and Migrations covers how to get your arms around that kind of project.

Look back at your last few projects, too. If each one ran late for a different reason, the real reason is often the same one: nobody had the job of running them.

There's a quieter sign too. If more of your week goes to running the business than to the work that needs you in particular, operations has already taken the time the project needed. To see whether yours needs someone to run it, and which lighter kind of help will do when it doesn't, read the signs it's time to get help with a big project.

Each kind of help fits a different shape of work

Matching the help to the shape of the work is most of the decision.

An assistant or a task queue suits work that arrives as separate tasks you can describe. You still decide what's next, and they get it done. For most to-do lists, this is the right answer and the lightest one.

A freelancer brings one skill: design, writing, development, bookkeeping. They're very good at their piece. You usually work out how that piece fits with everything else. Bring in several for one project, and someone has to fit their pieces together. Unless you've given that job to someone, it's you.

An agency produces one kind of output, often at volume, such as marketing or a website. It owns that output. It doesn't usually own the rest of your project.

Someone who plans and runs the work fits when the parts depend on each other. They map the whole thing, coordinate whoever does each part, and answer for the outcome.

Hiring full-time makes sense when the work will be there every week and you want the role inside the business. Outside help makes sense when the work has an end, when it can't wait for a hire, or when you'd rather not build that role at all.

Between the two sits fractional help: someone who runs the work for part of the week, without becoming one of your hires. And outside help doesn't have to be short-term. It can run something ongoing, even a whole department, for as long as that suits you.

Just need a website or blog content, and nothing else? FableForge and its Tech Team handle that.

When you hand off a project, you set how close you stay to it

You don't disappear from a project once someone else is running it. Good help still needs your answers, your feedback, and your time at the check-ins. Past that, how much you hand off is up to you. Your team can keep some parts while the help runs the rest. To work out the split, read how to delegate a project, not just the tasks.

Many owners stall here on one worry: by the time you've explained the business, the job would already be done. For a single task, that's often true. For a project, you explain it once, and the help carries that understanding through every part that follows.

You stay in control through what you and the help agree on

If you're hesitating, it's probably about control: of the money, of the quality, of your own business. Control doesn't come from watching every step. It comes from agreeing on the work together.

Agree what's in and what's out, and who owns each part. Agree when they'll update you on progress, what it will cost, and how it ends, including whether it ends at all. You can settle the ending before anything starts, or pick it later, once you know the work better. Whichever you pick, there's something to hold the work to. Processes and SOPs covers what to agree about the end of outside work.

Settle the working arrangement, too. Which parts do your people keep, and which decisions come to you? Then ask what you'll get to see while the work is running, not just when it's finished. Finished pieces arriving as you go are how you know it's moving, without checking on it every day.

If holding a whole plan in your head is the part that wears you down, that agreement matters even more.

How to check the help you've found before you sign

Before you sign, ask how they'd reach the result you have in mind, who would do which parts, and how the work ends. Then notice how they answer, as well as what they say. The questions to ask a consultant before you hire them has the full set, with what good answers sound like.

Your next step depends on whether it's a project or a list

You get your evenings back once the right help is running the project. For a project whose pieces all hang on each other, Sparkitive can be that help, and your team can keep any parts they would rather hold onto. A free 30-minute discovery call with Christina gets you a straight conversation about your project and a clear next step.

Book a discovery call

If it's a list of tasks, or a website on its own, a project manager is more than you need. The task-queue option above is the better fit.

Rather work out the design side yourself, with a community to back you up? That's BP Biz Lab, Christina's DIY business design course.