An entrepreneur is naturally not willing or able to work on all the parts of his business. This is usually due to lack of interest, time or competence. Working on tasks that you’d rather not do is as frustrating as it is counterproductive. Wouldn’t you rather outsource those things to people who are well known to be professionals at it? Now, in case you are facing a difficulty choosing what to outsource, here are three tasks you should outsource to increase productivity and free up your time for other (more important) activities.
Social media
Though many entrepreneurs see social media as overrated, it can be a useful tool to get your name out there in the market. Social media can be time consuming and requires some attention, if you intend to get any result. There are several approaches to outsourcing social media tasks
Hands-off approach – This involves creating and schedule your social media posts by creating HootSuite account and syncing all your social media account together. What your assistant does in hands-off approach is to create and schedule as many content and just adjust them to match themes and trends.
Hands-on approach — Here, your assistant dedicates specific hours to social media. This approach is quite similar to the hands-off approach. The only difference is that your assistant interacts with the audience in real-time or frequently.
Hybrid approach – Your assistant does the creating and scheduling of your social media posts, and also frequently interacts with the commenters.
Public relations.
As an entrepreneur, you probably want your brand to be featured on television and in other popular publications. You need public relations to do this. If public relations are not one of your strengths, it is very important that you outsource it to someone who has relevant PR experience.
Website support.
You will need a lot of website support as your brand becomes more popular. Your website is just like your home. Your goal is to make your website visitors get the best impression of your brand. Although website providers like WordPress have made it easier for you to administer your site, it is not advisable for you to invest much time in it, especially if you intend to grow your brand as quickly as possible. Outsource it to someone else. A good website support professional will keep your website current with content and manage your website audience by replying to blog post comments and answering relevant emails.
In an era like this, where competition is really high, you should maximize productivity by using the most important form of leverage – Outsourcing.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
The previous article discussed the importance of outsourcing technical support services and the many advantages that come with it. Well there are challenges a company can face when outsourcing technical support services to third-party vendors. We will highlight some of them and how you can manage the situation, and others that, well, you just have to live with. There are always prices to pay, however small, when you entrust your technical support department to a third-party vendor.
One of the possible issues you may face is a possible loss of quality control over your company’s (now outsourced) technical support service. Entrusting your business’s technical support services to vendor somewhere gives them with the responsibility of hiring all experienced individuals they think can serve you and gives them all the necessary training they need to be good tech support specialists. First, you are not the direct employer to the technicians so may not have direct influence. Sometimes your loss of control over what your employees do might make you helpless in situations where your customers don’t get the best they deserve.
The solution this however is to ensure you hire a qualified team. Do proper research and interview the vendor to be sure he and his team know their work. You may also want to come to an agreement with the team leader so you can have the authority to fire individual technicians who do not serve your company well. Your focus here should be to ensure your customers are getting the very best in service.
Outsourcing your technical support can also alienate you from your clients to a certain degree. Distance between your business and the clients and customers that drive your business. This does not mean that you will not know what is going on in your technical support department. Of course the contractor will send all data and information and progress reports to show you how your technical support are ensuring clients’ needs are being handled. The issue here is the lack direct insights from your customers, who sometimes need a face to associate with the company.
While you cannot do much about this, making the contractors work “in your name” or “as you” while still keeping their contract freelance status might help matters.
Finally you stand the risk of the contract vendor potentially exposing company secrets or confidential customer data. While the risk for data exposure is possible whether your business keeps tech support in-house or outsources it, you can at least be rest-assured that your company and customers confidential data is more secure as you hold the security of your company’s confidential data. You have no such guarantees with a vendor.
Doing proper documentation with your legal team regarding this can help protect you to an extent. Another solution however is to pay for your data security. There are vendors who have security in their service packages and will keep your data secure, using some of the best data protection services available.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Today several professional employer organizations are rising. They help business owners hire capable hands; thereby freeing the time it consumes to hire staff. It is frustrating for a small business owner to spend time on non-revenue generating activities. Employers see activities related to hiring, compensation and management of human resources as time consuming, taking up to 40% or more of business time. The solution? Hire a professional employer organization (PEO) and make them the legal employers and handlers of the HR, payroll and other related activities.
But should you hire a PEO? Well, not every company should, to know whether or not to hire a PEO; there are several questions you need to consider before making a decision:
The size of your company: Different experts have varied opinions as to how large a company should be before it can hire a PEO. A general rule of thumb however is that when you notice a slowing down of the productivity of the firm due to administrative processes, you should consider hiring a PEO. While this depends on the uniqueness of a company, this starts to happen when a company gets 10 to 15 employees a week.
The number of your employees: A company with very few employees or very large employees may not need a PEO. Smaller staffed companies may find it too expensive to hire a HR company, while bigger companies tend to find it easier to have their own in-house HR department. PEOs love to work for companies that have (or want) between 16 and 80 people.
The composition of your workforce: Hiring a PEO is great for you, if you need various skills that would require painstaking efforts to hire the very best. Companies that only offer a certain product and need just one set of staff may not benefit from PEOs.
Cost of PEOs
Like all other professional services, PEOs prices their services according to the client company and what they require. Industry experts estimate their charges to be from about 2 to 11 percent of wages. They may also charge based on the expense is per employee. With that yardstick, it would run between $500 and $1,500 per employee every year. PEOs usually charge a flat fee for small companies with perhaps two to eight employees. They could charge around $150-200 per month.
Would you like to control your HR functions? A PEO usually partners with the client company and suggests and makes recommendations in their area of expertise.
When you outsource your human resources, they own the employees most of the time, and handles the payment, management and coordination of their affairs. Doing that yourself after hiring them may defeat the purpose. What services do you need? Pick the right PEO, Ensure they are certified and qualified, then hire them. Focus on your business and allow them employ and manage the very best hands for you
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
There are millions of American that are highly sensitive to gluten or struggling with Celiac disease . These people do not enjoy the luxury of visiting their favorite restaurants or eateries to give themselves a royal treat due to the fear of gluten. This is because any food that contains gluten is off-limits for them. This sensor is expected to hit the global market next year and will eliminate the fear of consuming food that is laced with this protein. This is because the device can be used to test any food item for the traces of the protein in less than two minutes.
Before eating any food, drop a small sample of the food into the well of the device where an antibody will take over the mining of the sample for the traces of gluten. If there are traces of gluten in the food, a frowning face will light up. Otherwise, a smile face will appear. When this device hits the market, it will definitely improve the rate at which people eat socially which has been at low ebb due to the risk of exposure to gluten.
It will be highly advisable if the sales of this device can be outsourced. This is due to the following benefits that will be derived from the outsourcing.
Advantages of outsourcing the sales
Ease of distribution: This device will surely be well-accepted by hundreds of thousands of Americans and others who are in daily dread of falling victim of accidental consumption of the forbidden protein. It is important, then, that its sales and distribution should be outsourced to corporate sales companies that have the necessary resources to make its sales and distribution as easy as possible. This will ensure that those who are in dire need of this device will have to wait painfully for long before they will have access to it.
It will reduce sales risk: Since the sales will be targeted towards all the four corners of the country, it may be a bit risky to embark on sales campaign without prior sales experience. The company handling the outsourcing will already have the experience needed to make a success of the sales. Instead of reinventing the wheels, it is better to outsource the sales for better performance.
It reduces cost: It will be more expensive to purchase all the tools that you will need to embark on a successful sales campaign as the tools will come with a price. Instead of thinking on purchasing such tools, the outsourcing company will handle that. This will reduce the cost of distributing the device to those who need it.
These are just a few of some of the many benefits of outsourcing sales. Definitely, it can’t be argued that outsourcing the sales of the device will lead to increase in sales, which will in turn mean more income.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
For anyone who is in need of reception services for their business they may be considering the option of an outsourced reception services among other options. This is easy to understand when one considers the fact that there are many advantages in using the outsource market. But there are many countries today who are involved in outsourcing and the real question is which countries offers the best outsource service and why.
To properly examine this you must be able to first move past the myths and appreciate the facts. What you must first of all appreciate is that you need an outsource company and one that can offer you good outsourced reception services. These companies are based in many countries like India, Philippines, Australia, etc. With this, the next things you would be considering are the advantages of each country’s outsource business over the other.
Below are 5 features that you must look out for:
Five Factors to Consider before choosing any outsourced reception services
What is the Security Like: A lot of information is exchanged through the reception services of any business and it is important for any business to have some assurance that the information of their clients is secure and safe. Any deviation from this is bad for business. So when choosing a country or a company to provide your outsourced reception services, you would want to consider the issue of security very keenly. That is, how secure is the company’s services and if there are any vulnerability in terms of security if you choose to outsource your reception services to that particular country.
The Pricing is also Key: This is also very important. The whole idea of outsourcing your reception services or any other services for that matter is that you can have a quality work done for a good price. So you would want to know the price ranges that are offered by the different companies in the country of your choice. This would no doubt go a long way in helping you make the ideal choice for you.
Availability of skilled workers: The Philippines may not have as much workers as some other countries like India because they obviously have lesser population especially those within the working population age group. What they do have are more skilled workers which in the long run is what attracts international businesses more.
When you consider the above, you would see why it is easy to pick a company in the Philippines as your outsourced reception services provider. Over the years the Philippines have built a name for themselves in the outsource market based on some of the aforementioned features. This is further buttressed by the fact that their government has also showed support for the outsource business market. This makes them all the more ideal for international businesses.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Outsourcing has become a real business strategy especially for IT related businesses in the 21st century. The internet has made this possible and quite convenient too. But with different countries to choose from and tons of employees available in the outsource market every business appears spoil t for choice or so they think. There are tons of advantages with outsourcing your business to the Philippines and if you want to outsource help desk as well, it is still possible. Before you do this however, you must be sure to have the right information, so you don’t just run with an illusion only to realize that you fell short of the facts. Below are some important facts about the advantages for anyone that wants to outsource help desk to the Philippines.
Advantages of outsourcing help desk to the Philippines
A large employee base: It is true that the Filipinos are not as much in number as the Indians, so conventional knowledge would suggest that the Indians would have a larger employee base. In a sense this is true if you are just looking at quantity, but when you decide to factor in the quality of available employees, you would definitely have more of this in the Philippines. This is also coupled with the fact that in recent years the number of individuals entering into the outsourcing market in the Philippines has increased at a rate that is not matched by that in India.
Help Desk Requirements: You don’t just want a help desk specialist; you want one that you can relate with. In the Philippines you would find many in the outsource market who have good command of English and can communicate properly. Individuals who can relate with what you need and can deliver along the same line.
Professionalism: Another noteworthy feature about those in the Philippines outsourcing market is that a lot of them are professionals who are skilled at what they do. They are not just there looking for cheap change and easy work. This means that you get value for your money and every investment you make towards such enterprise would definitely yield good results.
Affordability: When you mention the price to some people, they would tell you that a good job is worth any amount. This is true and there is usually an erroneous idea that outsourcing your help desk automatically means cheap, but cheap is relative. When compared to the non-outsource alternative, it is, but then every quality job has a good price tag. In order words you get what you pay for.
These are some of the advantages to consider when you decide to outsource help desk to the Philippines. Some of these benefits do not always apply when you outsource to other countries and that is why you must be well informed about what you stand to gain.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Getting images in your websites isn’t good enough as you will have to understand the technicalities that are behind getting the best results from such images. Even if you are going to be considering having to hire outsourcing websites, it is also very important that you have a grasp of the whole process so that you can add your own ideas whenever necessary.
Are you considering of how you can do proper optimization of your website images so as to increase your sales? Or you have been thinking that this process is something that involves some rocket science and as such will be difficult for a regular Joe to go through.
Here are some of the tips that you need to help you get started.
Understand Photoshop
The truth is that when it comes to using Photoshop very well, there are no hard and fast rules but you may have to do a lot of practicing to get the hang of what it is all about. It has all the features that can give you that perfect image which your business will thrive on. If you know that you may not be able to understand the Photoshop platform, then you can look for some of those outsourcing sites that can help you out in the process. They are always great in this regards and you will find their services very helpful.
Label your images properly
You don’t get enough sales because you can’t seem to know how to label your images the right way. You don’t need to do too much here as you just need to make sure to see to it that they are very conspicuous in terms of their descriptions. This means that if you have a website where you display images trying to sell something; it will be more effective when you label the images appropriately. Just keep it simple and easy to read.
Design your images professionally
Professionally designed images will always outsmart the ones that have been designed by amateurs. You need to make your image to be very attractive so as to get the needed conversions. This will at least keep your audience busy in your site for as long as possible. Again the best way to get professional designed images is by hiring the services of one of those outsourcing sites. They will help you a lot to ensure that your website images look perfect.
Make sure that your images are well presented
Most times it is possible that you have not been able to display your images in their different dimensions possible to get prospective customers attracted in the best possible ways. This is a very technical process as you will need to make sure that your image is of a very high quality. You can hook up with one of those outsourcing websites for this one to be perfect and professionally executed.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Every organization has an administrative department as it is very important for the efficiency of the organization. An organization without a functional or a proper administrative department would have problems in at least one or all of the following office functions:
Human resources: This is the management of human resources so as to maximize the staff performance to yield higher productivity.
Management systems: This is the blueprint of the organization. It has to do with processes, procedures, and policies employed by the organization to ensure that the tasks required in fulfilling its objectives are efficiently carried out.
Communication: Basically, communication has to do with imparting and end exchange of information. The employees are informed of what they should know, the tasks to carry out, how to carry them out, where, and when. The admin department is also responsible for reminding the employees of necessary issues and setting up dates.
Pay roll: A company’s list of employees and records of their salaries, wedges, withheld taxes, and bonuses.
Acquisition: This is a part of a company’s growth strategy. Under this point, the admin department is saddled with the responsibility of how best to acquire properties for the growth of the company.
These functions are important if the organization must achieve its goal.
OUTSOURCING ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS
For an organization that want to keep up with trends, there comes a time when there would be need to outsource administrative tasks. The in-house admin officers might be doing good jobs but there is so much to gain from outsourcing admin tasks every now and then. While the in-house employees are thinking “the organization and admin tasks”, the external admin agents are like “the organization, other organizations, admin functions, and latest trends”.
Let us analyze those thoughts
IN-HOUSE ADMIN OFFICERS
In-house admin officers’ thoughts are narrowed down to just two; the organization and admin tasks. They focus all of their admin know-how and skills on the organization, and they gear all that towards the success of the organization; which is very good for the organization, but one sided. They are doing their best but there are cases where their best would not be of great help to the organization, thus the need to outsource admin tasks. There might also be the case of excessive work load expected to be completed within a particular time limit. This is also a good time to outsource admin tasks.
EXTERNAL ADMIN OFFICER:
These guys are very versatile. Their aim, whenever they take a job with an organization is to produce the best result ever by
Getting to know the organization to a very reasonable extent so as to decisively state what is good for the organization.
Carrying out their tasks professionally without interfering with other activities of the organization.
Employing the skills they have acquired from working for other organizations. These experiences make them resourceful in carrying out admin tasks in any organization.
Constantly getting training’s to update their knowledge and skills so as to be the best at what they do; thereby setting trends in their field as admin officers.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Virtually all the entrepreneurs possess amazing talents and skills. But, most times, they feel they can handle it all on their own. This can actually freeze the growth of a business. On the other hand, by outsourcing administrative services and other daily back-office tasks, an entrepreneur would have quality time to concentrate on generating ideas and concepts that can move the business forward.
Outsourcing is Now Accessible to All
Perhaps, many entrepreneurs still think that outsourcing remains a business solution for only big businesses. This is an entirely wrong conception. In fact, with the advent of technology and the internet, outsourcing has become more accessible to all, both large and small businesses. Many small businesses that had latched on this business solution have experienced great impact in terms of productivity and overall growth.
You Can Find an Outsourcing Vendor for Virtually All Tasks
And, the good news is that you can find outsourcing vendors for virtually all tasks, including administrative services. Such outsourcing vendors include graphic designers, paralegals, marketing directors, HR consultants, transcriptionists, virtual executive assistants, PR directors, bookkeepers, IT specialists and more. Also, customer service and call center outsourcing are increasingly popular these days.
And, there are increasingly number of call center outsourcing experts, having the ultra-modern equipment’s and up-to-date customer service/call center skills. In fact, even your social media marketing that tends to take most of your time can be handled by outsourcing experts who are specialized in social media marketing. And, you will spend less to contract their services, and gain more from their expertise, plus the ample of time at your disposal to help you focus on the core aspects of your business.
Why Should You Hire outsourcing Providers?
You’ve probably heard it over and again, that hiring outsourcing subcontractors for your administrative and other tasks will help you save big. This is nothing but the truth. The freelancers who work as outsourcing professionals save small businesses the huge cost burden that comes with payroll taxes and other overhead responsibilities, including workers’ compensation and health insurance expenses. And of course, the massive cost of creating space for in-house workers and equipping the space for the applicable task is an additional heavy burden that outsourcing helps to take off the shoulder of entrepreneurs.
A Note Of Warning
While outsourcing is obviously an inevitable (arguable) business solution, you need to exercise caution and do your own research before hiring a provider. As the saying goes; not all that glitters are gold. So, don’t settle for just any outsourcing provider that comes your way. Whether you are seeking outsourcing administrative services providers or outsourcing vendors for other business tasks, you should shop carefully. Interview as many as you can before narrowing down your choice to the very best.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
According to a prominent marketing expert named Erik Huberman, sticking with your core competence is an absolute necessity if you really want to do well in your business. Do whatever it is you do best and let marketing experts execute their business functions. It is called division of labor and it is a sure way of getting the job done without excessive time consumption, stress, and expenses.
THE TRENDING METHOD OF GROWING YOUR BUSINESS
One thing about trend is that it is a widely accepted way of doing something. In the world today, businesses and organizations outsource many facets of business like accounting, customer services, development, and of course marketing. If yours is a new brand or a business looking to expand, hiring the service of an expert marketer can go a long way in bringing your products and services to the right audience while you focus on other things. By doing so, you can save recruiting time, overhead commitment, training time, and the expenses of full time staff.
WHEN TO OUTSOURCE A MARKETING JOB
You should know that the need to outsource might not be a constant call. Outsourcing tasks are mostly carried out in the following scenarios.
1) To reduce the cost of hiring a full time expert to do the job; that is if there is no much need for marketing. Some businesses have their own internal marketing team; but how viable is the team? You can outsource the marketing job to an external marketer who can rub off positively on the internal marketers (as your contract with the external marker lasts) and inspire them to succeed.
2) If you need to get your marketing job done in as little time as possible; especially if you are in short of hands or time, it is advisable to outsource. If you are familiar with the goals of your business, then you will know when it is right to outsource and when it is not.
3) Outsourcing your marketing team is a good way to improve the success rate of your company/business. It is not like a passing fad, it is more like a paradigm shift that can change the face of your business in as much as forever. With the help of the internet and technology, you can easily come in contact with people who can expertly and professionally do jobs you cannot do yourself probably as a result of lack of know-how.
EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVES OF YOUR COMPANY
In addition to the benefit of outsourcing marketing jobs, you stand the chance to get an outside and professional perspective of your business/company. This is one of the reasons why companies/businesses with internal marketing teams still go as far as outsourcing marketing jobs. No matter how well you think you know your business, your perspective of your business is still one sided and narrow. There is always room for expansion/growth, and this you can get from listening and implementing the external ideas; and the more often you do this, the more your chances of doing well.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.