What Store Owners Outsource: A Year of Posts, Counted. The codebook the AI readers followed.
Source: RuleInside, ruleinside.com/guides/ecommerce-outsourcing/ (free to reuse with a credit and a link).

# Codebook: what store owners hand off (2026-10-07)

Used by every coder (agent or person) on the hand-off study. Code from the post text only. Do not guess past it.
Return one JSON object per post, exactly these keys.

## author  (who wrote it)
- `owner`: runs or co-runs the store the post is about (first person: "my store", "we sell", "our customers").
- `provider`: offers a service or tool (agency, VA, freelancer, app maker, "DM me", "we help brands"). Includes a
  post written as an owner story that ends by promoting a product or service.
- `seeker`: looking for work (a VA or freelancer asking how to find store clients).
- `other`: anything else, or cannot tell.

## stage  (only meaningful when author = owner)
- `established`: the post gives evidence the store trades steadily. Any one of: a revenue figure of about $5,000 a
  month or more (or "six figures", "7 figures" a year); about 5 or more orders a day, or 150 or more a month; paid
  staff, a team or contractors already working on the store; trading a year or more WITH sales mentioned.
- `early`: pre-launch, no sales yet, first sales, or a figure under about $5,000 a month.
- `unknown`: no evidence either way. Do not infer from tone or writing quality.

## handoff  (is the post about giving store work to someone else?)
Someone else means a person or company outside the owner: a hire, VA, freelancer, agency, contractor, 3PL,
outsourcing firm, a family member brought in to do a job, or an AI or software tool explicitly described as doing a
job instead of a person.
- `done`: the owner has already handed the work off (it is being done by someone else now).
- `considering`: asks whether, how, who or how much to hand off, or says they plan to.
- `took_back`: handed it off before and brought it back in-house, or fired the provider and does it themself again.
- `none`: not about handing work off (hiring is mentioned only in passing, or the post is about something else).

## tasks  (the work being handed off; list every one the post names for THIS hand-off; [] if handoff = none)
- `support`: customer service, inbox, emails from customers, tickets, live chat, DMs, answering customer questions
- `phone`: answering or making customer phone calls (also tag `support` if it is customer service)
- `wismo`: order status, tracking, "where is my order" questions (also tag `support`)
- `returns`: returns, refunds, exchanges, chargebacks, disputes
- `ads`: paid ads, media buying (Meta, Google, TikTok ads), PPC
- `marketing`: other marketing: SEO, email marketing, social media, content, influencers, copywriting, PR
- `listings`: product listings, uploads, descriptions, catalogue data, SKUs
- `fulfilment`: packing, shipping, warehouse, 3PL, order processing, dispatch
- `inventory`: inventory, purchasing, sourcing, supplier management
- `finance`: bookkeeping, accounting, invoicing, taxes, admin, data entry
- `creative`: design, photography, video editing, graphics
- `dev`: website build, theme, apps, plugins, development, technical maintenance
- `sales`: sales calls, outbound, B2B or wholesale accounts, lead follow-up
- `operations`: general operations, a manager, "run the business", "everything", "day-to-day"
- `other`: a task not in this list (say which in `note`)

## to_whom  (who takes it; [] if not said)
`va`, `freelancer`, `agency`, `employee`, `outsourcing_firm`, `3pl`, `software_ai`, `family_partner`, `unsure`

## quote
A sentence or two copied EXACTLY from the post (same spelling, no fixes, max 40 words) that shows the hand-off.
Empty string if handoff = none. It will be checked character for character against the post.

## note
Up to 15 words: anything a reviewer needs (e.g. why `provider`, which task `other` is).

## Output shape
{"id": "<post id>", "author": "...", "stage": "...", "handoff": "...", "tasks": [...], "to_whom": [...],
 "quote": "...", "note": "..."}