Running a small business comes with a lot of tasks that are sometimes impossible to handle with a one- or two-person team. So what can you when you don’t have the skillset or the time to get everything done by yourself? Outsourcing energy-sapping tasks to sites like Fiverr, 99designs or People Per Hour might be a good idea.

In this post we’ll explain how you can make the most of these sites to create more time in your day to grow your business. We’ll also explain where and how to get quality work even with a small budget.

Popular places to outsource tasks

There are plenty of sites where you can outsource relatively simple tasks. Here are the most popular ones you can use:

Fiverr.com is a site dedicated to gigs that start at $5. People will do all sorts of tasks for $5, from making videos and translating documents into foreign languages to designing logos for businesses. You’d be surprised how much you can outsource on Fiverr for a measly $5.

99designs is a platform where you can find lots of freelance designers. It’s a good place to outsource any design tasks from banners and ebook covers to Facebook and Twitter covers.

Peopleperhour is a platform where you can outsource all sorts of tasks from logo design to infographics to press releases.

There are many more sites where you can use to outsource tasks such as Elance, Freelancer and even Cragslist.

Tasks that you should never outsource to these sites

While all these sites offer you the opportunity to outsource any task imaginable at a low price, that doesn’t mean you should outsource it all. In fact, there are tasks that you should never outsource to sites like Fiverr or People Per Hour.

Think about it. When you’ve put your heart and soul into getting your site up and running, you should want to take care of it. This means that you should be hesitant to use low-cost outsourcing sites like Fiverr for work that can impact on your business brand or reputation.

One of the most common examples is link building. If you get on Fiverr.com you can quickly find users offering to build as many links to your site as you want, and for just $5:

You have to admit that these offers are tempting. But you’d better think twice before paying for link building gigs. As many other marketers found out the hard way, buying links on Fiverr or any other outsourcing platforms can actually be a very cheap way to kill your site’s Google rankings. So try to avoid this at all costs.

Here are some other tasks you should avoid outsourcing to low-cost sites like Fiverr:

Buying email lists

Thousands of contacts at only $5? That’s one shortcut that tempts many business owners. But here’s the truth: buying an email list is a really bad idea, and a huge waste of money. It’s one of those shortcuts that simply don’t work – and that may cause your business far more harm than good.

There is a high chance that you’ll find issues like: incorrect names, email addresses that are no longer valid or harvested from the web, where people haven’t chosen to be on any list. But the consequences are even worst: you’ll come across as a spammer, you’ll run into trouble with your email service provider and you’ll get a poor open rate. If you decide to buy email lists, expect your reputation to take a serious knock.

Buying Facebook Likes or Twitter followers

If you buy fake fans and followers and trick people into liking your page, don’t expect any results. While a massive amount of likes can give your business an impressive image at first glance, it won’t help you achieve your marketing objectives – including driving engagement and sales. You might even discover that those accounts – even if they’re real – are based in countries that your business doesn’t operate in. So how can you expect people to click through to your website or engage with your content if they’ve got no interest in your brand whatsoever?

Other gigs you shouldn’t outsource:

• Submission gigs (press releases, infographics, document sharing sites)
• Blog or social media shares with a huge audience
• Business plans or financial advice
• Anything that you know can’t be done on the cheap

Bottom line, if you’re looking to outsource tasks that have a huge impact on your brand’s reputation, you might want to go with professional service providers instead.

Tasks that you can outsource

However, sometimes you just need a small task done. For the cost of a mug of coffee, sites like Fiverr provide a way that any small business owner can reach into their own pocket, and get a webpage built, a logo designed, or a speech written.

Here are examples of services that are well suited to sites like Fiverr or People Per Hour:

Logo designs

While a professional logo is extremely important if you’re trying to build a distinctive business, there are cases when getting a logo done on the cheap makes better sense. For example, you might need a logo for a new affiliate site or a blog that you’re launching. Getting one done for $5 is really helpful.

Other small design tasks

It can be anything from ebook covers to banners to infographics to backgrounds for your Twitter or Facebook pages. Don’t waste your precious time with small design tasks when you can quickly outsource them.

YouTube transcriptions

Because no one wants to watch and transcribe an entire YouTube video. Adding the transcription to the video can help with SEO but transcribing a 30-minute video can take hours. So why not hire it out on Fiverr for a mere $5?

Foreign language translations

If you’re thinking about expanding your business or running a campaign in a country where you don’t speak the language, instead of paying thousands of pounds in translation costs why not get it done cheaply at Fiverr? You can even use a different gig to proofread it to ensure it’s 100% accurate.

Other gigs you can outsource:

• Video editing, video introductions, voiceovers
• Simple Photoshop tasks, such as photo touchups, dropping out backgrounds and more
• Data entry, such as Excel tasks, social media scheduling, virtual assistant work
• Basic web development and troubleshooting

There are plenty more small tasks you can get done cheaply with sites like Fiverr or People Per Hour.

Making sure you get quality work

There’s one golden rule for successful outsourcing: don’t ever outsource something you can’t clearly articulate to the freelancer. You need to have an understanding of the task and explicit details on how to perform it. If you don’t have a good grasp of the task you’re outsourcing then you’re probably going to get low quality work.

If you want to increase your chances of getting quality work on sites like Fiverr, try to sort freelancers by highest ratings or feedback and go through the comments to get an idea of the quality of work they can provide.

Another important thing you need to do is to check for copyright infringement. Make sure you look around for someone who isn’t just going to give you a logo or an image that belongs to someone else. If an image seems too high quality, run a Google image search to make sure it’s not taken from elsewhere. The same goes for web copy or blog posts. Copy and paste various sentences and run a Google search to see what comes up or use a service like Copyscape to check for plagiarism.

Finally, make sure that you’re realistic about what you’re going to get for the money you’re paying.

Your turn now

Have you ever outsourced tasks to sites like Fiverr or People Per Hour? What was your experience like?