When to outsource is as important as what to outsource. If doing a thing eats up your time that you otherwise would have used to grow your business and cost benefit analysis tilts in favor of outsourcing.

This threshold varies from person to person and also depends on phase in which your business is. I never outsourced my initial work. Spent days in learning and relearning. I learnt a lot but my business moved dead slow. You may not want this kind of approach. If yes, outsourcing would help you to move your business fast.

It also depends on many other factors. Your budget for instance will always be a strong factor in your decision making.

You need to strike a balance yourself. Guiding principle for outsourcing is “If you cannot do it or cannot afford to learn it or outsourcing would make it more cost effective then you should definitely outsource it”.

How to go about ? Where to find a person or company that will do your job?

* Offline Personal networking: You can ask friends or associates who have a website. Ask them how do they get their work done and if they have any recommendations for the job you want to get done. University campus is another resource for good jobs at reasonable prices. Either the professors or students might be available for job against a reasonable price. You can also put a classified in local daily or post a “help wanted” ad in the university campus.

* Online Personal Networking: Go to techie forums. Be a member and see who are the people who are recommended by other users. Or visit internet marketing forums and ask for their recommendation. Chances are you will find somebody eager to do a job for you .

* Online Sites To Find Professionals: rentacoder.com: You can list your work and the professionals would bid on that can get you a good bargain. elance.com is another site which is similar.Guru.com does it differently. The professionals list their expertise and price. You can choose from various listed professional.

Outsourcing is always your call. Whenever you do it, do it carefully.