As useful as outsourcing and delegating can be, it is important to understand that if you are considering outsourcing or delegating anything, you should test to see if these tasks can be automated first.

Automation is generally a fixed, one-time cost (if that), so it can be a lot cheaper than outsourcing. In most, more simple cases, it can even be free!

If a task can be automated, you should then check to see if a task can be automated for a reasonable price and if automation does a reasonable job at performing the task. [click to continue...]