Outsourcing is thought to be reserved for entrepreneurs and large companies who want to cut costs in their production. This is, however, too narrow of a perspective on something that is slowly becoming accessible and commonplace for even everyday people. If you think about it, you or your family have probably outsourced dozens of times without even knowing. Realistically, things such as the dry cleaners, a car wash or even going to a restaurant are all forms of outsourcing. The key shift one must make to truly appreciate its benefits comes from the value of your time and not the cost of outsourcing. Let’s look at it outsourcing from a college student’s perspective.
Throughout the semester you will find times when the work is unbearable and life is crazy. Of course there are many ways of handling this that might work in the short term, such as high doses of caffeine, but are not very effective long term. Why not look to other means of handling work and college life by getting a little help from someone else? Does it take you 2-3 hours every week to clean your room and wash your clothes? Does doing research for a paper sound tedious and overwhelming as it’s something you are not very good at or don’t have the time for? In a situation where you might have both an outline for a paper due, a test the following day and mom and dad coming to visit the next night - finding a way to get all of these things done would be quite difficult by yourself. It will probably be pretty hard to find someone to do your work for you for free, but when you think of the value of your time it makes sense to throw someone 30 bucks to take care of your research when the following day’s test is worth 60% of your grade (a class that you paid $2000-$4000 to take). The following is the number one service I would recommend for college outsourcing:
DoMyStuff.com
DoMyStuff is an outsourcing marketplace that pairs people who have tasks to get done and people who are looking to get paid to do them. With a focus on localized short term services, DoMyStuff has a large number of projects such as “pick up my groceries” or “get clothes from dry cleaners”. They also have business oriented tasks such as web design and project management, but the overall selection of tasks is quite varied. With thousands of members, DoMyStuff has become a popular place for people looking to outsource, especially since their are no fees involved - membership is free and in fact, you don’t even need to use their secure escrow payment system (although I would recommend it) when a project is complete.
The main reason why I am only promoting DoMyStuff, as there are dozens of outsourcing marketplaces online, is their focus on local outsourcing and no fees policy. For a college student in particular, a lot of your tasks are ones that require the work to be done in your dorm or on your campus - it wouldn’t really help to find someone in India to help fold your laundry.
One final thought is taking advantage of the other side of outsourcing - getting paid to do stuff. There are tons of people, college students and business owners alike, who have things they need someone to do and are willing to pay for. Spending a few hours a week finding tasks that need to be done in your area or research that can be done online might be a nice little source of income for broke college student. College outsourcing now means getting paid to do stuff you would probably be doing any ways such as surfing the internet.
