Summary: <p>Have you been thinking about outsourcing some of your TpT related tasks? Or, have you tried and had a great experience? Or a bad experience? Join us in our Facebook group <a href="http://www.growwithusmastermind.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.growwithusmastermind.com</a> where we will further discuss this and many topics related to our Teacher Pay Teachers businesses.</p> <p>I want to start out by defining what we are talking about when we use the word “outsourcing”. We aren’t talking about editing. Both Angie and I have always used editors. I used to use my husband or a friend. Then, I tried exchanging working with other teachers where I would let them have the resource for free in exchange for their editing services. But, now I have an editor that I pay. You really need someone else to take double check your work for mistakes or things you have missed. It really isn’t optional, but having someone edit my work doesn’t really lighten my load.</p> <p>When we say “outsourcing”, we are talking about taking something that we would normally do ourselves and paying someone else to do it. It could be that they will do it better than we would, or just that they will get it done when we are procrastinating on the task. Either way, we have both found outsourcing to be incredibly beneficial to our TpT businesses.</p> <h2>Advantages of outsourcing</h2> <p>There are a lot of advantages when it comes to outsourcing.</p> <h4>Frees up time</h4> <p>There are a lot of things to do as teacher sellers. It can be easy to get so focused on things like keeping up with social media and building a following that it’s difficult to have time for product creation. However, you need those products in order to keep growing your business. When you outsource some of those “other” tasks you have the time freed up to create more products to sell.</p> <h4>Helps create a workflow</h4> <p>Outsourcing has really helped me to establish a workflow. For example, right now I am creating grammar resources right now and have several people helping me with their creation. I am able to create a template and send it to the next person who comes up with questions for the worksheet. We discuss the questions and put finishing touches on them and send it to the editor. When she’s finished checking it over we pass it along to the photographer. The photographer prints it out and takes pictures of it.</p> <p>Because of this process, I am able to get the entire process done in half the time it would take me to do it alone. I still get the final say about the work that is being completed along the way. So, the finished product is still exactly what I wanted it to be, but I didn’t have to do all the work for it.</p> <h4>Helps produce products on a more consistent basis</h4> <p>Since beginning to outsource and establish a workflow I am able to produce products on a more consistent basis. I know that the freelancers that I use are waiting to complete their piece of the puzzle on a specific day. If I don’t get them what they need in time I delay the entire process. Since I know that someone is waiting on me to get them the information it helps me not to procrastinate. By doing this I can create new products every week.</p> <h4>Lets you spend time doing the parts that you like</h4> <p>We all have certain tasks that we enjoy more than others. Those tasks that we don’t like can delay our process. If you are like Angie and me, you tend to procrastinate on the tasks that you don’t like to do. But, if you outsource those tasks to someone else, that enjoys doing them or is more skilled at doing them, you can focus your attention on the parts you like doing.</p> <p>Angie and I can both share plenty of stories of times when we were creating resources and we got stuck. For example, Angie shares about a time she was creating 180 days worth of word problems and how </p>
