Whether you are already leveraging outsourcing or just about to start, you can learn how to make this business solution work for you. Each business is unique even if there are similar businesses — so also are their outsourcing needs. This is the reason you need to know how to make outsourcing work for your business based on its unique needs and purpose.
Tip #1: Be Purpose-Driven When You Adopt Outsourcing
The number one secret towards making outsourcing work for you is to become purpose-driven when you adopt this business solution. In essence, do not just join the ‘bandwagon’ when you leverage outsourcing. You should identify unmistakable and clear reasons/purpose you want to integrate outsourcing into your business-running strategy.
For instance, your purpose for using outsourcing could be to hire the best hands without paying so much in terms of remuneration. It could also be that you want to engage outsourcing as a tool to bridge the skill gap or provide specialized business pieces of equipment. Whatever that purpose is, you have to identify and make it crystal clear.
Tip #2: Align Outsourcing to the Identified Purpose or Goal
So, when you identify why you need outsourcing, you should ensure that you match that purpose with an outsourcing solution. For instance, if you have determined that outsourcing will help create quality time for in-house employees to focus on the core values of the company, you should stick to this purpose when you apply to outsource.
In essence, do not deviate from this goal — you should ensure that on the long run, you and your in-house employees are having more time at your disposal to attend to the core values that would aid the continuous existence of the business. You should make sure the process is measurable, which is the only way you can determine whether or not your outsourcing goal has been achieved.
For instance, if you are only having about 2 hours out of 9 hours for the core tasks of the organization, you should ensure that you can keep track and ascertain that outsourcing has ultimately helped to increase the number of hours you have for your core tasks to about 5 hours daily.
Tip #3: Track Progress and Ultimate Result
Many business owners think it’s time to go to sleep after outsourcing. But no, it is rather a time to get to work and monitor work-in-progress and ultimately measure the final outcome to see if it aligns with your own pre-determined outcome.
Therefore, you should put proper procedures in place that would help monitor an outsourced project from start to finish. There should also be tangible parameters that would help measure the final outcome against the desired/pre-determined outcome.
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 to build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
For a successful outcome, outsourcing needs to be strategic and planned. This is the only way you can maximize its benefits and would not delay using outsourcing over and again. So, what are the vital steps that will lead to successful outsourcing? Keep reading to learn them.
Step 1: Make Sure You Have a Purpose for Outsourcing
It’s easy to abuse a thing when the purpose is not defined — it is also applicable to using outsourcing. Before stepping out to get independent contractors to work with, you should first identify the reasons or your purpose for outsourcing. There are many reasons a business or company would want to hire external hands in handling operational tasks. These reasons may include the following;
Freeing up quality time for more pressing and highly prioritized business tasks
Gaining competitive advantage
Offering super-improved customer service
Cutting business running costs substantially
Accessing expertise in a super affordable manner
Cutting off needless remuneration — e.g. hiring a web developer on a full-time basis, when you can get an independent contractor for the task
…and more
So, whatever the reason for wanting to outsource, make sure it is clear enough to drive you towards leveraging outsourcing in running your business.
Step 2: Identify the Tasks You Want to Outsource
Also, for outsourcing to yield the desired outcome, it is necessary to sit back and identify those tasks you want to outsource. For instance, you may discover that routine tasks such as accounting and other admin tasks are eating deep into your time. As a result, you decide to outsource some or all of your routine tasks to free up quality time.
So, do not be in a hurry to implement outsourcing. Sit back first and point out those tasks you want to hand over to independent contractors. This will, in turn, help you to hire a suitable contractor for the task.
Step 3: Think Before You Hire
Now that you have the reason to outsource, and you have identified the tasks to outsource, the next step is to hire. But, you should think before you do so. In essence, you also need to sit back and spell out the talents, skills, expertise, and experience you’re looking for in an outsourcing partner. This way, you won’t have too many applications to sort through.
For instance, if you are looking to hire an accountant on an outsourcing basis, you would want to ensure that the candidate is a professional accountant with certifications and experience as proofs. In addition to expertise, you may also want to make sure that the person has good interpersonal and communication skill, which is needful for both parties to work together.
Finally, it’s also necessary to create a contract for the outsourcing relationship.
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 to build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
It’s a common knowledge that any business that is not leveraging social marketing may be losing out big time! Every Dick and Harry is now on at least one social platform. It simply means that millions of people from all over the world use social media in one way or the other.
Research has shown that most people spend substantial time on these social channels. At this point, it’s necessary to recommend social media marketing outsourcing as one of the viable ways to maximize social marketing.
This sends out one and important message — social is a powerful tool for marketing your business, much more than your conventional marketing tools. However, before you rush off to join the rat race to claim your own share of the social marketplace, you need to learn how to maximize social media for marketing.
Tip #1: Start with Your Long Term Goals
Prior to adopting social media to market your business, you should first identify your long term goals. Find out how your social marketing efforts will help in achieving your organizational goals. You need to ask yourself essential questions on the purpose of adopting social marketing. Typical examples of such questions would include the following;
What do I want to achieve ultimately?
Am I targeting at boosting sales with social marketing?
Do I want to achieve customer base expansion by expanding my visibility via social platforms?
Is customer service my major focus?
Tip #2: Decide on the Social Networks to Use
Another major step towards making your social media marketing result-oriented is to choose your preferred social networks. The list includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. While it may be luring to be on all these platforms at the same time, it’s always better to be on a small-scale and expand later, except you choose to outsource social media marketing. And, in choosing social platforms to launch your business on, you should be strategic.
For instance, if your products are visual (e.g. food, art, clothes), you may be better off focusing more on Instagram and/or Pinterest. These platforms are visual-oriented and as a result, will inspire people to take action regarding your product. Photogenic, branded or colorful products are the most suitable for these social channels. No matter what social channels work best for your product and/or service, you should always integrate Facebook to your social marketing — it has a far larger population.
And, when it comes to business to business communication, LinkedIn would deliver a great outcome. Video marketing is also highly effective and the social channel to focus on in this case is Youtube. In addition to Youtube, Snapchat and Vine are also ideal for businesses geared towards high-level production equipment.
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 to build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Yes, we all know that outsourcing is affordable in comparison. But, do you know you can make outsourcing even more affordable? Yes, but first, you need to plan it. So, keep reading to learn tips on how to plan to outsource so that it becomes increasingly affordable.
First, You Need to Analyze Your Core Mission
The fastest way to unravel your core mission is to explore your business plan — it should be there already. In analyzing your core mission, you should check to ensure that your current workforce is covering strategic aspects of your business or company’s plan. Subsequently, you can seek to outsource routine tasks that are not directly linked to your core mission.
Outsourcing is something that you should take your time to plan and implement. Sometimes, the need for training when outsourcing may arise. Therefore, when you outsource, ensure that the outsourcing partner is well versed with the business function you’re handing out. It’s also important to ensure that the outsourcing partner is accountable in addition to being skillful at carrying out the business function in question.
So, once you’ve examined your core business mission and see that major aspects are being satisfactorily handled currently, you can go ahead and adopt outsourcing. This would in turn help to boost both the function and efficiency of your company.
Next, Hold Meeting with the Upper Management
The essence of this meeting is to prioritize as well as strategize on projects that are best outsourced. In prioritizing those projects, your criteria should include timeline and cost. If you have new projects and you have spotted current employees who possess the right skill to execute such tasks, you may decide not to outsource those tasks.
Here’s a list of functions that small and medium-sized businesses are better off outsourcing to a third party;
Online/Print Marketing
Public Relations/Reputation Management
Customer Service/Help Desk
Graphic Design
Brokers
Database Management
Website Hosting
Bookkeeping
Legal Services
…and more
Check Cost to Benefit Ratio
Also, in order to achieve affordable outsourcing as a small business, you need to compute the cost to benefit ratio. In essence, find out the cost involved when you outsource versus when you decide to perform the business functions in question in-house. In doing this, you shouldn’t be only concerned with monetary cost, but also hours spent in executing such tasks — this will provide a total picture of which option offers the best benefit.
Budget for Outsourcing
Outsourcing does not just happen, you have to plan for it, which includes setting apart a budget for it. Therefore, research what it will cost to outsource the task you are planning to outsource so that you can set a budget aside.
Good luck as you implement these tips to achieve affordable 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 to build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
You need a strategy in order to achieve success in any endeavor — outsourcing is not an exception. A carefully crafted outsourcing strategy allows companies and business owners to maximize the benefits that come with outsourcing.
The first step towards developing a result-oriented outsourcing strategy is to define the objectives of your business or organization. Whatever those objectives are, you should look into them closely and carefully, so that you will know what direction your outsourcing strategy will be geared towards.
Tip #2: Identify Your Purpose for Outsourcing
Also, in developing a strategy for outsourcing, you will need to spell out clear reasons or purposes for embarking on outsourcing. For instance, such reasons may include taking advantage of tools and/or skills that are not available in-house. It could also be that your company wants to cut back on operational costs and speed up organizational change.
So, you should sit back and identify the reasons you would want to outsource your business tasks. This will help you in structuring a strategy that would work for your unique outsourcing need. Don’t just outsource because others are doing so. You should first identify the need and reasons to outsource.
Tip #3: Create a Plan for Accomplishing Organizational Goals
Perhaps your company is about to launch a new service targeted at existing customers. It may also be that your business is intending to expand its range of products or services to lure new customers. As a result, you may have to include in your comprehensive plan, the need to partner with external consultants, using a third party service to handle some of the admin or production tasks via outsourcing.
Tip #4: Decide Whether to Outsource Offshore or On-Shore
Also, while trying to come up with approach or strategy to adopt in outsourcing, you should also decide whether to hire outsourcing partners from another country such as the Philippines, or outsourcing vendors in the country where your business resides.
You may choose to go for offshore outsourcing if huge cost-cutting is your main goal for outsourcing. This does not mean that significant cost saving is the only reason for outsourcing offshore — when you choose vendors carefully, offshore outsourcing will also offer additional benefits such as access to expertise and improved overall outcome.
On the other hand, if you want very close monitoring of the outsourced project, you can contract an on-shore outsourcing vendor. This way, you can visit the outsourcing vendor’s outfit (if you have to do so) for closer monitoring and supervision of the outsourced project.
Go ahead and develop robust outsourcing strategy with these tips.
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 to build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Outsourcing has continued to be the buzz word in the business world. Aspects such as business process outsourcing and recruitment process outsourcing have continued to grow over the years, and some of the leading offshore destinations such as the Philippines are making giant strides.
Project outsourcing does not mean the project is being auto-piloted. While you are not expected to micro-manage an outsourced project, you shouldn’t also vanish from the scene — your outsourcing partner would want you to standby and provide direction and more clarity where and when necessary. Don’t be like some outsourcing clients who get to the opposite end of micromanaging — either abandoning the project to the independent contractor or dedicating very little or no time to it.
It is Arm’s-Length Management and not Hands-Off Management
Instead of micromanaging things when you outsource, you should rather give an arm’s length space to the outsourcing partner. But, this does not also mean you should hands off from the project completely.
You have to be standing by to provide additional direction and make necessary approvals to avoid delay and aid their job to be smooth. In fact, you need to allocate quality time to ensure you and your outsourced team are on the same page in terms of your goals and strategy.
Learn to Track and Measure Your Outsourcing Efforts
It’s also necessary that you measure the performance of your outsourcing partner. However, when you do so, it shouldn’t be with bias and critical mindset. Instead, you should adopt a realistic approach when measuring performance.
This is not to say you shouldn’t adopt a high standard in measuring your independent contractors’ performance. However, it is also necessary to factor in some inevitable circumstances. For instance, you should not give a very short deadline for a project that requires much more time.
Make Assessment Easier
Instead of waiting till the end to assess an outsourced project, make the task easier for you and your in-house team. How? Break up the project into phases and asses the project phase by phase.
Before even outsourcing the project, you should list out the criteria you will use in assessing performance at each phase. Planning ahead of time before even outsourcing a project will aid easier and smoother assessment, and make the entire project flow seamlessly, leading to a super successful outcome.
Good planning precedes success in every life’s endeavor and outsourcing is not an exception. You will be surprised at the awesome result that awaits you when you precede outsourcing with good planning. Ultimately, you and your outsourcing partner will be smiling at the end of the project — that’s the power of good planning!
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 to build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Outsourcing can be a great way to simplify tasks, free up more time in a workplace, and speed up processes. When applied correctly and strategically, outsourcing has the capacity to grant an enviable competitive edge to any company or business. Keep reading to find tips on how to speed up an outsourcing project.
1: Make the Task Description Clear and Concise
When an outsourcing partner clearly understands the requirements of your task, completing the job accurately and on time becomes easier. Therefore, from the onset, ensure that the job description is clear, coherent and concise. In fact, to be sure that the outsourcing company understands the details of the job, ask relevant questions and pay attention to the responses you will get, so that you can throw more light on the details of the job where applicable.
2: Hire the Right Skills
Instead of just hiring anyone for a task, insist on hiring the right skill as this will help speed up the outsourcing project and at the same time aid superb quality outcome. So, check out the portfolio and qualifications of the outsourcing providers to be sure they possess the required skill and experience for the task in question. You should also ask relevant question that would enable you confirm if the skill is applicable to the project you wish to outsource.
3: Monitor Work in Progress
It is important to monitor any outsourced task — this will not just help speed up timely completion but will also help in accurate completion based on the details and description you provided for the task earlier. So, how exactly can you monitor an outsourced project?
If you are contracting an offshore outsourcing provider (which has the capacity to help you minimize cost greatly), you will need to employ robust and instant monitoring and communication tools that include the following;
Phone calls
Video calls
Instant chats via Skype or other video messaging apps
Emails
…and even social networks where the outsourcing provider has accounts. In this case, ensure they provide you with their social media details so that you
can track them effectively.
4: Set Timeline
Adopting deadline is one of the effective ways to speed up outsourcing projects. When the freelancers have time-frame to work with, they tend to be more focused and would speed up their pace in order to deliver in a timely fashion. For deadlines to work, do not just set them, consider attaching some conditions such as “not meeting deadline will mean cutting off a percentage of the agreed fee”.
Finally, if you can pay a percentage of the agreed fee upfront, it would also help motivate an outsourcing company to get the task done faster.
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.
Business process outsourcing has increasingly become a regular activity in the business arena. More and more companies and businesses are increasingly outsourcing BPO. This is because businesses have found out that business process outsourcing saves more cost compared to doing it in-house.
What exactly is BPO?
BPO – Business Process Outsourcing is when a business or company outsources its non-primary business activities to an outsourcing provider who is a third party. In recent time, more companies are joining in business process outsourcing because of its effectiveness in terms of cost savings, increased speed and increased accuracy.
Typical examples of business process that a business or company can outsource include the following;
Payroll handling
Accounting
Human Resources
Customer-related Services
…and more
There are other terms used in referring to BPO based on the uniqueness or nature of the outsourcing. These terms include the following; Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO), Information Technology Enabled Service (ITES), and Engineering Process Outsourcing (EPO).
Some of the various activities that companies can use BPO to accomplish include the following; Human Resource Administration, IT, Facilities Management, CAD and BIM, Security, Finance and Accounting, Structural Design, Project Management, Concept Design, Marketing and Communications.
Benefits of BPO
The main benefit that comes with business process outsourcing is the additional flexibility that companies and businesses enjoy. A company can turn fixed costs into variable costs —- this privilege comes from the fee-for-service that most BPO providers operate. Consequently, a business or company is able to respond to changes that come with workload and required capacity in a more flexible way.
So, Who is the Leading BPO Provider?
While there are tons of freelancers providing business process outsourcing services online, Philippine has become a destination to reckon with when it comes to BPO. Businesses from across the globe, especially in the United States and other developed countries are increasingly outsourcing business processes to the Philippines. This can only mean that this offshore outsourcing destination is providing great BPO service, which is why they are attracting more and more clients from the developed nations.
The best part is that the quality outcome from Philippine business process outsourcing is all worth the choice. Compared to outsourcing business process on-shore, a business will save huge cost by opting for Philippines BPO.
Finding outsourcing companies in Philippines that are focused on business process is easy. As you may have rightly guessed, the internet is the best place to start and probably end your search. Simply search for “leading Philippines BPO companies” and you will be amazed at the outcome that would follow.
India is also another popular offshore destination for BPO, but the Philippines have taken the lead in this outsourcing niche, and as a result have greatly grown their economy from the huge resources coming in to the country through this avenue.
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 business, company or organization is existing to make profit. And, profit would not come if the organization is often experiencing dwindling productivity. Even when you’re experiencing consistent productivity, you can triple the outcome by employing some proven tips and tricks. Outsourcing is also key in boosting productivity. Keep reading to learn more.
Investing in Training
Why do you think your competitors are investing massively in training and retraining their workers? It is one of the secrets to tripling productivity in the workplace. Besides, when you invest in training your employees, they become more valuable and would feel indebted to the company for the extra skills they acquire. Subsequently, they will be motivated to do more.
While training and retraining is essential at every level, you should consider focusing more on employees who are just advancing into leadership roles, such as middle managers and supervisors. These people are key when it comes to transmitting the vision of the upper management and organizing work more efficiently. On the long run, the company’s productivity will double, if not triple.
Committing to Improvement
You can also speed up level of productivity in your company by committing to improvement. Ensure that the leadership is committed to a consistent and constant process of improvement and change. In this case, you should consider these four aspects or parts to improvement;
Come up with a baseline: For instance, you should determine your total revenue for each hour worked if your products are service-oriented. In essence, outline your base services and the actual time they require. For a physical product, you should also calculate the number of hours required to typically complete production.
Pinpoint areas of improvement: This could be work pace, work tools, or work attitude. If you look closely, you will surely determine areas that require improvement to help boost productivity.
Adopt a result-oriented process and train employees on how to implement it; if you notice that a process works, you should adopt such process or approach and train mangers (high priority) on it, so that they can pass it on to other employees to implement.
Put a process of change in place as well as metrics of success: It doesn’t matter how long the process takes, you should keep testing out new processes to determine whether or not they are resulting in improvement in line with established metrics.
Improvement should be a constantly on-going endeavor in a business. This will not only help boost productivity significantly, it will also help your business gain better competitive advantage, bearing in mind that competition in the business world is getting stiffer and fiercer.
Finally, outsourcing would not fail in helping you triple productivity.
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 an outsourcing reporter, “At weeknights in Manila, the capital of Philippines, you can hardly tell night from day at renowned call centers; the curtains are all drawn and the clocks on the wall display different times in the four United States Zones.
At midnight, in their local time when dozens of employees start trooping in to the various outsourcing call centers, it will all seem like day. The workers sit cubicle by cubicle, in front of their desks, and start to make calls in order to generate leads for different companies and corporations in the United States.”
These call centers work for different organizations — profit schools, and insurance companies in the bid to verify claims for American hospitals. When some of these call center workers were interviewed, they said “It is an easier shift job than if they have to deal with agitated Home Shopping Network customers. Even for the most difficult caller, we dare not hang up, we just have to come up with tactics to end the call in a calm manner.”
Indeed, the industry turnover is quite high, around 60 percent. Although the job can be stressful and demanding (running several days of shifts and answering tons of calls), yet the relatively decent pay in comparison keeps attracting more young and vibrant Philippines to call centers. The earning of a call center worker in the Philippines is double of what a bank teller in the same country earns. With the look of things, business process outsourcing will continue to grow in the Philippines for years to come.
America and Europe can’t Just Stop Patronizing the Philippines Outsourcing Market
American as well as European businesses and companies are topping their outsourcing games; they are increasingly outsourcing jobs to the Philippines and other preferred outsourcing locations. These were jobs once handled by legal secretaries, medical employees and junior accountants in the United States. Typical examples of such tasks include creating research reports, providing clinical support, and formatting documents.
According to a reporter, one accounting outsourcing agent in the Philippines said, “Each year, we produce 3,000 CPAs, but we employ United States accounting standards, of which we’ve been trained on.”
In similar manner, American curriculum’s are being used in Philippines’ law schools. Consequently, law graduates become a desirable low-cost option for a number of United States businesses.
At Manila, starting associates in law firms earn about 700USD monthly — but a call center worker in Manila makes as much. According to a BPO operations owner (from the United States) in a number of cities around the world, including Manila, “The combination of low-cost and efficiency is the attraction to Manila outsourcing market.” He reaffirmed that outsourcing boom overseas isn’t in any way causing job scarcity in the U.S. According to him, “Our Manila BPO office is growing just as the one in North Dakota — we’re expanding our employee capacity from 175 to 3000.”
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.
