A small web design and development company can get seasoned in particular areas – and these are your strong suit that should be operated, the rest can be outsourced

If developing graphical elements for web sites is one of your challenges, then it only makes sense to outsource that work. You may feel that paying $80 an hour to an expert graphic artist is too steep considering your standard rate is only $50 an hour. A client wants a Flash element created and Flash isn't one of your stronger areas, so the length of time it will take you to create that element is a bit of an unknown. You end up spending 6 hours on designing the Flash animation to the client’s satisfaction.

At a rate of $50 an hour, that element has cost you $300 to create. If the Flash component had been outsourced to an expert, although they may have charged you $80 per hour, it only took them 2 hours to create. Add on one hour for the time you spent consulting with the Flash expert and the total cost of this element is down to $210.

The process of outsourcing project components doesn’t have to be a difficult one. Although you are doing it for the first time, it will take a little time to get the paperwork together. After the first project, the necessary base documents will be in place which will expedite future collaborations. 

Before agreeing to outsource work to another company, ensure that base documents covering the terms of the relationship, intellectual property and confidentiality issues have been developed and signed - these are fairly generic documents which can be easily adapted to be functional in a number of different projects. These don't necessarily have to be hundreds of pages long - just enough to be recognized as being legal and binding to protect your interests.

After you have the basic documentation in place, it's time to spread the word that you are looking for contractors. This can be gone about in a variety of ways.

Through your current networks - let your peers know you are looking for contractors, Compiling a mailing list of developers and designers from online professional directories in your region and then contacting them requesting expressions of interest regarding collaboration and Go global and use one of the many reputable online collaboration services.. In most cases you'll find that posting projects is free and the service may also assist you with developing the project specifications.

The last few years has seen a number of online collaboration services come to life, but be wary and study the companies carefully before outsourcing via these means. A good online collaboration service will also act as a watchdog over projects, ensuring that both contractor and sub-contractor are protected.

Before you post/advertise a project, ensure that you know exactly what you want a sub-contractor to do - open ended arrangements tend not to work out. There must be timelines and effective parameters of operation in place - both parties must be very clear on each others’ role.

Communications between contractor/sub-contractor must be clear, concise and rapid at all times - assuming that a task will be carried out in a particular way can lead to disaster; especially when working with contractors from another country.