Why Outsource?
Outsourcing wasn’t much in vogue until a few years back. In fact,
people even thought it quite embarrassing to tell someone that they were
outsourcing their work. The general impression was that they weren’t up to the
task and the unspoken belief was that outsourced work would always be of an
inferior quality.
But times have changed. Today, not only has outsourcing become very
popular but it has also practically become the norm for businesses. With the
grand popularity that home businesses have achieved, the popularity of
outsourcing has reached its zenith as well. For, how could a single person
working from home carry out all tasks related to a business without depending
on a freelancing professional whom they can outsource their work to?
Here are the top reasons why you must consider outsourcing your
business:-
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You can take up more work from
a better range of clients because you have an army of people working with you.
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You can get diversity in your
team. When you find different outsourcing professionals, you find that these
people are of different qualifications and skill-sets, which means you can even
take up work which you were initially avoiding because of your own limitations.
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You cannot handle all the tasks
related with a business alone. There will be several things you are not very
conversant with and things that you don’t like doing. If that is the case, you
might find outsourcing to be a great option to accomplish these tasks
adequately.
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Outsourcing definitely helps
you meet deadlines better.
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For some people, outsourcing is
also a means of reducing costs. If a particular service is expensive in your
part of the world, you could find a professional from another part of the world
where that particular service is cheaper. A lot of people outsource work from
the developed countries to the developing countries where the economic equation
helps them reap better savings and stay within tighter budgets.
What Kinds
of Jobs Can Be Outsourced?
Any business – whether it is a home
business or a large corporate venture – entails a lot of things. With a large
business, it is quite easy to see that there are a lot of things involved, but
even with home businesses there are various processes, such as the planning
aspect, the finding work aspect, the execution of the tasks aspect, the
communication aspect, the payment handling and accounting aspect and the
further investment aspect. If you are planning to be a home business
entrepreneur, you can see that there are various things for you to do. So,
which of these can you outsource?
Now, with the Internet making the whole
world such a closely-knit domain, you can find professionals to handle all
kinds of tasks. They will even plan a whole business venture for you if you
have the funds. However, at least initially, you will be on a budget and would
like to outsource only things that you really cannot do.
The best idea, then, is to outsource some
of the execution aspect of your business. Like, if your home business is about
handling content writing jobs, you could outsource the actual writing part.
However, the things that are integral for keeping your business going such as
planning, obtaining work, communicating with clients, payment handling, etc.
should be done by yourself. A lot of people obtain work for higher sums of
money and pay a flat rate to writers whom they outsource the work to, keeping
the difference as their earnings.
It really helps when you outsource the
execution part of your work because of various reasons.
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The execution part is always
the most laborious task. If you are running a website design and development
company, the actual designing of the website is the most difficult thing. If
this aspect were outsourced, you could focus on getting more clients, while at
the same time you are getting the jobs done as well.
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Also, you can control the
execution part better. When some content is written by your employee, you could
check its quality and send it back for proofreading or editing if required.
When someone designs a logo for your client, you could review it and suggest
changes. You can thus supervise these things overall.
When your business grows, you will find
that you need to outsource many more things. You might need someone for data
entry just to maintain the records of your business. You might need someone
just to communicate with your various clients and keep them updated with what’s
happening. You might need someone to handle the bidding or other routes in
which you obtain work. You might even need a virtual manager to handle all
these aspects of your business at once.
Finding
Professionals to Outsource Your Work to
Here are a few tips on finding
professionals to whom you can outsource your work requirements.
Online Jobsites
The best place to get outsourcing
professionals is the online jobsites. The following is a list of 10 of the best
of these sites.
GetAFreelancer (http://www.getafreelancer.com/)
ScriptLance (http://www.scriptlance.com/)
EUFreelance (http://www.eufreelance.com/)
eLance (http://www.elance.com/)
Guru (http://www.guru.com/)
RentACoder (http://www.rentacoder.com/)
PeoplePerHour (http://www.peopleperhour.com/)
LimeExchange (http://www.limeexchange.com/)
oDesk (http://www.odesk.com/)
GetACoder (http://www.getacoder.com/)
You will find various categories here.
These are job categories. When you have a particular work requirement, all you
do is post your project in the relevant job category and people who are
interested in accomplishing the task for you will make their bids on it. The
concept is quite simple, and because only people who are genuinely looking for
work can be found on these sites, you can be sure that you will get your work
done.
Forums
There are several forums on the Internet where
people put up their work requirements and other people take them up. There is a
bidding game involved here as well, but it is not as rampant as on the
freelance jobsites. Projects need to be posted as individual threads and
interested people make their bids on them. You can also invite particular
people to work on your project.
Digital Point Forums (http://forum.digitalpoint.com/) is
the best forum where you can find people to handle your jobs for you.
Social Networking Websites
All social networking websites can be
looked upon as a potential source to get professionals to handle various tasks.
There are groups for freelance professionals on the popular sites. You could
become a part of these groups and post your projects.
The following are 3 of the most popular
social networking sites where you can find professionals to work for you:-
MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/)
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/)
Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/)
Getting
Professionals from Online Jobsites
Since the online
jobsites are the best places for you to get professionals, let us look at them
in a little more detail.
Here are some of
the advantages of getting professionals from here:-
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People you will find on the
jobsites have registered here with the express intention of finding work. Many
jobsites are free to join, but some require paid memberships. Being a paid
member may reflect a bit more on their sincerity about being professional.
Hence, you can be sure you get some sincere people to give your work to.
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There are various ways in which
you can find how good a particular worker is. Every jobsite has a rating and
review system (for the employee as well as the employer). This helps you
decide.
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All websites have an escrow
system. This takes care of all disputes. Once an escrow is made, the website
will arbitrate any problems that arise.
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You can make detailed project
posts, outlining clearly what you want to be done, what time and budget you can
afford. People make bids accordingly, so you can be sure you won’t have to
bargain.
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You can ask people to show
samples of their past work.
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You can also invite people to
bid on your project.
It is very
simple to post projects on online jobsites. Many of them, like GetAFreelancer,
allow you to post projects for free (though they do take a $5 refundable
deposit for each project you post). You only have to post all details of the
work as you want it, spell out the timeframe and the budget you can offer and
post it in the relevant category.
Once your
project is live, which is instantaneous, people start bidding. Then, all you
have to do is to look at the bids closely and make your decision on whom to
select for your job.
You cannot communicate
personally with the bidders till you select them. However, there is a private
message board that helps you communicate with them, subject to certain
restrictions (like you cannot give out your personal contact details in any
way). This helps you decide better about whom to select.
Selecting
the Right Person
When you select
your outsourcing professional from a freelance jobsite like GetAFreelancer or
ScriptLance or oDesk, there are several ways in which you can make sure you are
selecting the right person.
Firstly, you
have to ensure that you make all the project details quite clear. Write about
everything you expect. These are the things your project post should cover.
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The nature of your work
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The amount of work in total
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Any milestones, like if you
want the work to be completed in small chunks and within what frame of time
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The time you can give for the
completion of the whole project
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The price you are willing to
pay
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Any special qualifications you
are looking for in your employees
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Any characteristics that you
don’t want in your employees
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Special points that you will
need to make your decision, such as samples.
Most
importantly, make sure that you post the project in the right category. People
will get alerts only based on the categories they have applied for. So, if you
put your project in the wrong category, the right people aren’t going to get
it.
When you take
care to spell out as many details as you can, you can be almost sure that you
will get the right people bidding on your work. You may get few bids, but they
will be quality bids.
Make sure to
check out all the samples of their work, because this is your most important
judging point. If you want an original sample, you can mention that in your
project post itself and people who are willing to give you an original sample
of their work will do so.
In any case, it
is a good idea to only post a short-term project initially till you build a
trust factor with an employee. Once that is set up, you can go for longer term
projects.
Choose people
for the following qualifications:-
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The quality of their work,
which you can see through their samples.
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The ratings and reviews they
have obtained on the site.
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Their responsiveness – It is
very important they respond to your emails quickly and it is best if they have
an instant messaging id that they can use.
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Their pricing – Price shouldn’t
be an important factor unless you are working on a budget.
Outsourcing
and the Money Equation – Deciding How Much to Pay and How
In any business
association, money is of paramount importance because that is why business
exists in the first place. So, it is extremely important that you have the
money equation set right.
The beauty of
looking for outsourcing professionals on the Internet is that you can benefit
from a very wide range of budgets. Since it is people who are going to bid on
your projects, you can select them according to what you can pay. You initially
set a ballpark figure of what you can pay and most people will bid within this
range.
Whatever your
budget is, you are able to find good professionals to work for you within that
range. Remember that you are looking at the global marketplace here, and people
in other countries may work for much lesser or much higher than what they do
for in your local area.
Different jobs
have different money equations. It is quite all right if you bid a low budget
project initially just to get the feel of the professional’s work. You can tell
them that you will review payments after you have seen their work. This works
well and it also keeps the professional motivated because of the better
payments that are poised to come their way.
When you are
posting your project on a jobsite, do take some time to check out similar
projects that are posted by other people. This will give you a good idea of
what you should pay. But, more importantly, you must keep your own budget in
focus when posting the project.
Escrows
Escrows help the
employer as well as the employed in an outsourcing equation. We shall learn
more about escrows in the next chapter.
Online Banks
Outsourcing
Milestones and Escrows
If you want to
get the best people working for you, you simply cannot ignore milestones and
escrows. Milestones are especially important when you are working on huge
projects and want people to give you their deliverables in smaller installments
so that you could manage work at your end as well. And we have already seen how
escrows are important.
Some websites,
like eLance in particular, help you to state the form in which you want your
deliverables. You could actually set up milestones for the whole project. Among
other benefits, this ensures that your employee can manage the deadline in a
much better manner. You can also keep tabs on things better.
It is ideal
anyway to post only short-term projects at the start, until you have a rapport
set up with the worker. Even though everything might seem all right to you in
the bid, there are chances that something might go wrong when the actual
project is underway. If you have a long project running, it could be cumbersome
to bail out of these difficult situations. However, a short-term project can
help.
On
GetAFreelancer, the shortest project you can post should be worth $30. However,
on most other sites, there is no minimum limit for the project you post.
The best way to
make the payment is through an escrow system. Most jobsites work with escrows
(which is actually the main reason why you should use these freelance jobsites
because an escrow protects both parties). When you select a bidder, you deposit
some money into an escrow account. This money is held by the website but not
released to the bidder yet. When they accomplish the task, you can direct the
website to release the funds to them.
The Three Rs
that Keep the Outsourcing Tide Flowing – Ratings, Reviews and Relationships
If you are
looking for a long-term outsourcing solution, then the best way to do that is
to find one good worker and continue working with them on your future
assignments. Even though it seems simple, when you go into the nitty-gritty of
employing freelancing outsource professionals, you will find that it is a
difficult job. You need a lot of things – commitment, devotion, quality,
ingenuity, good price, etc. It is not always that you will hit the jackpot when
you are looking at getting work from someone whom you have never met and
probably know nothing about their geographical or social position.
That is the
reason why once you get a good person to do your job, you must go all out to retain
him or her on your outsourcing payroll.
How do you do
that? There are three important Rs to remember here.
Ratings
Once a
particular assignment is over, you get a chance to rate the professional. This
is usually a ten-star rating system on most freelance websites, while even some
forums have this system. Don’t forget to rate the employee for their good work.
For you, it is more important to rate people for their good work than for their
bad work. You won’t work again with someone who has ruined your project anyway.
But when someone does a good job and you commend that with a good rating, they
will be happy and inspired to work with you again.
Reviews
Reviews work in
the same way as ratings. Only, these are much more elaborate because you say
what you feel in words. You could be as upfront here as you like, and don’t
hold back on mentioning something that you liked. For outsourcing
professionals, both ratings and reviews mean a lot – it is akin to having
outstanding achievements marked on the résumé of an offline professional.
Relationships
Getting Your
Job Done
If you have been
following closely until now, there is no reason why you shouldn’t get your job
done to your satisfaction. But, there are times when difficulties begin to
creep in.
One thing that
you shouldn’t tolerate at all is non-responsiveness. On the Internet, the
unsaid rule is that any professional email must be replied to within 24 hours,
or sooner if your agreement is to that effect. If you are in the same time
zone, there’s no reason to wait for 24 hours either. If you don’t get your reply
within that time, you might as well begin looking somewhere else.
Another thing
that is of utmost importance is quality. Even if your outsourcing professional
has been providing you good work, do keep checking on it often. Remember that
you are not seeing these people. Some of them might pass on their work to
cheaper people and work as middlepersons. When that happens, quality definitely
goes down.
If you are
outsourcing your work, make it a point to
outsource it directly to the person who will execute the job and not to a
middleperson.
Avoid companies
unless absolutely necessary. For home businesses, individuals are the best
outsourcing professionals. However, if you are a large company and looking for
something like a telemarketing agency, then, of course, you need a team of
people whom you can outsource your job to.
The two major
problems that can happen even after you have selected your professional
carefully are non-responsiveness and deterioration of quality. Do not tolerate
these problems, or your business will suffer.
Taking
Outsourcing to the Next Level –
An Important
Step in Online Business Evolution
When you have
built a great rapport with your outsourcing professional who you found one fine
day on a freelance work site, you can think on more permanent lines. After all,
it is always mutually beneficial to seal professional relationships.
Some companies
who don’t want to go through the hassle of having to find out outsourcing
professionals over and over again go right ahead and build contracts and
agreements. These documents are shipped to the address of the professional and
they have to sign it and ship it back.
The protection
that a contract gives to both parties can help in building better professional
collaborations. You won’t have to look for outsourcing professionals again; you
will have something who you know works in the way you want. Also, the
professional won’t have to look for clients because they have a contract with
you. It is good for the professional to continue working with the same clients
over a long term, because they know what the clients require and they also know
that they can produce that to the clients’ satisfaction.
You might not
know it, but a lot of relationships that began casually over the Internet have
ended up in the outsourcing professionals shifting their base, even sometimes
to other countries, and becoming integral parts of hugely successful companies
that they once worked for as mere freelancers. The companies prize these
once-upon-a-time freelancers as well because they were with them when the
companies were teething, which creates in them a factor of faith and trust.
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