Outsourcing is a hot topic. I know for years in my career as a Unix administrator for over 20 years the impact outsourcing has on the economy. My life was personally impacted by outsourcing. I took a 30% reduction in salary and emotional losses as a result of outsourcing. I worked hard to create my career in Information Technology. I hated outsourcing because of how it changed my life. It took a while for me to come to the realization that we are in a world economy. There wasn’t anything I could do to change it. As an entrepreneur in my own business, My productivity was limited by my own distaste for outsourcing and being bogged down by mundane tasks that I had no energy around that I had to do in my business to be successful. I knew the only way that I could be successful in my business is to be able to hire people partner with to do the work with me that needed to be done.
As an IT consultant for over 15 years of my 20 year career in information technology, I have strong understanding of being a consultant. I have a team of 8 web designers, graphic designers, Pay Per Click Specialists, Social Book Marketing Experts, Search Engine Optimization Experts, and virtual assistants from all over the world on my marketing team. It’s easy to hire good consultants to work for $2.00 to $50.00 an hour depending on the kind of work you need done. Good copywriters are going to be your most expensive resource when you outsource work offshore. Its also equally as easy to waste lot of money hiring the wrong consultants. I hire people from the United States, India, South Africa, United Kingdom, Thailand, and Philippines for projects for my company and my clients.
Here are some tips you can use to be successful outsourcing work for your business:
- Budget: Define your budget. Quality work can come at an economical price.
- Clear Goals Get Clear Results: Have a clear definition of the work you want completed with a clear statement of work for the project you want completed. Educate yourself as much as possible about the work you need completed before you hire someone to do the work for you.
- What Countries Do You Hire From? Know what countries to hire the best people from to accomplish the work you want completed.
- Philippines - was a US Colony. They know US English. Customer Service, Telemarketers and Virtual Assistants.
- India - Web Designers, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click and Programmers.
- United Kingdom – Copy Writing, & SEO
- United States – Copy Writers, Business Plans and SEO. Always hire copywriters from the country you are marketing your business in.
- Finding the Resources – Use Elance.com or ODesk.com to find the resources you want to find for the budget you are willing to pay. The exchange of money between contractor and employer is protected by Elance or Odesk. I prefer using Elance over Odesk. Odesk is more popular.
- Project Management: I use Asana.com to manage my teams. Asana is a free project management tool that allows you to create projects, create tasks and communicate with your teams. Asana has a mobile app. You can manage your teams from your mobile phone or tablet.
- Communication: Skype is hands down the best tool in your business and personal life to use to communicate with your friends, family and business partners.
- Respect: In the Muppets Take Manhattan, there is an Italian Baker that shares his wisdom about people. People are people. It doesn’t matter what country they are from. We all have the same needs and desires. We all have families. We want a good life. Treat people like people. Treat them with respect and work with them like they are people. They will respect you. Treat the contractors you hire like business partners. My graphic designer from the Philippines for example is one of the best graphic designers I have ever worked with. He delivers within 24 to 48 hours of any new project assigned to him. No excuses
- Be Patient: All of the countries speak English of the ones that I mentioned. Each country has different customs. They will work hard for you. International Outsourcing can work for your business.
One of the biggest benefits I enjoy about outsourcing offshore is the difference in time. Their day is my night. My night is their day. When I am sleeping, My team is working. Outsourcing is a great way to help you increase your productivity, get a lot of work quality work done for your business and have more free time to do what you love to do.
