07: The one about outsourcing
Today we're waxing lyrical about outsourcing, which we know can be a scary thing to consider doing in business. We talk through some of the benefits of outsourcing and ways of finding the right people to outsource to. There are a few diversions, including Chris and Rah explaining to Em the origins of the CSI theme song.
Number of fucks given in this episode: 8
Mentioned in this episode:
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Episode transcript
Emily: Welcome to the Fuck Around and Find Out podcast, where your hosts Ra, Emily and Christine were three women who have built and run our own businesses and are here to shoot the shit on everything about women in business and running your own business. Ra, tell me who you are in 25 words or
Rah: less. Thank you, ChatGPT.
You're welcome. Uh, so my name's Ra, I'm a digital marketing and systems specialist, and I work with women in business to help them grow their business without as much overwhelm as what they're currently experiencing.
Emily: Fantastic. With one word to spare. Not that I was counting. I was going to say, wow,
Rah: you kept track.
I did not. I'll be impressed with that one. Yes. Ms.
Emily: Emily. Who are [00:01:00] you? I feel like, who, who, who,
Rah: who? Did we not do that? Do you even know that song? Yeah, that's CSI. Oh my God, it's CSI. It's so not CSI. Is it not from CSI? It is. It is. But it's from The Who in the seventies. Yes. Yes. But it's literally the exact same song.
Like it's not a cover. Like it's the exact same song.
Emily: All right. All the CSIs.
Rah: This has given me flashbacks to when I thought Live and Let Die was by Guns N Roses. I said it's Wings. Cause it is Wings isn't it? It's Wings. It's
Emily: not by Guns N Roses. No. Exactly. I know. I was mortified. I know.
Rah: And Wings. This is Paul McCartney, AKA the Beatles, right?
Emily: Yeah. There we go. There's your, I am of the generation that has learned a lot from the Simpsons.
Rah: Yep.
Emily: So I know a lot of that isn't from the Simpsons, it's from other things, but it's in that same sort of era.
Rah: Yep. And yet the
Emily: young kids nowadays are learning about the Beatles. Proper old school rock music through like stranger things.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I watched it just to figure out what scene that they were talking about. And [00:02:00] it's a really good show. That's like when the guardians of the galaxy came out in the soundtrack. I'm going, well, this is my music. Awesome. But my 17 year old. Ears listen to that music. Yep, yep, yep. It's funny how that happens.
Anyway, who are we deviated? Indeed. I dunno who I'm, no, I'm kidding. Um, no, I'm serious. I am at one half of Juniper Road with Christine over here, um, and I have, we have a special guest star in our studio today. Today we do our first male on the podcast. Do you like to say hi and say your name? Hi, my name is Harry.
Hi. Hi Harry. Welcome Harry. Harry's my oldest. Yes. Child. Right. Um, yes. Yes. And now you're going to listen to us talk. Yes. Yes. He's under the threat of death. He's got his, he's got his iPad. He should be very
Rah: quiet. He's feeling like a big kid. Very cool with the headphones on. Sitting in the cool studio with us at the Bella Vista Hotel.
Thank you, Bella. Thank you, Bella.
Emily: Chris and I run Juniper Road. We're an organizational support service. agency or shared [00:03:00] service agency, um, depending on which profession you sit in, use different lingo, um, which basically means we can help you with all the operational support that any business needs, which is, you know, fantastic.
From marketing, HR, finance.
Rah: It's endless. It's endless. Yeah,
Emily: we do a bit of everything. All the
Rah: departments of a business, you guys have got. Yeah, we've got. Fingers in those pies. That's correct. We've got wonderful
Emily: women on our team who specialize in all those different areas. We didn't want to Pigeonhole ourselves into one area, really.
Rah: And especially, oh God, we might, I might be leading into the topic for today as well, but I find it happens with my clients and I'm just one person and I imagine you guys get this all the time of they come to you for one thing and then realize they need more and then they realize you can actually do it.
Oh, gotcha. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yes.
Emily: That's exactly it. And. At the moment, I think we find a lot of it's coming from a website perspective, and then it does delve into, because websites, you know, is one holistic, one little [00:04:00] piece of the holistic digital puzzle.
Rah: It's a big, painful piece.
Emily: Massive. Um, and then it's, you know, tends to lead to those other questions that go, Oh yeah, okay.
And I think it's also one of those things we very quickly try to explain that sometimes it's actually better to not have. One person do your website, one person do your social media, one person do this, one person do that, have, you know, a one stop shop. There we go. Had to throw it in. Oh yeah. I think we should
Rah: get a dollar every time.
Everyone remembers to drop that in.
Emily: You know, we'll take a dollar for it every time. Yeah, it's actually secretly a drinking game for people that listen to this. Oh!
Rah: But, you know. What a shame that this lovely drink thing is over. From the bar at the Bella Vista hotel is not alcoholic. We are here on a Friday.
We're doing, we're doing this podcast. We really are. We'll sort that out. But yeah, it's, it's
Emily: designed, I can do some ASMR. Oh, I love it. Um, yeah, so that's, [00:05:00] that's the design was to basically, we fit all your needs and aimed for businesses that are. From one person to, you know, I mean really any size, but tends to be the ones that are short of being a big corporate organization that can actually afford it.
Also, like, you know, a business comes and they think, oh yeah, I need a website, you know, that kind of thing, but then it leads into something else, but they didn't know at that particular time what they needed. Yeah. Um, or through the process, it's identified what they need. And that's the great thing about being able to provide a suite of services rather than just being niched seriously tightened down into one offering.
I think too, like people don't realize sometimes one of the, all the elements that go into something is. You know, they're like, Oh, yeah, we just get a website, but they don't realize that SEO needs to happen. You need to do some, like, make sure your website's actually designed correctly and has, um, you know, out alt text on all your imagery.
You need to have the right size images. You need to have mobile [00:06:00] optimization, like there's so many bits and pieces that they just don't realize. And a minor
Rah: segue. I need to have a rant about, I know you guys aren't, you know, Squarespace girlies, but I'm a, I'm a newbie to the Squarespace scene and understand why everyone you know, who uses it loves it.
And just pulling in templates from the different builders and whatever, and been doing it on Squarespace. And you know what? They do not have an H1 tag in their templates. So when I'm trying to build something, and actually this was happening in A CRM, I was building a landing page for a client the other day and I said, I'm just gonna use this template and then customize it.
There were three H one tags on that particular template, and I'm like, what?
Emily: So for those that don't know, H one is heading one,
Rah: yeah's heading. Oh, sorry. I'm looking at Chris having a rancher. She's going, ah, I'm just doing that. Mm hmm. Not what you tell me, girlfriend. Think of the title at the top of your Word document.
Yeah, I mean, I understand the whole concept of headings. No, we don't want three headings. And that also affects your SEO. Yes, of course it does, because it confuses the bots. The bots don't know what you're talking about.
Emily: [00:07:00] No. Now you're making me think I need to go check a site.
Rah: There's a plug in for that.
Um, I'll send you the Chrome plugin extension. Sorry. Yeah,
Emily: it's little things like that people don't don't get. And yeah. And so I'm a Wix Wix website builder. Um, you know, and I don't like WordPress. So to that too. Um, and thankfully it is, I find it really straightforward. And from an SEO perspective too, it's got a beautiful checklist set up too.
And it runs all through for you as well. So you don't need a whole lot of, you know, If you're a little bit switched on techie, you could figure it out, which is what I like. And it tells you that stuff as well, which is really, really handy.
Rah: Yeah. I don't tell new client or people who are building a website from scratch.
I'm like, don't use WordPress.
Emily: No,
Rah: it's
Emily: too hard. It's so too hard. You need someone to build it. Yep. And I mean, look, I would highly recommend everyone get someone to build your website that knows what they're doing. Ooh, do you mean outsourcing, Emily? I do mean outsourcing.
Rah: That [00:08:00] is awesome. What
Emily: an excellent topic for discussion.
It's
Rah: almost like we
Emily: had already thought we were going to talk about outsourcing. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, if you want a professional, it's my chair. Just I'm sitting on the edge of my chair. Um, promise I don't fart. I was going to do a try and do an idea.
Rah: It didn't work. Sweaty enough. I thought you brought your spare straw in the bag too.
People are going to think I'm weird about having my fart straws in my pencil case. Oh, I did it. I heard it, but
Emily: I don't think the microphone did it. And you
Rah: know what's
Emily: funny? That was not my
Rah: straw. It was your chair, right? It was my butt. Jokes. Sorry, Harry. Do not pay attention to me. Oh, no. Harry loves a good fart.
Yeah, no. We're totally entertaining the six year
Emily: old
Rah: here. There we go. Okay. Sorry. So continue. Sorry. Um.
Emily: Outsourcing. So yeah, websites are a big one, I think too, because if it's also timing, even if you're a bit techie [00:09:00] and could figure it out yourself, um, it's the time in which things take to do. And you know, a website for someone like us who actually do this properly for people, it still takes hours for us.
So then add that times about three or four to someone who doesn't know what they're doing. And you've got weeks of time burnt that you could just pay someone to do it. Yeah.
Rah: And I know every time I've built a website for someone, I'm always under quoting, so they're actually getting a better deal out of me.
Emily: Um, yeah. Same. Same. Same. We've had that conversation
Rah: very recently. Yeah. Because you think something's going to be easy, but then the reality of the back and forth and the tweaking and whatnot, that whole only two revisions. Yep. It's bullshit. It's bullcrap. And there's a lot
Emily: of, well that's the true, and like I know for us, the time to go through a website with the client, you know, you've got a couple of meetings prior, you've got then a [00:10:00] meeting midway when you do the first reiteration of it and get feels for how they feel about it and what their vision is and what can be delivered and then, you know, that final tweaking before it's published and we hand it over.
Um, It, it takes a lot of time. And even the, the content part, it's not even like, you know, so Emily and I split, split the role and she's doing the, the hard yards building of the website and I'm pulling together the words and Yep. And everything for the client. And that takes a lot of. Back and forth and time and thinking and, and everything.
And the words are such an important part of the
Rah: website itself.
Emily: Absolutely. It changes how you lay a page out. So one of our, one of our clients we've just finished a website build for provided us like amazing information. It was like one of the best, here's everything I want kind of thing. It helps too that like some of that information was already, they had already formulated.
So it was all. It was good to go. [00:11:00] Um, but you know, it still required a lot of time for Chris to go through and rework it. And then we put it up on the website and then again, how it's displayed changes the way in which that works. So you have to then rework it again. And it's that whole, like I get to the point where I go blind almost like looking at a site.
You need to red team it. That's what we used to call it in my
Rah: old job.
Emily: Yep. And it's just, it's like that stuff people don't realize how hard it is. Like it's, it's so much time and effort and work that You know when they do realize
Rah: when they're doing it themselves and they're six days in and they are over it.
Emily: No, absolutely. And they can't
Rah: work out how to change the font or whatever. And the scary thing is
Emily: that, you know, and it, and for a lot of them it comes, most of them it comes down to a money thing. Yep. You know, we know that time is money, and if you don't have the knowledge to do a task, you take three to ten times longer to do a task.
Which costs you so much more. Costs you
Rah: more money. Because you're worth, you're the most valuable asset in your business. [00:12:00]
Emily: Absolutely. You're the person who should be on the front page. Face of your business. Yep. Talking to your customers, your clients, selling your product, spooking, being out there, and if you are stuck in your office at, you know, for 11 hours a day, six days, whatever, or whatever it is, that because you are still trying to build your website Yep.
You, you have completely stepped. Yeah. So, you know, from a productivity in business piece, outsourcing is a, a necessity. There comes a time in business where, yeah, you're not necessarily going to have the bank balance that, um, You feel comfortable parting without, to outsource for a role, a task, a project.
But you actually have to take the leap and you have to do it if you want to get more of a bank balance, more out there, grow your business, all of that. You've got to, you've got to do it. And, you know, according to whoever you want to ask online, um, I'm just going to do a bit of a, [00:13:00] these are the top five benefits of outsourcing.
Oh, there's two. Oh, a listicle. Oh, I love that. A listicle. I know. A bit of a number. Cost saving, obviously. Yeah. Is what we were just talking about. So outsourcing is a, is a money saver. It does cost, but it does save. But you know what? It's
Rah: cheaper than trying to clone yourself. It
Emily: really,
Rah: really is. Well, I've tried for years.
It doesn't work. Still not happened.
Emily: No, it's not. It's not. The next one would be access to expertise. So the people you're outsourcing to are experts in what they do. That's right. They didn't just look at a YouTube video to learn how to do it. They've been doing it for X number of years, X number of years of practice and learning and continuous improvement.
And hold qualifications most of the time.
Rah: What's that Van Gogh thing of, you know, he, He was asked to paint or draw something on a napkin and he was asking for 500, whatever massive amount. And the guy was like, well, it only took you three seconds. To do it. Mm-Hmm. , it took me a lot longer to learn how to be that quick.
Yep. That, that's exactly what [00:14:00] Yep.
Emily: You know, and that's, that's exactly right. That's again, links back to the paying, being paid for your worth. Yep. That we talked about. Um, and the next one is increased efficiency and focus because you are obviously then giving the tasks that are not. In your wheelhouse to people that it is in their wheelhouse.
And you now have that time and efficiency and ability to go and focus on the core competencies of your business. There's a word core competency. Oh, I love that. Um, It
Rah: sounds like we're reading a wrong job description description. I love
Emily: that. I thought you were going to say reading a rom com. Not my kind.
Um, the next part is flexibility and scalability, which means like obviously it allows you to scale up and scale down and you don't have to have a full time staff member. So it comes a lot of costs with having staff and this is outsourcing is a really good way of not having to pay for all the insurances and superannuation and annual leave and all of that kind of stuff that comes with staff member [00:15:00] employment.
And then often or not, sometimes the support you need is a project base and that means it has a timeframe. Absolutely. So it's not a long term thing. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, the great thing about outsourcing to somebody, you know, they might be new to a specific industry that you are, you belong to, but the skillset is transferable.
Um, and so it doesn't, it takes but a moment to, um, you know, understand the nuances. Um, and so, so much better than faster than you then trying to learn how to do what you should be outsourcing for. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Now, um, tell us what the genius is. The last point of the genius. Yes. Which is my brain just going, Oh, of course it is innovation and creativity.
Oh my God. Yes. Well, from a personal, um, from a personal light business owner, um, perspective, [00:16:00] um, we outsource work, uh, to support us in, um, everything. And, you know, adding back to that point of we are the tech, we are the company that, People should outsource too, because of the services we provide, we still choose to outsource within our own company because we have identified that we don't have one capacity.
That's right. And, um, and also, you know, it's important for us to walk the talk as well. But for us, it was just not having the capacity to do some things. And. in talking to, um, our awesome, awesome person who is kicking our butt. Um, in all the right ways, in all the right ways, darling. Um, but yeah, just identified and we could just, we were just having a chat the other day and, you know, she's coming up with like, Oh, you know, whatever it is, but you know, it's like, Oh my God, I didn't think about that at all.
You know, highlighting some stuff and, um, and some due dates for a project and whatnot. And that's great. So, and, you know, we've got a few ways. that we want to work [00:17:00] differently with clients, so that's a roundabout and innovative project that we're working on. Um, and it's important because when you're tied down in the day to day of your business and then mooching your business life with your personal life, you can lose, you just lose something and you need, sometimes you just need someone in who.
Highlight that oops, you forgot this or you could do this or this is how I think you could do it better or thinking outside the box. Like I know for me, I'm a massive collaborator of a human being, which I'm sure I've said before, but I, I like feed off people's energy and I get so many good ideas off people.
Hello.
Rah: How did this podcast come to be? Um,
Emily: yeah, that's the thing, you know, like every time Chris Rahr and I went to see Ann Juliette at the casino. Um, what is the theater called? Um, and over our wonderful all you can eat buffet that we were having, we [00:18:00] came up with such magical things and it's like, that I love.
And it's like, I, every time I go. It's, it's also like minded people too when being around those and I, but man, I, I, my creativity goes through the roof. Like the amount of times Chris and I have driven up to networking events, I know we went to one at the beginning of this year in Newcastle and on our way back, we were just, I was like, what if we do this?
Oh yeah. You guys were on fire
Rah: coming back from that. A thousand miles
Emily: an hour. My brain was like, it's probably cause I'm also a
Rah: bit ADHD. But I was just like. the two of you. If you, one can. Talk and the other one can take the notes. Well, yeah, she remembers and also goes, Oh, one's driving. Yeah, yeah, one drive,
Emily: one talk and plan and plot and record.
And also, um, you know, we're very, very lucky, um, as in Emily is big sky thinking, big picture, and I am the one who goes, fantastic idea. It's not feasible. What, 25 steps do we need for that? Or no, that is impossible, you've got to park it. Or that's a, yeah, that's a great idea, but that's actually not a now idea, but park it on the big [00:19:00] sky list on.
You know, on our wall, the post it note. Yeah, she told me if I'm being, if it's too hard or too, too, or much later on or, yeah, we can, like, she helps me bring it back to reality. Yeah, and you know what, in my previous life, um, in, um, supporting a dean at a university, When the Dean, um, was finishing up after a seven year tenure and, um, you know, she was going through her projects in her email, like, you know, all of this stuff that she had marked and she said to, It's always written down.
You know that you're never going to get to everything. You know, it's the whole thing coming back to a to do list. Um, but it's that, you know, capturing everything. Because you just don't know when something will have its time. Yep. Um, and I know we're getting a little bit off the whole outsourcing thing, but um, but you know, it is about having people around you to help you identify things like that.
Yep. And outsourcing, you know, we want outsourcing because that's our business model. Outsource business to us and we'll provide that [00:20:00] service. Same for you. Ra, but also, um, you know, even in our collaborations, we're outsourcing thinking and trying to get people's ideas. We're outsourcing. We took every day.
We're just, that's what we do. Yep. Oh, what we do.
Rah: Yeah. I've got a client who, um, had a one woman show that she did as part of the comedy festival circuit last year. And one of the things she included in her, it was a 50 things she's learned in 50 years thing. Um, and one of her 50 things that she's learned.
In that time is to surround yourself with people who are smarter
Emily: than you. Oh, yes, absolutely. You are meant to be the dumbest person in a room because you will learn so much, but you can't take benefit. I mean, you know, you can meet nice people. Absolutely. So many nice people. But if you are the smartest person in the room, you are not going to learn and grow from that exercise.
I totally agree with that. I think I need to do. You know, 50 things I've learned in 50 years. You could do another podcast. You [00:21:00] could do your own podcast. I mean, I've always wanted to start one about motherhood. Yeah, so off you
Rah: go. Yeah,
Emily: I need to.
Rah: Well, I need to start a podcast about starting a podcast. Oh, yeah, I think that's
Emily: good.
I think that'll just be a chapter in a book somewhere. I think that's where you'll need to write a book. Yes, absolutely. But yeah, no outsourcing. It's important. I mean, goodness me, people outsource in their personal life. I had my cleaner came yesterday. People have a tax counter. Is it a counter? Yeah, that's right.
You know, absolutely. Absolutely. Get my lashes done. Get my nails done. I've got a lovely gentleman who comes and manages the hedges a couple of times a year. That sounds a whole lot different to how I think you meant it. I know, I had to say, um, you know. Sorry, my headphones just fell off then. Yes, I had to say that, but no, Damon does the actual hedges at the house.
But, um, yeah, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to outsource because you're doing it in every facet of your [00:22:00] life anyway. I mean, somebody who has an employee has outsourced. So outsource because your business model doesn't enable you to have an employee. And I think also too, people are, I know, like I'm, I'm someone that always stresses about the cost and I think people stress about the cost of it.
But like have a conversation with someone because I think you'd find a lot of people are reasonably flexible to, you know, uh, don't expect people to lower their prices. I think that's one to just immediately get your head around. People should be paid what they, they should be paid, but talk about payment plans and talk them out.
Like there's stuff that you can have that conversation to, well I can only do this much at this point in time. Yeah. It's like, okay, well in that we can help you with, you know, X, Y, and Z. Yep.
Rah: And this is also why projects like a website has milestone payments. That is right. Those sorts of things. You're not paying, you know.
Emily: Everything up front.
Rah: Yeah, like I had like, I'd been saving for getting my branding done properly as opposed to me doing it in Photoshop, you know, while I'm watching TV. Yeah. [00:23:00] And once I twigged that I'm going to have like a month, month and a half to pay for it because I was doing it in the payment plan.
Yeah, it makes it so much. Yeah. And I was like, Uh, yeah. So, you know, it's, it's feasible. And even if you're doing packages of things, like I've got clients who. Have me on a retainer so they, you know, I charge them the same amount every month and they've got my hours and I give them more because I love them.
Um, or because I'm really excited about something that I'm working on, but then I've also got people who it's almost like the old days of prepay phones. I guess I still around, but you know, they pre pay for 10 hours and then use it. Keep them on, keep them up on how their tabs going and then recharge down the track because that just works for them.
You know, so there's different ways of doing. There is. And for the right people, it will work.
Emily: So, you know, have a conversation, don't, don't decide no because you think you can't pay for it. It can be something that might be massively beneficial for your business if you just have the conversation. Yeah.
Rah: And I've had, like, this is a conversation I have a [00:24:00] lot of the time when I'm talking to potential clients.
Um, a lot of the time I'm saying you're at capacity, right? Like you can't do any more. And even if they can technically do the work, do they have the time? And they are a finite resource because it's them that's making their business. What is their business and what's making them different? And they can't clone themselves.
Nope.
Emily: Nope. Not at all. No, exactly. And I mean, that's the thing I think we've all had to come to terms with, regardless of what we do for our, like in our businesses is capacity. Exactly. And I know that, you know, I myself admit that I am shockingly bad at overloading myself constantly. We're both, Chris and I are both very, very good at that.
But there's, I think, you know, we, Chris and I ended last year so burnt out. And so, Fucked. Yep. That we just like we shut our gifting business down for this last basically six and a half months. Yeah. And that's at the detriment to that business. But there was just no way we had it in us to [00:25:00] keep doing it.
So like we're just trying to reboot it now for Christmas. But it's, and that's our passion. Like, I mean, we don't get me wrong. We love our main business very much, but that's a really beautiful creative outlet for both of us. And it's such a passion piece, but, and for us to be so burnt out that we just didn't even think about wanting to look at it.
Yeah. Like speaks volumes. Yeah. And you know, that's because we were not being sensible with what we can and can't do. And I think I do feel like it was the right decision. choice to make. Oh, it certainly was. Absolutely. But we needed it. Yeah. And I do think we've, I mean, I still think I'm busy, but I feel better for it, I think.
But on the flip side, I'm itching. I really want to do it now. That creative rest part of my world, um, has gone and I'm looking forward to getting, um, that back. And so the time is now. Um, and, and even in that, In that instance, we've already been having a chat [00:26:00] with our, um, you know, person who's helping us in Juniper Road to, you know, say, oh, there's some stuff in the gifting business that we're going to need some help with because we cannot burn ourselves out again.
No, we can't. Essentially, that would just become even worse detriment to both of the businesses. Yeah. I mean, it's so important. That we don't burn ourselves out and, um, but it's also like we, I feel like we've been better this year going, no, I don't have capacity for that anymore. And like, actually we bit the bullet and went, we need help.
We brought in our amazing teammate. To help us keep us accountable because we knew that we needed to invest in the business and in ourselves by taking that load off. I still think we can do better at it, but we've taken that initial step to go, this is what we need. You're not going to be working at a hundred percent from the beginning.
Well, everyone's capacity changes too. And I feel like, you know, me personally has had a bit more flexibility this year, which has been fucking great. Um, and it has allowed me [00:27:00] to take on more or whatever I might need. It's taken the pressure off. The flexibility is taking the pressure off me to allow me to do bits and pieces extra, which has been really, really good.
But you know, we did identify that we needed to outsource and. Um, we took that and bit the bullet and it's been helpful, it's been very helpful to be able to get through some things that we've had sitting there for ages that we said I'm going to get to. Yep. Um, and that's the hard part. That's the, that's the hard step to take, right?
Yeah. Is when, when to know is the right time to do that. Yep. Yeah, so I think that's good too that because we, we do that journey, um, the whole lot of us here, um, in our businesses and we know the decision is tricky and how much it takes to as a small business owner to do. So I think that also helps us, um, understand when the client is faced with that.
Yep. Decision. Absolutely. Um, and try and do our best to, you know, make it easy for them, easy to make a decision, um, to do that and, [00:28:00] um, you know, we're not, and, and just, just be kind in the way we, we look at pricing and packaging and what, you know, what that service looks like in, in a money type of point of view for a small business operator.
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
Rah: Yeah. The market is shit house at the moment. So, that's right. It's very tricky. But having that understanding is something that I'm finding the clients are grateful for. Oh, they certainly do appreciate it.
Emily: Absolutely. And I think if you, you know, you are empathetic towards that situation, um, and then it helps you in a long way because they do say that, you know, you're not just about taking money, you're about delivering a brilliant service.
Yes. And that's the other thing I think I'd recommend for people is. Don't just jump on the first person, like talk to a few people, find someone that fits your vibe. Yep. And you feel like you just get the good gut feeling from because there are lots of people we've encountered over our time that are just in it to take your money [00:29:00] and don't really care about what they are actually providing you as a service and can fuck you over.
And they're a bit, it's my biggest pet rage. Yep. Um, and that can be. Horrible. Yeah. Horrible experience. Yep. Um, so it's just, you know, make sure you do shop around and there's a lot of people out there. There's a lot of platforms out there where you can find virtual and remote work. Yep. We are speaking to the wonderful Rosie.
Rah: Yeah. From,
Emily: um, Virtually Alls. Yep. Very shortly. Um, and you know, she's a perfect example of the virtual assistant world and runs a really, really good show. Yep. Also, she's just amazing. Um, very down to earth. Big help. Yeah, and
Rah: you know, but there's plenty of places where you can yeah Go and have some of like the old recruitment days where you have someone who's going to do that filtering for you.
I've got my clients I've got through in that, in that method through, um, the VA lead network. Fabulous. Yeah. Um, and yeah, Fiona's great, you know, with her network of, [00:30:00] you know, Organizing, you know, doing that sort of recruitment level type advertising,
Emily: that
Rah: stuff.
Emily: Um, if you don't, if you need a service and you don't know the, you know, the deliverer of that service and you don't know people who have experience or have used a service before and can give you some personal feedback about their experience, what, you know, it's like, Oh my God.
Rah: Feasible
Emily: to the advertising for, yeah, exactly. And also get an idea of what price ranges are out there too. Yeah, exactly. Like you, I mean, I say this knowing that I have like a cake business and everyone loves to shop around for cheap cakes. And that's just so not a reality to what it actually takes to do a cake.
The, you know, like you can shop around, you can compare prices, but mostly to know you're not being ripped off as well. Yeah. Not so much to find the lower. It's like how you get,
Rah: you get three quotes for a plumber. If you can be bothered a lot of the time, I'm just happy with whoever's willing to turn up on the door.
But [00:31:00] for us in my apartment building with Dryda, we always go with the three. Yeah.
Emily: Yeah. And
Rah: then work out which one was the most reliable. Was that actually ended up, ended up being the guy that was cheapest or the most expensive. You know, you've just got to, yeah, trust your gut.
Emily: No, well you do.
Rah: The times when I've not trusted my gut with, you know, taking on people, even as clients, people who
Emily: didn't work out,
Rah: you know, I should have listened to my gut, but I needed to learn.
So I've learned it now. I know.
Emily: That's the thing too. We've had that too. You know, clients that we didn't trust our gut with and haven't, like things don't always end beautifully. Um, yeah. Yeah. And people just need to be, you need to be aligned. You need to find the right vibe with someone and then you know that you're on the right thing.
Rah: And you know, it might be the right fit. Like I had a client where it was going to be a great fit. We got on like a house on fire, but professionally we, it just did not gel,
Emily: no, no.
Rah: And that sucked because you know, it really stung when we broke up, but I understood why like if there's no, there's no hard feelings whatsoever,
Emily: no, but [00:32:00] you know, it's
Rah: just, it's just a learning.
Emily: It is. And, and that's the thing. Some lessons are hard to learn and long to learn and um, you know, and if you can't and you. If you can't find people to help you, um, find the people you need, um, and recommend.
Rah: Yeah, because what I find as well with some of the clients that I've, um, or even potential clients, they've come to me and they've, they're at their wits end because they've been screwed over by people who promise the world, and then as soon as the money's handed over, they piss off.
And then, you know, they've got, you know, Shit pile left in front of them and they think their business isn't viable as an idea. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, this could be done so much more efficiently and be set up properly in future proofed. And then they are so relieved. Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah. Future proofing is so important too.
Yeah.
Emily: Seriously. Nothing worse than someone's screwing you over because they fuck up something in your business and then leave you high and dry. Yeah. And then when you finally have to do [00:33:00] something about it, you know, you can't fix, fix it because of whatever technicality. Yeah. Yes. I'm being very cryptic there, but I am.
Thinking about it. I feel like there's some, yes, some fresh wounds there. Well, you know, and not for me personally for a client, you know, and it was just created a long winded process. And it's also giving too many people the keys to the kingdom. Yeah. But it's, we have, we have had our own stuff lately with, um, a service provider taking the piss with us as well.
And we had trust that was broken. Yeah. And then when we kind of pushed back and, you know, said that we weren't happy with what we were receiving and we were paying exorbitant amounts of money for, Um, we got pushed back telling us that we did receive said services. But in order for us to get anywhere.
Let me show you the lack of receipts. Well, that's it too, because it was the, well, you need to prove to us that you didn't receive it. Yes. And it's like, oh. Oh, yeah, everything was, the onus was on us. Yeah. And uh, yeah. And that, [00:34:00] yeah. Apparently they hadn't heard about note taking. I know. It was sweet. Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
But um, but yes, I don't want to get all negative Nellie in around our outsourcing because that's not what we want to do, but there are horrible situations and experiences out there. But to also give
Rah: comfort
Emily: that we've
Rah: all
Emily: been
Rah: through it. Oh, we
Emily: have
Rah: all been through it. Yeah. But when, when it works, it works.
It's fucking great. Gold.
Emily: Absolute gold. And yeah, that's, that's, you know, to the point of you need to make sure you really know someone. You know, and that's why Google exists and that's why Google reviews exist for those exact reasons and word of mouth and networking. Like if someone is, is recommending someone else to you, you want to do that lightly.
Yeah. I don't think they'll trash people quick, but they will not recommend someone unless they really, really believe that they're the right person.
Rah: Every negative review is worth 10 positives. Yes. Without a doubt.
Emily: Yep. But people don't positively review publicly and that's why I think it's really important.
If you like a business, go leave a Google review. Yeah, do it. You have no [00:35:00] idea how much strength it holds.
Rah: Comment on their socials. Do more than liking it. You know. It's the
Emily: easiest way to support. And it's free at legit costs. Exactly. It does nothing but. You know, take you five seconds or five minutes speaking of don't forget to review this
Rah: podcast.
But it's a hard slog, but it's all part of having that business. And if you want to have a bit more flexibility in your life, you know, and it's actually a good lesson of having your procedures in place. Cause if you're going to outsource to someone, who's going to be doing something that's, you know, covered in your standard procedures, document that shit, get it out.
Emily: Absolutely. Yep. And if you don't have them, you can outsource the helpful. Yeah, exactly. In your SOP sorted. Yeah, exactly. But there um, And there are people out
Rah: there who exist to streamline your systems. Ooh, yes. Like, yeah.
Emily: Yeah, some people love that shit. Oh god,
Rah: yeah. Yes. Yeah. I'm kind of one of them. I'm all for
Emily: streamlining.
Rah: Make the ones and zeros on the [00:36:00] internet do it for you.
Emily: Oh man, the stuff you teach me. It's next level. Every time I talk to Rush it's like, oh there's a plug in for that. Let me show you this app
Rah: that does screenshots for me that copies the text. Oh my god,
Emily: I know I still have them open because I'm like, what is that?
That would save my life. Text replacement
Rah: on speed.
Emily: We should start a whole episode on things to make your life easier. Tips and tricks to make your life easier. I like it. It's
Rah: actually
Emily: a very, very good idea. Wait for that episode.
Rah: Coming real soon. Add that to the list. Yes. But if anyone's got any questions about outsourcing.
We'd be happy to answer them. We'd love to answer them. Send us an email. You can email hello at f around and find out podcast. com. au the email address in the show notes or you can ping us on our socials. So we've got the Instagram, we've got YouTube and Tik TOK, and you check those accounts. So yeah. Yeah.
Technically we've got Facebook, fucking Facebook wells do, including me, people, second generation. I rant. I [00:37:00] rant about hating it, but
Emily: yeah, I do like even I'm on it.
Rah: Yeah, , I'm still on my
Emily: Facebook era. Yeah. No, I'm, no, I'm lying. I'm Instagram's about, I'm
Rah: Facebook babe.
Emily: Insta.
Rah: I'm Facebook groups.
Emily: They annoy the shit out of me.
Groups. Yeah. I manage a lot for people, but fuck, they're just annoying. They're just so hard to look after. They're not easy. And the fact that you can't schedule through scheduling tools anymore really pisses me off. You can just do it
Rah: in the front end. That's fine. I
Emily: know,
Rah: but
Emily: then like, um, no, but the level of group that I'm having to manage has got like 65 people with fingers in the holes for these groups.
And like, it's just, Really, at least I could kind of standardize it and keep an eye on it that way, but now I can't. Now I have to go into all these individual, and one of the main like people I do it for, like there's 49 groups. That's a lot to like manage, so it's a lot of work. I'm trying to reduce them down because it's way too many groups.
Rah: Yep. Bit diversified that audience. But yeah. For different, different
Emily: purposes, but [00:38:00] yeah, it's still a lot.
Rah: Yeah. Yes. Lovely talking to you ladies as always. That's all I got in me. Let's go
Emily: have a, let's go have a wine. I think some hot chips. I did promise someone some hot chips. Oh yes. for joining us, Harry.
Rah: Yes, Harry. Um, thank you. Get up from your nap. Tell everyone to like and subscribe. Yeah, you can say that. Like and subscribe.
Emily: Yay! Harry does secret YouTube channels at home. Before he could even like, have proper conversations, he would copy his YouTube. And then once you were finished, you go, thanks for watching, like and subscribe.
It's very cute, baby. Thanks for your participation, dude. Yes.
Rah: First bloke You are very welcome. Thanks for everybody listening. Thanks ladies. What a mess. Now we have to sing the outro song. Dude, ready go. Na na na na
Emily: na na na na. Boop boop boop. You're dancing babe, sing. Boop boop boop. I just want to dance. I just [00:39:00] want to dance.
I just want to
dance.
