I enthusiastically recommend outsourcing or delegating tasks you're not passionate about doing yourself -- the pain-in-the-butt tasks that are necessary yet don't fall into your areas of interest (or skill) -- and I have to share a pleasant case study I just experienced firsthand with Freelancer.com.
I'll be offering workshops again in the late summer, and needed a list of small businesses in the San Diego area in specific industries. I posted a project on Freelancer.com, set a budget range of $30-200, and watched the bids fly in within seconds. (I'm not joking -- in the hour I had this project open, it got 795 views and nine bids.)
One user sent a sample database with 35 items, promising that he had 800 more ready to send. The sample looked good, so I picked his firm. As promised, the database came right back a minute or so later, as described, up to spec and for a cost of $53.
In the span of a single hour, I posted a simple job, vetted and picked a contractor, and had my 835-item database in hand, saving me hours (and possibly days) of hassle. Incredible.
If you have any PITA tasks that you've been dreading, consider outsourcing some or part of the process to a Freelancer.com contractor. You'll be amazed at how much time you save.
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