As a business owner, you are concerned with two types of activities to keep your company running and profitable: 1) your "core competency" – those things that are unique to your business and drive revenue, and 2) everything else, meaning all the support tasks that let you continue to keep focusing on your core competency. It is getting things done in the "everything else" category that trip up most businesses. The minutia of day-to-day tasks just to keep a business going is often the single most limiting factor to a company's success. Until now…

There are three methods that most businesses use (intentionally or otherwise) to "get things done."  Here they are, listed in order of how expensive they are to your bottom line:

1. Don't do them at all – this typically happens when you are so busy putting out fires and just trying to catch up, that important things fall through the cracks. This is by far the most expensive of the three because it represents lost opportunity;
2. Do them yourself – this is when you find yourself wearing all the hats either to save money, or to avoid explaining it to someone else. If this describes your approach to accomplishing non-core competency tasks, then my friend – your business owns you, not the other way around!  Any time you do something outside of your core competency, you pay top dollar for amateur results.
3. Hire staff – well, at least you are delegating. The trouble is, employees are expensive, require physical space and equipment to get their work done, and constantly need to be managed to achieve their highest levels of productivity.

Perhaps you incorporate a bit of all three. Don't feel bad, the vast majority of businesses run this way. However, there is another alternative to getting non-core competency tasks completed. One that empowers you to get things done by experts you don't have to manage or provide office space for and costs far less than having employees. This revolutionary approach to getting things done for small to mid-sized businesses is called Virtual Outsourcing.

Like most business owners I used to struggle with traditional employee staffing issues. There were always the hassles, costs and headaches of trying to manage some semblance of a cohesive support team. With Virtual Outsourcing, I've eliminated most of those problems and also have access to highly affordable talent, often in just minutes, that I otherwise didn't have a prayer of using.

As powerful a solution as Virtual Outsourcing is, very few businesses are aware of it as a possible solution to getting things done. In fact, it is estimated that less than ½ of 1% even know it exists. This makes it the best kept secret in business, but as an Elance member, congratulations – you're already in on the secret!  The trick you need to learn is how to get the most out of it, thereby giving you even more advantage over your competitors.

While many of you may use virtual service providers for special projects or low level support functions, most have no idea the true extent of the power of this tool. So, what do you do?  First, identify your source of pain – what tasks cause you the most day-to-day difficulty?  Sit and make a list. Or even easier, look at an organization chart for your company. Then look at each job function and ask yourself honestly, "Can this be done virtually? Does someone really have to be physically here to do this?"  If yes, it can be done virtually and no, someone doesn't have to be there physically, label it and go on through your list. Next, prioritize those selected functions for virtual outsourcing, identifying first and foremost the ones which will most substantially remove the daily pain. You will probably be quite surprised at how much you come up with, and once you begin easing your pain, you will also realize and be thrilled with how the best kept secret will revolutionize the way your business works for you once you truly incorporate it!

Elancer's note: Michael J. Russer is an internationally recognized business speaker, author, and strategic consultant about Virtual Outsourcing and the Internet. He is dedicated to helping businesses and professionals boost productivity and leverage their passions into profit. Michael is a long time user of Elance and author of the first book on Virtual Outsourcing, titled: "The Obsolete Employee – How Businesses Succeed Without Employees – And Love It!"