Excellent question Nancy. I have been outsourcing since 2004 so if there is a mistake that can be made in outsourcing I have probably done it. I currently have three full time staff outsourced. One in Phillipines and 2 in Fiji. The first thing to note is that whatever issues you have with Australian staff you will have with outsourced staff. Now add in culture differences and the issue is a lot bigger. With contractors control is much harder and making them accountable to you is very hard. I have learnt for example that with contractors you take them on full time. If you have them part time they work for others and your work gets done last.Also the work you give out has to be controlled, systemised and procedurised. If this is not done your contractor will get lost no matter how good they are. If you can break the task down in little parts with full instructions you will do well. My admin team does a massive amount of work off shore but this is only possible because every task is either in a video or is a document. You need to talk to them regularly. Not only on email. Physically on the phone. We do it daily and they join in our Australian weekly meetings. You need to make them feel part of a team.We give access to our team to our server, they have passwords to websites and my administration person has a dedicated credit card as well. I have never had an issue with security. If you use an agent then you are quite safe. If a contractor you need to be careful at first but generally you should be OK. Trust your gut but yes be carefulWhen it comes to choosing someone do your research, try to get reviews or testimonials. Give a trial job, interview them. If using Upwork etc then make sure they have experience.