This post is part of our Spending Hacker Business Class series which helps small business owners secure the BEST deals on products and services they need for the ongoing operation of their business.

You’re a small business owner which means you’re also busy! Right?

That’s to be expected.

As an owner of a small business, there are soooo many things you need to do and you often feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day.

One of the biggest challenges for any small business owner is finding reliable people (be it employees or contractors) to which you can outsource business tasks and be comfortable that they will be completed to a high standard and on time.

As a result, many small business owners put outsourcing in the ‘too hard basket’ and resign to doing the bulk of the work themselves, despite the fact that they know their time will be much better spent elsewhere.

Are you one of those business owners?

Some business owners ‘dip their toes’ in outsourcing using online platforms like UpWork or Fiverr and while many have good experiences, almost as many end up vowing to never do it again due to sub-par results.

I have had the very same experiences myself (both good, bad and even outright terrible!).

You see, most of the people offering their services through these platforms are based overseas, usually in developing countries.

That in itself is not a problem, and can even be a benefit because they are often very cheap to hire compared to Aussie staff, but there are often issues around different expectations of quality (especially if you have a severe case of perfectionism like myself 😉 ) as well as language and timezone differences.

While you can definitely get some quality work done through these platforms once you learn how to use them properly and identify those hidden gems, I would like to also suggest you consider checking out another platform.

This platform is called Airtasker

Why you should consider using Airtasker?

Airtasker allows you to outsource tasks that require the contractor to be physically present at your location.

Most of the outsourcing platforms only support tasks that can be done remotely and do not offer an option to outsource the tasks that require a person to come to you (e.g. painting, cleaning, assembling furniture, fixing an IT or electrical issue etc).

With Airtasker, you can assign jobs that involve a person coming to your business premises or your house.

They are an Aussie company and the contractors on the platform are also based down under.

Here is a short promotional video demonstrating how the service works. It focuses on common household tasks (as this is a bigger part of Airtasker’s business) but outsourcing business tasks works in exactly the same way

For more background about this Aussie company and its founder, you can watch these TV segments from Bloomberg, SBS World News and The Today Show:

Unlike the massive international platforms (two of which I mentioned above), Airtasker is an Australian company and has predominantly Aussie contractors on its platform because it’s business model involves assigning tasks that often involve the person coming to you.

They verify the identity of all the contractors and also take care of all the insurance requirements

AirTasker use sophisticated mechanisms to verify the identity of anyone who wants to offer their services through the platform.

They also take care of all the insurance requirements so that you don’t have to worry about whether the person doing the work at your premises is properly insured.

There is no obligation to hire anyone and you don’t pay until you’re happy

You can post a task describing what you need done as well as your budget and have the contractors on the platform bid on it.

If you don’t like any of the offers you receive or the contractors that bid on your task (be it business or personal), you have the option to cancel the task and walk away.

If you find someone you like (based on their expertise, reviews or any other criteria you decide on), you assign them the task and pay the agreed amount to Airtasker which then keeps it in trust.

The money is not released to the contractor until you mark the task as completed to your satisfaction and specifications.

You can find out more information about the Airtasker dispute resolution process here and the Airtasker payment escrow service (called “AirTasker Pay”) here.

You can offer your own services on the platform as an extra source of revenue or new clients

If business is slow or you would simply like to get some new clients through the door, you can offer your own services to others through this platform.

There is no cost for you to bid on posted tasks but if assigned, Airtasker will collect a 15% commission from the payment (that’s how they make their money) so make sure you take that into account when pricing your services and bidding on tasks through AirTasker.

As this recent story on the Sunrise program shows, Airtasker can be a major source of revenue for a small business owner, especially if they are a ‘one man band’ sole trader.

What business tasks can be outsourced?

Well, pretty much anything really but as we mentioned already, the thing that differentiates AirTasker from other similar platforms is the fact that you can also outsource tasks that require physical presence in order to complete them.

For example, you can hire people to:

1. manage and run your events;
2. Fix your computers and other IT equipment; and
3. Do onsite admin, secretarial work & bookkeeping for you.

So next time you need to get stuff done quickly in your business, you may want to consider outsourcing those business tasks.

If so, AirTasker is one of the best tools for that and especially if the outsourced business task requires the contractor to be physically present at either your business premises, or at a client location.