Strategies and Tactics for Women by Dr. Shannon Reece

1. Outsourcing Is The Backbone Of This Office – Access.office!

I have been outsourcing to highly talented people for over 10 years and that is the backbone of my business. I found so much talent doing this and my clients get the best they can, at a fraction of the price, with this system rather than a more traditional way.

Finding great people has come simply by networking, recommendations, and word of mouth. It pays to connect. By outsourcing, I found specialists in all concentrations, so maybe what would have gone to one person in the past, who has more talent in one area and less in the other, now the clients get more than one person – each specific to one talent and excellent results are always found.

We work as a team and this method keeps my payroll low, as these talented professionals are on the books only when they are working. In between clients, they are free to do work on their own.

Thanks to Gayle Naftaly of Access.office

2. Burning Through People

Sometimes you truly get what you pay for, but big $$ doesn’t always deliver big results. You have to be clear with what you want when you outsource, and with your own expectations. People who give you more bang for your buck will offer solutions to your problems, and they may be able to solve bigger picture problems for you on the long-term.

If you want raw talent, be prepared to train. If you want fully formed talent, be prepared to pay. I burned through people because I expect more than most people can deliver. I had to learn to not expect a duplicate of myself, but to find someone who specialized. For instance, my copy editor became my blog manager, not another social media strategist. Be clear with your expectation for them and for yourself.

As far as sources — Twitter has been a good place because I can watch them for a while first. It gives me a chance to vet them without them even knowing I am looking at them. Plus, crowdsurfing Twitter for leads is great because you get endorsements from your friends and people you trust, making it easier to find someone who you trust.

Thanks to Lauren MacEwen of SM Cubed Consulting

3. Keep Your Eye On Local Colleges And Universities

For my PR business, I found wonderful talent for entry-level prices at our local university, among students in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. One of my first hires can only be described as a “wunderkind”: she was so grounded and had such exceptional skills, that (after she had worked with me for a while) I was able to entrust her with a critical project: organizing my company’s 10th anniversary celebration.

Thanks to Jane Blume of Desert Sky Communications

4. Jazzed About A Jazz Artist

Rochester, NY has an annual jazz festival. One year, a local artist was featured in the newspaper for her portraits of jazz greats. Her work was so remarkable that I sent her a complimentary email. Since then, I’ve learned she is a graphic artist who does all kinds of work for startups — logos, web sites, business cards, et cetera. A startup herself, she will capture your entrepreneurial voice and provide great value as well. View her work at http://www.deniseplogan.com. You, too, will be jazzed about it.

Thanks to Dr. Marlene Caroselli of

5. My Creed

As a business consultant, exceptionally passionate in challenging people to consider the alternative of being employed to becoming an employer. I am always on the look out for who next to inspire and challenge to take this new path. Among the many ways of doing so is helping potential clients develop their confidence and packaging themselves to provide the service or product into a marketable good or service. And what better way to do so, than proving your faith in their abilities by entrusting them with opportunities to help them prove themselves.

It’s also become great starting point in being able to offer the needed advise in the course of the delivery, where necessary, and building partnerships for B2B referrals etc.
It is always important to establish the authenticity of the person.

Thanks to Victor Kwegyir of VIKE INVEST (UK) LTD

6. A Gem Of A Designer

When we redesigned our website, we used ScriptLance.com to find a graphic design artist (Mugur from images-team.ro). He was a relatively new freelancer at the time, but his design-work was excellent. We hired Mugur for the site redesign and many other projects since. He is based in Romania, and while we initially found him on ScriptLance.com, we now work with him directly. He basically created many of our redesigned screen layouts, along with banners and other creatives. His outstanding design service was relatively inexpensive compared to established graphic designers, and let us move forward with a new design without spending an arm and a leg. The only drawback was that we had to code the redesign ourselves, since Mugur could not code when we initially began working with him.

Thanks to Ian Aronovich of GovernmentAuctions.org