Tag Archives: Social Media

How To Free Up Your Time Using Online Outsourcing

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

My blog post on the time management tool ‘The Priority Matrix’ explains that in order to use your time more effectively and make more progress towards your vision and goals you will need to delegate.

There are many reasons to delegate –  it will free up your time to do more of what you want in life and business, you will make more and faster progress towards your goals and among many other benefits you will get access to the skills and talents of those who you delegate to.

Whether you are running a full-time business, a hustle on the side or building a brand there is always so much to do and one person cannot do everything.

I outsource as much as I can which frees up my time to write, research, create content and focus on what I need to focus on.

There are many websites offering outsourcing and judging by the expertise available you can outsource just about anything – Administration, Graphic Design, SEO, Web Development, Blog Editing, Podcast Editing etc, the list goes on and on.

My website of choice is Upwork.

Upwork is a user friendly, highly efficient website that makes the process of hiring and working with freelancers from all over the world so quick and simple.

To find suitable freelancers to work with through Upwork you will require the following

 

 

  • An e-mail account – this takes 5 minutes to set up on any of the free platforms

 

  • A method of payment – Upwork accepts Visa or Paypal – Paypal takes about 5 mins to set up

 

  • Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) – these are documents outlining the step by step tasks required that your freelancer can easily follow. The more detailed the SOP the more efficient the process will be – I use Google Docs to create SOPs as it is a dream to use and is easily sharable

 

  • An online sharing platform – this allows you to share your files/images/documents with your freelancer. My favourite online sharing platform is DropBox which takes 5 minutes to set up. I also use Google Drive which is very handy and is free with a gmail email account. 

 

All of the above are ABSOLUTELY FREE and are sufficient to get you on the road to hiring your first freelancer!!

When you have all of the above in place, you are ready to hire your first freelancer. Upwork’s hiring process is really simple and goes something like this

 

  • Create your job description on Upwork – the more specific you are when creating your job description, the more streamlined the hiring process will be

 

  • Post your job on Upwork – fabulous freelancers will then apply for it 

 

  • Review the applicants – for me this is the most challenging part of the process as there are so many talented people available through Upwork

 

  • Connect with/interview shortlisted applicants – as Upwork has access to globally based freelancers, chances are your preferred applicants won’t live near you and so you will need Zoom or another platform for face to face interviews. Most of the time there is no need to interview as the freelancer’s portfolio speaks for itself, such is the calibre of freelancers available on Upwork.

 

  • Hire your freelancer of choice – share the Standard Operating Procedure with goals, timelines and an agreed price for the job then sit back and relax. Your freelancer will notify you when the job is completed and Upwork will arrange payment. All that is left to do  is thank your freelancer for a job well done!!

Upwork is highly efficient – within 10 minutes of setting up my account I posted my first job, in 3 hours I had almost 20 job applicants and within that same day I hired my first freelancer. That was eight years ago and since then I have worked with the most talented, wonderful people from all over the world. 

Can fabulous freelancers help free up your precious time?

Can fabulous freelancers bring you and your business to a different level?

Could you make a side income by becoming a fabulous freelancer and sharing your gifts with the world?

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain 

x x

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My Top 5 Blog Posts of 2017

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It’s hard to be believe I have been blogging for over 5 years! My first blog ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Travel’ was born in August 2012 at the ‘Book Passage’ bookstore, Corte Madera (slightly north of San Francisco) at the Travel Writer’s and Photographer’s Conference.

Back then I wasn’t exactly sure what a blog was, the purpose of a blog or how to manage a blog. 5 years later and I’m not sure if I’m any the wiser! You would think I would know a good bit about blogging by now however every year I find blogging and writing in general a steeper learning curve than the year before. With everything I learn I find there is even more to learn just around the corner. Maybe this is what draws me to blogging/writing, the insatiable, ever steep and never ending learning that is an integral part of the writing and sharing process.

In 2017 I wrote and published 24 blog posts which is more posts than I have published in any previous year.  I am definitely getting more disciplined at writing, but still have a long way to go to my goal of writing and publishing a post every week!   

Here are my 5 most viewed blog posts of 2017.

14 Steps To Create A Website

Thanks to Michael Hyatt’s amazing book ‘Platform’, I learned more about growing a social media presence this year than I have learned in the previous 5 years since launching my first blog. If you are a blogger, writer or business owner of any type and want to know more about growing your blog, readership and business through social media, I highly recommend this book. It’s easy to read and the wisdom shared is really easy to implement.

It is thanks to ‘Platform’ and the huge amount of resources that Michael Hyatt shares on his blog that I was able to design and create my own new website ‘The Art Of Positive Change’ earlier this year.

This blog post takes you through the 14 step process I used to design and create my website.

Continue reading….

Meeting Art and Understanding Lean

In 2013 I was humbled and immensely grateful to meet Art Byrne. Art, author of ‘The Lean Turnaround’ is a living legend in the world of Lean and is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom that he is more than happy to share.  Art gave the keynote speech at the 2103 Lean Enterprise Academy Summit  – the video is embedded in this post.

This video is a must see for anyone interested in or implementing Lean.

Art says it as it is and his no nonsense, deeply wise approach to Lean is what we need more of in the world.

Continue reading….

Awareness and Action

This was the first post in my 26 part blog series ‘The Art Of Positive Change’. This blog series introduces my audience to ‘Pinky’ the Positive Pig created by the brilliant cartoonist Andy Kefford and brought to life through my blog posts. The blog posts series features and A to Z of the elements required to bring change into your life and business and there is no better place to start than ‘Awareness’ that change is required and ‘Action’ to implement change.

Continue reading….

The Complete A-Z Of Effective Change

This is the Central Page for my 26 part blog series ‘The Art Of Positive Change’ containing links to all of the published posts in the series.

So far I have published posts on Awareness, Bravery, Confidence, Dedication, Energy, Faith, Gratitude, Honesty, Imagination and Journey – all of the blog posts can be read by clicking on the links/images on this Central Page.

Continue reading…..

Gratitude

Another blog post in my 26 part blog series ‘The Art Of Positive Change’. This is my 3rd post on the subject of Gratitude and I’m sure this will not be the last. Gratitude is the single most effective way of bringing peace and acceptance to a situation. Gratitude when expressed is a very powerful force.

Continue reading….

To each and every one of my readers, thank you for being here.

Without you, it’s just words on a computer screen!

Keeping it simple,

Siobhain

x x x

 

 

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