As a follow up to my previous idea on bartering and skill swapping, I took up a class at Brooklyn Brainery called Outsourcing Your Problems, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

I just transitioned into a new set of entrepreneurial projects both for myself and clients, and boy am I swamped already. On my plate right now is the following (spoiler alert: I’m a busy woman!):

• Entrepreneurship Branding @ WECREATENYC
• Co-Founder & Community Bed-Stuy Crawl
• Host @ likemindbk
• Speaker Coordinator @ DigitalUndivided
• Assistant @ With Love, From Brooklyn
• Assistant @ Gumbs + Partners

I basically have booked up my entire seven days of the week with the bulk of my time being on email, at meetings, and strategizing campaigns. It’s been a bit overwhelming though highly enjoyable.

With the chaos going on as a one-woman machine, I just cannot do it all. I’m passing on the torch to someone who can conquer small tasks so that I can focus on bigger picture stuff.

Enter: outsourcing

Taking the teacher’s advice, I made a list of things I do that take up way too much time and headache on a regular basis. I also am experimenting with time-tracking through RescueTime to see how I can free up my days. I’m scared to see their results.

So here’s what I am going to outsource:

Business 

• update inthebiz! Tumblr (theme, content, Disqus & ShareThis functionality)
• export and move inthebiz! Tumblr blog content to WordPress or Squarespace (which do you think is better and why?)
• email and calendar management (organize, prioritize, and upkeep my folders/labels and daily schedule)
• create automated bookkeeping and accounting system (invoice clients on time, track income and expenses)
• organize address book (extract contacts to prioritze for outreach purposes, import business card contacts)
• newsletter/mailing list campaign (optimize monthly content and marketing strategy)
• create whitepapers to sell (use my bucket of resources and social media pro-tips for a digital package)

Personal

• clean up office supplies to donate, sell, or trash
• research the perfect, budget-friendly bike for me to buy
• optimize interior/apartment space for better organization and usefulness 

I’ll provide guidelines, rules, negotiated rates, schedules, and an agreement to get things going. Like I said before, I can provide:

• PR assistance
• free co-working space
• social media consulting
• tech/web tools

Interested in being my outsourcer? Email me: alishamiranda[.]biz[@]gmail[.]com with your 1) name and contact info 2) what project you can do 3) your background and 4) availability. 

One of my aims this year was to take advantage of the valuable resources and contacts I have in my growing network to outsource projects. Though I’m a one-woman machine, I’m not an expert in everything I do or need to learn, and by freely expressing some of my concerns, needs, and haves with others, I’ve discovered the advantages of using a barter system.

Earlier this year I began experimenting with networking meetups, focus groups, community roundtables, and branding consultations that offer peer-to-peer insight for solopreneurs like myself. It’s been an eye-opening discovery to know that people out there know how hard I work and want me to succeed, and encourage me to expand my horizons by building out a core team of supportive and talented professionals. 

So, I began hiring out my friends as promised. So far I’ve been able to score new head shots and a brand new electronic press kit, but there’s more to be done and I’d like to continue to outsource people I know. Can you help?

Inspired by the community on OurGoods.org (and their startup, Trade School) that proposes barter for knowledge, I’m looking to barter with someone on my branding redesign project: 

I’m currently working on redesigning and marketing my brand as a freelancer and consultant. I have a varied background with lots of interests, a wide skillset, and many clients/gigs over the years that I’d like to simplify into a clear communication/messaging campaign. I’m interested in creating a better website and retainer package that is understandable for my target audience: small and local businesses.

Here’s what / who I need:

Here’s what I can offer in return:

• PR assistance
• free co-working space
• social media education
• tech/web tools

Interested in swapping skills and negotiating a barter? Email me with the following:

• name/bio/HQs
• skills you have
• skills (from me) you need
• availability

*Stay tuned for more barter & skill swapping news!