Being a businessperson isn’t that great. Getting paid is cool, but pouring over Excel formulas and PowerPoints isn’t. To make business seem a little more hip-hop, companies make up buzzwords so that the work we do sounds sexy and important. One such buzzword is “core competency.” The phrase is a little “yesterday,” but the message is definitely today.

I like to make fun of buzzwords – I even did my own version of “Wank Words Bingo” so that people could holler “bingo” when someone said “white board” one too many times in a meeting. Bingo aside, most corporate buzzwords conceal an important concept we should make use of.

That is true of “core competency,” which essentially means: focus on what you are good at. You might be thinking, “that’s just common sense,” and you’d be right. But here’s where it gets interesting: it’s not that easy to focus on one thing. You can’t barter fish for shoes anymore. In your new venture, if you don’t want to do something yourself, you have to pay someone to do it. And your profit margin can’t always spare the difference. Thus the late-night bookkeeper.

So we can pat ourselves on the back and talk “core competencies,” but only the most successful businesses can free up their people to do one thing. Focusing on what we do best is a luxury most can’t afford. But it’s still what we should shoot for. Do what you excel at – outsource everything else. And by “outsourcing,” we don’t necessarily mean sending work offshore – we simply mean finding someone else to take the distracting crap off of our plate.

In the corporate world, outsourcing has taken on a negative connotation, implying the utilization of the global labor pool to cut costs. Sometimes this is referred to as “offshoring.” The ethics of these practices are subject to debate, but there’s no question that the strategic use of outsourcing is crucial for companies who are catering to cost-conscious consumers on the one hand, and expectant shareholders on the other. You see this in the Information Technology marketplace, where programming work is “sourced” to a variety of overseas locations. According to IT analyst Eric Keller in his book Technology Paradise Lost, IT outsourcing saves 40 to 70 percent of programming costs.

The corporate tactic of outsourcing has relevance because we can employ it without facing the dilemma of sending jobs overseas. For us, outsourcing simply means doing what we do best and hiring others for the rest. We can hire them from anywhere. More likely than not, we’ll hire the neighbor who does a little web design on the side. The growth of our side ventures softens the blows of pink slip culture. There’s nothing more satisfying than putting money in friends’ pockets – especially for work we created from our own imagination and business model.

Corporate America is suffering from “outsourcing creep.” As Eric Keller points out, the offshoring of technical work is gradually spreading to other white collar information worker jobs. Overseas call centers are one such example. Even if you disregard this book and have no plans to start a side venture, the realities of global labor can (and should) impact your own career planning.

One book to look at is A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. Pink outlines how to transform our skills from left brain/information-driven to right brain/creative, thereby making ourselves more “outsourcing proof.” Pink doesn’t go far enough. Changing your skill set is not enough to ensure financial security; career security and financial security are no longer the same thing. Thus the need for side ventures and assets we control.

When we take ventures off the ground, we typically do most of the work ourselves. But if (and when) money starts moving, we will hit a number of cash/time crossover points. Cash/time crossover is simply the point where it is no longer efficient for us to do a particular task ourselves.

There are a number of things you could outsource. Two of the most common are bookkeeping and (usually a bit later on) payroll. There are way too many weekend bookkeepers. If you choose the right accountant, you can actually save money through timely advice. Other services, like third-party payroll, do not necessarily save money, but certainly save headaches, and quite possibly tax exposure. Some of these services can save a marriage.

One of the trends of the Internet age is turning competitors into partners. Often, the best way to focus on your “core” is to turn over secondary markets to a competitor in exchange for leads or a percentage or whatever else you work out. This is the modern equivalent of “shoes for eggs,” and it can work, though it is not easy. You really have to grit your teeth before handing off good business to competitors. But we have to pare down until we get to the core.

The less relevant the work is to the core, the more likely you should outsource it. That’s why accounting and payroll are such good candidates. There are other times when it makes more sense to hire an employee. Hire internally when you need someone to help you with core business processes. That’s the kind of knowledge you want to keep in-house.

One thing people outsource too often (and pay way too much for) is marketing. It’s good to involve some outside marketing and publicity folks in your venture, but keep them at arm’s length. We shouldn’t even be in business if we don’t understand enough about marketing to handle a campaign ourselves.

When we kicked off the publicity phase for Resumes from Hell, we got bids in the tens of thousands of dollars. Those bids were full of the usual marketing fluff. Eventually, we found a firm that agreed to handle the occasional email campaign, but we help to write the content and we own the database after each mailing. This way, we keep costs down while taking advantage of outside talent.

This book is an extreme example of something you can’t outsource because only I can write it. If I could hire monkeys to finish it I would have done so already. But once it’s published, I will hire folks to help with the marketing phase. Until then, the work is on me. I have to be ruthless about stealing time. I also take advantage of the cash/time crossover by paying interns and office cleaners and anyone else I can sucker into my world.

The early stages of a venture are a great time to get exposure to all aspects of business. But eventually we need to hone in. We’ve got to be the best in the world at something, and that means consistency and focus. We can’t do that when we’re driving the payroll deposit to the bank on Fridays. People congratulate themselves because they do their own taxes and change their own oil. That’s great – if they want to become accountants or mechanics. Otherwise, they are better off finding a specialization that plays to their strengths and builds on their core competencies. Bingo!

Want to buy Free From Corporate America or see reviews of the final published version from readers like yourself? The printed book is now available on Amazon.com with product reviews.

You can also get a discounted version of the final book in eBook (PDF) format, or you can pick up a copy on the Kindle. The published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site.