#046: Three Things You Need to Outsource (Even if You’re New)

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.

Hey everyone. Thank you for joining me for episode 46 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. My name is Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. As a quick reminder, you can find detailed show notes of this episode by going to b2b launcher.com Episode 46 I have a really cool show lined up for you today and it's just me. So you just get Ed Gandia today and it's probably going to be a little shorter than average, but I'm going to be sharing three smart ways you can boost your freelance income starting almost immediately. And and it has to do with outsourcing. Three functions of your business that are often incredibly time consuming for business writers, yet in most cases, other people can do them better, faster or cheaper. And I will tell you that it may not make sense to do all of them at once. It really depends on where you are in your business right now, what kind of work you're doing, and which one of these would actually bring you the biggest benefit immediately, if any of them will. But at some point I will tell you this, this is something you're going to have to take a look at. And I'm willing to bet that most of you can probably start outsourcing at least one of these functions starting today and gain immediate benefit from doing so. So let me first tell you what these services are that you should consider outsourcing. And then I share my experiences with each. And I'm also going to tell you as we go through each one, who I currently use for two out of the three services that we'll be discussing today. So the three services are very simple. Number one is proofreading and light editing. Number two is transcriptions, and number three is bookkeeping. And you can go ahead and throw accounting in there, you know, tax filing and so forth. So let's address these in order. Proofreading and light editing. Now, I don't want to get in trouble with the editors who listen to the show or the proofreaders who listen to the show. I know that there's definitely a distinction between proofreading and editing. However, I'm going to go ahead and, for the purposes of our discussion, and kind of lump them together because even though they're distinct functions, as I will explain here in a minute, the source or the resource that I use actually does both of these for me. Now, I will introduce this idea by letting you know that I don't have a formal writing background. I was a finance major in college, and I ended up with a sales job right out of school. And the way I got into writing is I quickly realized in my first job that my employer couldn't, or in some cases wouldn't, depending on which employer we're talking about. They just couldn't provide me with the marketing and sales materials that I needed to do my job and to make my sales quota. So I started writing my own. My own stuff. And, you know, I could write okay. I got better over time for sure, as the more I practice, the more I learned. But when I launched my freelance business and I started writing for clients, I quickly realized how difficult it is to. To proofread your own work. And I realized that it had little to do with how good a writer you are and more to do with the fact that it's your own stuff. And fortunately, I learned this the hard way. And I learned it by having my writing clients point out errors to me in the drafts that I was submitting. And that's really embarrassing. It seems like no matter how many times you go through a draft, there are still little issues here and there that are just easy to miss. You're just too close to it. In fact, I would say that the closer you are to your draft, the more challenging it becomes to catch typos and grammatical and punctuation errors. Anyway, after one particular embarrassing miss, I contacted a colleague of mine just to cry on her shoulder because I was mortified and she understood my dilemma exactly. She made me feel a lot better by letting me know that she had actually experienced the same. The same outcome before in some of these challenges, and that I wasn't alone. That many writers just have, if not most writers have trouble proofreading their own material. So it wasn't. Had nothing to do with the fact that I just wasn't a good writer. It's that these are different functions. And, you know, I forget exactly how the conversation went, but I do remember talking about how there's writing, there's editing, and there's proofreading, and you usually are not excellent at all three. So she basically said, yeah, I'll tell you who it was. It was my friend and colleague, Diana Huff. Diana has always been a great friend. She's extremely knowledgeable, always willing to share ideas with others. And we. We've always had a great relationship. We've actually suggested different resources to each other that have worked out really well for us. And she suggested a higher proofreader and she even gave me the name and contact information of the company she was using. Now my first thought when she told me that was I can't afford to hire a proofreader. I mean, I'm not yet charging professional level rates for my work. This was early in my business. I want to say it was maybe year two. But when I took a closer look at the proofreader that she suggested, I quickly realized two things. Number one, yes, I could afford this, I could afford a proofreader. And number two, this wasn't an option. I started realizing, wait a minute, this is, I have to do this, I need help. This is going to continue to be a problem. And I can't have that kind of anxiety as I'm writing, you know, as I'm editing and trying to prove my own stuff, wondering, oh my gosh, you know, there's probably an error here that I'm not seeing. And I realized that in order to grow my business, in order to boost my rates, I had to start delivering a higher quality error free product. And I couldn't guarantee the quality of my work if I didn't have a quality assurance team behind me. That's the way I started looking at it. You know, this is, I recognized that there were things, some things I did well and there's some things that I really needed to get some help with and have a team of people or a person, it didn't really matter who could help me deliver a higher quality product. So I started using the proofreader that I in a suggested and let me just tell you right now who they are. I'll tell you a little bit more about them. The company's called Proofread now and you can find them@proofreadnow.com I started using them immediately. I want to say it was within a day or two of having that conversation. And this is, you know what, I know exactly what it was. This is 2006 and I've been a happy client of Pruv right now since then. Fall is 2006 and I got to tell you, at $11 per 500 word page, this service is a no brainer. In fact, you know, I just realized this. They have not increased their rate since I started using them. $11 for 500 words for just a basic proofreading job. They can. So you think that's good? Let me tell you more. They can actually turn around your document in as little as one hour if you needed it that fast. Now of course you're going to pay more than $11 for that kind of rush job, but their standard turnaround is 24 hours. Now here's the really cool thing about that 24 hour thing. The first time I used them, I, I remember finishing my draft on a Friday afternoon and it was due on Monday. And I even called the, the company, Proofread now, and I talked to the owner, Phil, because I didn't know what they meant by 24 hours. To me. There was no way I was going to get this back on a Saturday, right? So I thought, well, 24 hours, they're probably talking one business day, one full business day. So I needed to know, listen, are you guys talking about like, you know, tomorrow is in Saturday or are we talking about Monday? I figured it was Monday, but I kind of needed to know when on Monday because I had promised a draft to the client on Monday. So I want to make sure that they didn't mean five o' clock on Monday, you know, same time the next business day. So I called Phil and I talked to him. Great guy. And he said, no, that is truly 24 hour turnaround time. You get it to me. And at 8pm on a Saturday, you'll have it by 8pm on Sunday in almost every situation. And I thought that that's, that's amazing. That is amazing. Not only that, but Proofread now uses two proofreaders for every document that you send them. So it's just an extra layer of security, of quality control, which helps ensure that all errors are caught. And that does happen. You get to see the changes tracked. You know, when you use Microsoft Word, they'll track the changes and you'll see that the first proofreader caught most of them, but the second person usually catches a few things as well. So that's fantastic. Now these days, I use Proofread now for every client project that I write. And my clients consistently comment on the quality of my drafts. And I've become a better writer as I've learned the mistakes I make repeatedly. That's kind of a benefit that I wasn't expecting. You know, you start making the same mistakes over and over again, right? And they keep pointing them out over and over again. And you train yourself not to make the same mistake. So my writing has definitely gotten better. Now. There are many other talented proofreaders out there. I'm not suggesting Proofread now is the only option. In fact, I, I'm sure there are several proofreaders who subscribe to this podcast and listen to this podcast. So I don't want to suggest that again, this is the only option. I think there's some great proofreaders out there. But you know, my point is that if you're serious about commanding top fees for your work, don't try to proofread. Proofread your own work. Even if you're an excellent and accomplished writer, even if you think you can actually do a really good job of proofreading, edit as best as you can and then invest in a good proofreader or a proofreading service. Now, I like Proofread now so much that I recently approached them again after being with them for about seven years, I recently approached them about becoming an affiliate partner of theirs. And as many of you know, I only endorse products and services that I truly believe in, either because I've reviewed the product or service or I've used it myself. And in this case, this is a perfect example of something that I've used for seven years. I've spent thousands of dollars with these guys and only recently that I asked him if I could become a partner. Basically, that means that I'm going to give you their information. I'm going to show you how you can get a free job done so you can try them out. And if you decide to use them again, I will probably get a small commission for referring you to them. And here's how you can do this. So I talked to Phil. He is willing to do for anybody who takes him up on the offer. There's no strings. A free proofreading job for a document up to 1500 words, completely free. Here's what you need to do. Two simple steps. Set up an account with them step one after you set up an account, you need to enter the following code in the Rep field Representative field when you set it up in the code. I wish it was shorter, but this is what they gave me. 376-318-62 so 376-318-62 don't worry, this will be in the show notes so I'll make sure to reference that all this information. And then the second step is when you submit your document for proofing. Once you've selected something, let them know that I sent you and you can do that in the Notes field of your submission. The Notes field is also where you can go ahead and let them know what style guide you're using, if any specific information about this document you're sending them. What to Be on the lookout for what, to ignore, that sort of thing. I always use a notes field with every job that I submit. And so, you know, this is a great way to test them out, test their expertise, the quality of their work, and get a good idea of how the process work. So give it a try. Again, I earn a small commission on the work. I referred to these guys, so just know that. But I wouldn't be recommending them if I didn't believe in them 100%. Okay? So that is the first type of project that I would be, that I would consider outsourcing. The next type of service that you should consider is, and this doesn't apply to everybody, but it applies to many of you, transcriptions. And I tell you, this is probably one of the most wonderful things that I've been able to outsource is to outsource transcription work to a good and cost effective transcriptionist. So here's the deal. Here's how I discovered this. The first case study or success story that I ever wrote for a client took me more than 20 hours to complete. Now, just to kind of put that in perspective, I'll usually spend between five and eight hours on a typical case study. These days I just have a process down that I follow, that I created over the years, and I'm very efficient. But the first one took me 20 hours. And I actually want to say it was closer to 25 plus hours. The finished document was all of 1200 words. That was, that was my first draft. So just to give you an idea of how much time I spent now, part of the reason it went so slow was the fact that this type of work was new to me. Okay? So I was learning more than I was writing. But there's another big reason why it took me so long to complete, and that's that I had a 45 minute recorded interview to go through. And that interview I. It's the interview that I conducted with my client's customer. So in other words, this is the company that I was writing about my client's customer. And there's so many details and facets to the story that it was difficult to decide which elements should make the draft and which ones I should leave out. And to make sure I took everything into account, I had recorded that interview with my client's customer. And I played back the recorded interview and just took copious notes. And I use those notes to then supplement my original notes. And that process alone took me over three hours to complete a 45 minute interview. You can imagine pausing every few seconds to take some notes. And I then spent another hour or so playing back key sections of the interview so that I could jot down more exact quotes. So basically, after more than four hours of fiddling with this recording, I realized that there had to be a better way. And that's when a colleague of mine suggested that I try getting my interviews transcribed. And the idea was if I had a word for word transcript of the conversation, I could easily scan that document and get a much clearer picture of the story in a fraction of the time. Right. Another kind of unintended benefit that I discovered once I did this was that I could also use that find command in Microsoft Word to look up keywords or key phrases in the conversation, which is another huge time saver. And basically it depends on if you're on a PC, I think it's control F as in find and then you type in the word you're looking for. Or in a Mac it's command F. And that's huge. I use it all the time. The other benefit is I would have, by doing having a transcript, I would have key chunks of the story in the customer's words already typed up for me. And these are chunks of text that I could then copy, paste, and edit more easily than typing it all myself. Now here's the cool part. A 45 minute interview will cost less than $50 to transcribe. A 30 minute interview just runs a bit over $30. So considering that I was charging my client 1100 dollars for this specific project, $50 is a no brainer. Now, not every project calls for a transcribed interview, okay? And there are cases when going this extra step is not going to save you time. I realize that, but I found that when you interview an expert who has a ton of information and details to share with you, and you know you're gonna have to kind of process it all, it's best to rely on a recorder in the resulting transcript. And that's because you can focus on what the interviewee is saying and not on trying to take it all down as he or she is talking. Right. That kind of stress doesn't allow you to really listen and to ask smart follow up questions. I want to be present, I want to be engaged with that person and I want to be able to kind of process the information as he or she is giving it to me and then really think through it and ask questions that will maybe extract better information out of this expert. So these days this is how I do interviews. I record any client interview that involves A lot of detail or any complex or technical discussions. Of course. I ask the interviewee permission first to record the call and I explain why I do this, which is the reason I just shared with you. I want to be able to engage with you and listen to you and think about what you're saying and not on trying to take detailed notes. I just tell them, listen, I'm a slow note taker, which I am, and I've never been turned down when I asked for permission. So it's the professional thing to do. In some cases it's the legal thing to do. You have to ask permission before you hit the record button, by the way. One quick tip here as an aside. In terms of how to record the conversation, my favorite approach is to use a free conference call Service. I use FreeConferenceCall.com you can set up a free account. I've had colleagues who say that freeconference calling.com is a better option, more reliable option. So I haven't tried that one. But freeconferencecall.com has worked for me for years. Reliable about 98% of the time. And when it's not reliable, it's not that it loses the recording or anything like that. Sometimes it's got a little glitch where you're there waiting for the other party and they're there too, but you're not in the same room. So you're getting the hold music, they're getting the hold music. And you know that happens about, I don't know, 5% of the time or so. Not, not very frequently. But it's a free service. There's really apparently no catch. I have no idea how these people make money. But anyway, free conference call.com, free conference calling. Com, two different options to check out. Now for my transcriptions, I've been using capital typing, which is capitaltyping.com for also about seven years now. And they do great work at very reasonable fees. They're also very responsive and they offer other administrative services that can come in handy. So check them out when you go to their website, see what other. If you going to try them with a transcription work, see what other services they offer and you may want to look into those as well. I have no experience with. I've had them do some actual typing for me, retyping of some, some documents that I didn't have. OCR technology, optical character recognition. This is years ago and I had them retype a bunch of stuff for me. But other than that I have no experience with anything outside their transcription services. I also like the fact that they have a variety of turnaround options. So you can ask to get it back in five to seven days, which is their standard turnaround time. As I'm recording this, I believe the current rate is about $65 per recorded hour. Or you can request 24 hour or 48 hour turnaround time if you're in a hurry. And of course speed adds to the cost. But you know, when I need it back quickly, I'm happy to pay a little more for that convenience here again, after using these guys for seven years, I a few months ago I approached them about becoming an affiliate partner, which means that if you use their services, I earn a small commission for that. Now, they don't have a formal way of tracking this, so if you end up contacting them, just let them know that I sent you and and my contact over there is David, David Jonas. And you can reach david@davidapitaltyping.com really good people. And I will make sure to include his email address in the show notes. So just like with a proofreading work, again, don't feel like you have to use these guys. My point is find someone you like, send work their way. You know, try a couple of people, see who you like and start getting into the habit of outsourcing some of these functions that you know, frankly are probably not the best use of your time, especially as you grow your business and as you start.