Does the thought of letting someone else handle all your emails give you a knot in your stomach? You're not alone in this feeling and it's the reason why many entrepreneurs leave outsourcing their emails until the last possible minute. But emails take up so much of your valuable time, and therefore it's time to really take a look at having someone else handle this workload. We are not the only ones who can provide great customer service.

The goal is to find a system that allows you to outsource the handling of these requests and still being able to 'drop in' to check on how things are going.

Setting up a help desk is something you should seriously consider if you are getting a lot of email requests for help. Using this type of system you will allow the emails to be received, processed and then directed to the assistants whom you've assigned to handle them. Your assistants will be alerted when there is a new message for them to respond to so that they know someone is in need of assistance and waiting on their response. This is a good way to manage a large amount of messages because everyone can go in and refer back to the messages at any time.

In some systems, you can even set automatic escalation after a certain number of days. What happens is that the system alerts you whenever a ticket has been inactive for a long period of time. Using this system will give you the assurance that your assistants are responding to requests in a proper amount of time while allowing you to still stay 'hands off'.

But what if a help desk is too complex for your needs or you just don't like using them? Here are two simple methods you can outsource your emails.

Just use web based email. Most web hosting accounts come with a web mail system. Simply have your assistant check and process your emails through the browser. Your emails are stored online on your web hosting account so it'll be there if you ever need to check in.

Another method is to use IMAP. When your assistant sets up their email reader to check your email account, ask them to choose IMAP instead of POP. It works the same way as your regular email. The difference between these two is that with IMAP your emails will be stored online instead of being downloaded to your computer....... This also makes it an ideal solution if you check emails from different computers. Almost all popular email readers support this feature.

When using IMAP you won't need to incur any extra expense to buy any software or set up a new system. This also means you can get your assistant set up quickly since there is nothing new to learn how to navigate. You'll need to be careful of your quota when using web mail or IMAP, though. Remember that email counts towards your web hosting and so you'll need to make sure that you have enough space on your account.

These simple solutions should give you a good start. You'll quickly realize how much more productive you can be without the weight of emails on your mind.


Lynette Chandler helps small businesses utilize technology in their marketing and every day business. Discover how you can use technology to your business's advantage at TechBasedMarketing.com