Learn With Pickles/Optimize Your Outsourcing Class

Optimize Your Outsourcing: How to maximize your budget and minimize headaches when hiring

Do you have so much on your plate and so little time, but unsure of how to best use your hard-earned money in the most effective way?

As small business owners, we wear a million and 1 hats.

Have you had any of these thoughts recently?

  • "I think I need a Virtual Assistant."

  • "It's too hard to get people to be effective. It's not a good ROI; I might as well do it myself."

  • "I wish I could get rid of small tasks so I could focus on being strategic to grow my business."

  • "I have so much on my plate but I have no idea where to get help."

  • "It's just too risky to trust anyone to go hands-on into such vulnerable parts of my business."

  • "A social Media Manager costs so muchβ€” how can I make sure it will be worth it?"

I've been there before.

For 7 years, I was juggling a full-time job and my side business... by myself

It was hard to feel on top of everything I had to do for the business. I constantly felt behind and unable to pursue new ideas because all I was doing was executing on my must-do's (like packaging orders or responding to customers).

3 Truths I've Learned About Outsourcing

🫑 Offloading tasks, big to small, is much more doable than you think

πŸ™‹πŸ»β€β™€οΈ Eager, effective people are ready to help if you know where and how to look

πŸ’Έ You can pay fairly and get great work done without spending a fortune

Hi, I'm Kirstie and I love growing my business.

I grew my side hobby Etsy shop from a $200 investment to a product business with 6 figures in revenue while I worked full-time jobs in design and marketing.  After my small business generated steady and growing profit, I quit my corporate career.

Through the years, I've been able to grow a business to incredible heights only by outsourcing small and big tasks, hiring professional services to overhaul my email marketing and website, and local creatives to assist with everything from craft fair vending to order packaging.

What Drives My Spend and Time

My AAPI background

has made me very frugal and strategic with how I spend our profit to hire help.

An impossible (but true!) part of my small business story is how I only invested $200 in in my business and grew it by being strategic and careful with what I spent money on.

My faith and values

are at the core of how I run my business, with empathy and the recognition of individual worth at the forefront of hiring.

As a result, we have remarkable retention rates: to date, only two people have left our ongoing positions (one moved for college, one had a baby ;).

My years of corporate work

spanning various roles and tech companies has taught me how to streamline systems, communicate clearly, and optimize for efficiency.

Through 10 years running a small business, I've adapted and adjusted structures to better suit solopreneurs.

Let me help you gain clarity on what you can get off your plate so you can focus on more tactical parts of growing your business.

Course Outline

Optimize Your Outsourcing

Part 1: Gain Crucial Clarity

How to decide what to outsource and set yourself up for success with strategic questions surrounding "the why", determining the value, and how you'll measure success. Plus: biggest hiring mistakes.

Biggest Hiring Mistakes
Decide What To Outsource
Preview
πŸ“ˆ Decide What To Outsource: GSheet Template
❓ FAQ: What should I outsource first?
Gain Crucial Clarity
πŸ“ Questions for Crucial Clarity.pdf

Part 2: Outsourcing One-Offs

Small Gigs: Fiverr & Upwork
πŸ“ˆ Gig Jobs Comparison: GSheet Template
❓ FAQ: How do I know if a gig worker is trustworthy?
Professional Services
πŸ“ Am I Ready to Make This Investment?.pdf

Part 3: Contract & Hire

Calculate pay rate, find best places to post job reqs, and assess the best person for the job while avoid hiring headaches and miscommunication.

Prep
πŸ‘€ Examples: Loom, Tango, YouTube Tutorial
Determine Pay
πŸ“ˆ Determine Pay Timing Gsheet Template
Write the Req
πŸ“ƒ Job Req Posting GDoc Template
πŸ‘€ Example: Laser Engraver & Product Photos Job Req
Hunt and Hire
❓ FAQ: Where do I find people? Nobody is applying!
πŸ“ List of Interview Questions.pdf
Do NOT do this too soon
❓ FAQ: How do I know if they will be a good fit?
πŸ‘€ Example: Job Req Postings, Task Tracker Templates, more

Part 4: Reach Remarkable Retention

Set expectations, cohesively communicate, and reward your team to keep your team which saves you so much capital and time in the long run. Find scripts and resources for hard convos (giving feedback, letting someone go) for when you need to pivot.

Why is Retention Important?.mp4
Set Up For Success.mp4
πŸ“ Values Exercise.pdf
πŸ“ 1-on-1 Check In Questions.pdf
Preview
How To- Hard Convos.mp4
❓ FAQ: The person I hired is not meeting job expectations at all- where did I go wrong?
πŸ“ Hard Convos Scripts.pdf
Amplify Appreciation

Part 5: My Team and Experiences

A deep dive into Team Pickles and our job roles and responsibilities plus walkthroughs on exactly how to offload common job requisitions.

Team Pickles.mp4
Product Packager.mp4
πŸ“ˆ Product Packaging Instrux & Tracking: Gsheet Template
Studio Interns.mp4
πŸ“ƒ Studio Interns Checklist GDoc Template
Craft Fair Salesperson.mp4
Studio Team: Order Packaging, Studio Ops Specialist, Studio Manager.mp4
πŸ‘€ Example: Slack Project Management Walkthrough

πŸŽ‰ BONUS!

Step-by-Step Outsourcing Examples

Guides on exactly how to offload common job requisitions (with copy & paste job postings!), such as:

  1. Craft Fair Salesperson (so you can get your weekends back)

  2. Product Packagers/ Production Assistants (so your hands can get a break from putting together your product)

  3. Studio Interns (so you can stop taping a million boxes every week).

Testimonials

"Kirstie seriously blew my mind! It made me rethink several strategies I've tried when it comes to hiring/outsourcing. It's always eye opening to hear real ways other small businesses approach scaling and growing their business."

Ava

"Kirstie’s class was so useful. It propelled me to find someone to help me with tasks I was drowning under while giving me loads of ideas about how to hire/outsource in the future. I'd recommend it to anyone who knows they need help but dunno how to or where to look!"

Shubheksha

Frequently asked questions

email me at hello [at] ajarofpickles.com if you have any other questions!

Why is outsourcing important?

I think about my business tasks and projects in two different categories: "must-do maintenance" vs "strategic growth". If you outsource your "must-do maintenance" that keeps the business running, you'll save time, energy, and brainpower for those "strategic growth", creative projects that will propel your business forward (instead of just keeping it afloat).

What if I'm not ready to hire someone full-time?

That's wonderful and what I LOVE to hearβ€” PLEASE don't part/full-time hire too early- this is a topic we'll cover. But I'm guessing with limited time and while wearing a million hats, YOU NEED HELP.

Slowly outsourcing is where it begins, whether it's for an as-needed product packager, someone to help you at (or run for you) craft fairs, or a short job on Fiverr or Upwork for your website. This will all roll up to part-time and full-time jobs eventually! 

What will this course not cover?

This course does not go into how to to set up payroll, benefits, PTOβ€” topics are best left to a CPA in your state.

Does this cover outsourcing for service-based businesses?

The examples I give are centered around product-based businesses, but the curriculum and principles can be applied to service-based businesses.

When will I get access and for how long?

You'll have access immediately and forever, including any updates and additions I make in the future.

How is the course structured?

This course has video lessons, PDF guides, Google Sheets templates through 6 well-organized sections. Total video content comes to around 75 minutes.

Is this class worth the $?

The cost of this course will equal the expense to just a few hours of outsourced work. I am absolutely confident this will save you AT LEAST that time of hiring headaches and confusing conversations, plus the copy/ paste job reqs are already huge time-savers in itself ;)

Is there additional support if I need it?

Yes, feel free to leave comments and questions in the course itself or email me at hello [at] ajarofpickles.com with questions I can answer. If you'd like 1 on 1 help, consider my consulting services.