Posts tagged Small Businesses

Outsource Survey

First off there has been a surge of recent towards pushing outsourcing from all quarters and some give good reasons to do it. Others however have jumped onto this bandwagon promoting services either they know little about having not really outsourced or have been doing it so long that they have it down to a tee so YES it is easy for them because lets face it they pay outsourcers to find outsourcers to do the job for them.

Now it might sound like I am bashing IM’s and outsourcers, believe me here when I say I am not, just stick with this a bit longer and you will see where I am going with this.

Outsourcing is an really great way to get more of your work done in a short space of time and basically many of the jobs that never get done or get done poorly due to your inexperience at them can be done for you by an outsourcer, which can be invaluable to your business. The cost savings as compared to getting help in your main country of residence is a major benefit. I am in the UK and if I were to employ someone to do a weeks work here 9-5 it would cost me a pretty penny whereas if I look to outsource to a person in another Country (typical choices when cost is involved are India, The Philippines and Eastern European countries although their prices are starting to become as expensive as the UK) I could get help for half the cost.

Now here is the rub, if you have never outsourced before you can find yourself in hot water quickly as some outsourcers can smell a newbie a mile off and will take you on the long journey to the never-ending hourly rate of no return

Seriously when starting out with outsourcing many business owners are not really sure what they should outsource or how to place the ad to hire an outsourcer and worst still how to give instructions to the outsourcer on how to get the job done (this is how they smell you). All this adds up to disaster, this is then compounded by the not so good IM’s selling their ‘snake oil’ wonder cures that leave overworked business owners, poorer, not any wiser and still overworked and overwhelmed. There are many good IM’s out there that give sensible advise and even some of the tips I will share with you here such as Tim Ferris in his book ’4 hour Working Week’ – If you have not read it i recommend you go by a copy now.

Ok now i have that off my chest, I would now like to offer you a few tips on how to organise your self first, so that you know how to organise an outsourcer.

1, make a list of everything that needs doing.

2, divide the list up first by the things you like to do and those you do not.

3, divide the list of things you like to do by the things you are just plain no good at even though you like the. All the things you like but are not good at add them to the list of things you do not like doing.

4, look at the list of not good at and do not like and sort it by the things that could be outsourced, for instance if on that list it says go to the suppliers for more product each week – then sorry you will have to suck in and do this yourself or hire someone in your Country to do pick up and drop off delivery for you, however if you have email, accounts, invoices, advertising etc on that list then these things are prime candidates for outsourcing.

5, once you have identified what can be outsourced group things by job type i.e admin & office duties, Web development etc.

6, If your tasks are mainly admin this tells you that you need a VA (Virtual Assistant) if it was mainly advertising it tells you that you might need a marketer and so on.

7, sit down and clearly define the exact tasks you require doing – THIS is the KEY to your success as an outsource buyer. So if it is reading email and separating it so that you only read necessary email and that the VA is the person who responses to all others so be it.

8, Make your ad concise and to the point, list the skills necessary to do your job. Make sure when people apply that you ask for C.V as you would if they were in the same place as you, ask questions and ensure proof of employment and qualifications – this is easily done via email as good people will email copies of certificates or employer referrals. Main thing to remember here is DO NOT be afraid to ask.

9, Interviewing out of the way never pay for work upfront always pay one week in arrears this ensures that your work gets done to your satisfaction before you pay and also ensures your outsourcers compliance and best effort. Never agree to upfront fees or partial payment or shoddy work. If you can avoid it never pay by the hour as this is where it can get really long and drawn out particularly if you are hiring any sort of web developer. Last thing to remember here is to put them on a trial basis first if you interviewed two good people put them both on a trial and see which one performs best, then chose to keep that person.

10, Be prepared to spend time with your outsourcer to ensure that they are doing the job properly and that they understand how to do the work, just like any trainee they can only do the job once they understand it, so build it into your plan. Do not just assume that because they are qualified they know everything about you and your business and how it runs. If you want to be successful at outsourcing you must understand this.

Hopefully these tips will make outsourcing easier for you, I know from past experience with outsourcinghow difficult finding good people can be, how hard it is to explain things and why the tips i am giving you here are important, I guess it is experiential learning that allows me to give you these tips as for me I found books like Tim Ferris’ too late in the day but did use it to get a better handle on process modelling for outsourcers and like all things you will find a multitude of not so good people for your job before you find the right ones and then your set.