Arguably, no one would say otherwise regarding the effectiveness of outsourcing. In essence, the benefits of outsourcing are so glaring, from cost savings to affordable access to expertise and quicker production time/faster delivery to the target market. However, it’s also good to learn about some outsourcing pitfalls to avoid in order to maximize the benefits that come with this great business tool.

1: Being in a Hurry to Hire

You’ve just learnt that outsourcing will help you save huge cost on staffing, and you just rushed off to find and hire outsourcing providers. That’s not the way to go about outsourcing. You should first sit back to identify the need of your business in terms of tasks, staffing capacity and the nature of your business functions.

2: Not Knowing Whether or Not It’s Time to Outsource

As hinted earlier, you should always take calculative steps before outsourcing. Don’t just outsource because others are doing so. You should be on the lookout for the signs that precede outsourcing.

If you are wondering what these signs are, they include the following;

• You and your present staff can no longer handle the tasks alone. If you and your present staff are overworked, it means there are more tasks than the number of people available can handle. In this case, you should consider outsourcing instead of hiring full-time staff.

• You no longer pay attention to the core business task that grows your brand. As a result, your brand’s image starts to wane. This is because you are busy with other none core tasks.

• You need expert service such as information technology but can’t accommodate the high salary involved in your budget. This is the right time to rather outsource your information technology.

• You’re paying less attention to your customers because you and your employees are busy with other tasks. Then, you should outsource your help desk.

• You are lagging behind in delivering your products to the market on time due to delay in finishing production. As a result, your competitors are always having a better share of the market. You should consider outsourcing some aspects of production to quicken completion and delivery.
  …and more

3: Not Adopting Standard Procedure to Interview an Outsourcing Provider

This is why you should take time and follow due procedure when considering outsourcing. If you are in a hurry to outsource without adopting due process to interview and find out if the independent contractor is an expert in handling the task you wish to outsource, you may end up with the wrong outsourcing provider. So, interview and hire a freelancer just the same way you would do when hiring a full-time employee.

Take heed to these pitfalls as you consider 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

Outsourcing is undoubtedly a super-effective business tool. You can use it to accomplish a lot while running your business; whether you want to keep business expenses low, hire the best hands at lower cost, leverage cheap expertise or quicken production time, outsourcing will help you accomplish it all. But then, you should pay attention to the best procedure that guarantees successful outsourcing.

Check if it is the Right time to Outsource

No doubts, outsourcing is both effective and desirable. But, you should make sure outsourcing is ripe for your business before implementing it. In essence, are you seeing signs that it is time to outsource some business tasks? Or are you considering outsourcing because your competitors are implementing outsourcing solution?

Every business has its own unique attributes, even if you are in the same niche. So, don’t just outsource because others are doing so. You have to make sure there are signs pointing to outsourcing such as too many tasks for the present staff to handle, or you are incurring heavy staffing expenditure.

Identify the Tasks that Should be Outsourced

Take a long look at your business and its tasks. Which of these tasks are taking so much of your time? For instance, repetitive tasks can be time consuming that you don’t have time to attend to more important matters.

These are usually the administrative tasks such as book-keeping and accounting. Social media marketing is also time-consuming since you have to be on the social platforms most times to monitor the performance of your contents. So, when you sit back and take a long look, you will definitely identify the tasks that should be outsourced, so that you can spend time building your brand and enhancing your business image.

Hire the Most Competent

Luckily, there are tons of competent independent contractors in different niches. However, you need to adopt due process in finding, interviewing and hiring them. Your target should be to hire an outsourcing provider who is an expert in handling the business function you wish to outsource.

Avoid the jack-of-all-trade and master-of-none type of independent contractors. Instead, go for an outsourcing employee with undeniable proof of expertise in the aspect of your business you wish to outsource. This is a great way to improve the chances of reaping the benefits that come with outsourcing.

Put Check and Balances in Place

It’s not enough hiring the most competent independent contractor, you also need to monitor the outsourced task. From the start of the project, ensure there’s an effective monitoring system for the outsourced task. You want to make sure the independent contractor is on the same page with you in terms of the requirements of the outsourced task.

Finally, make sure you negotiate an outsourcing service fee that will promote super-quality 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 build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams

Wondering what it may be that small businesses are saying about outsourcing? To start with, outsourcing is not a new phenomenon in the business world. From time immemorial, big companies and organizations have leveraged outsourcing solution in carrying out business functions of various kinds.

Luckily, the internet has made this viable business solution available to small business owners as well. It’s no longer a business-running tool for just the so-called fortune companies and big organizations. Keep reading to learn about what small businesses are saying about outsourcing.

Outsourcing is a Money Saver

A number of small business owners interviewed recently had one thing in common in terms of their responses, “outsourcing is a huge money saver!! According to these small business owners, “the difference between what you will pay handling a task in-house and outsourcing to independent contractors is quite substantial.

Subsequently, it helps recoup losses that may emanate from aspects such as poor sales, expired inventories and unproductive investments. In fact, substantial cost saving through outsourcing does not only help recoup losses from other aspects of business, but ultimately aids profit generation”.

Outsourcing is Proven tool for Accessing Expertise Inexpensively

Another survey on the impact of outsourcing on small businesses was also revealing. According to the study, a number of small business owners concurred that “It would have been almost impossible to afford experts such as IT professionals, but thanks to the power of outsourcing, it is not just possible but also super-affordable.”

The internet has made outsourcing solution quite accessible. A lot of experts on different niches are on the web competing to get freelance jobs. As a result, their fees are quite competitive. The one who combines affordability with quality gets to win the project. Small businesses have latched on this factor to access experts (e.g. IT pros and administrators), which in turn helps to innovate and grow their businesses.

Outsourcing Helps you Focus on Building Your Brand

Particularly, a small business owner was singled out during the survey because of what he has to say about outsourcing. “I just started a business and didn’t have resources to hire enough hands. So, I and my two employees handled the entire task – from book-keeping to customer service as well as other admin tasks.

As a result, I lost track of the core tasks and activities that are essential in building my brand. Thanks to someone in my niche who recommended outsourcing to help take the repetitive task off my shoulder, while I focused on building my brand.”

Outsourcing Should be Done Wisely

A couple of small business owner advised that outsourcing has to be adopted wisely. According to them, you need to sit back first and analyze your business needs before adopting outsourcing solution.

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

You’ve heard it over and again that outsourcing is a great tool for achieving much with little. But, you’ve been wondering how it is done, how outsourcing is implemented to get much result with little investment. Keep reading to learn how outsourcing solution enables businesses to get the most with little.

Get More Income by Cutting More Cost

This is the number one achievement that outsourcing offers. No business can make any meaningful profit by incurring more expenses. It doesn’t matter how big your business’ income is, if there’s no effective tool for cutting cost, your income will all translate to expenses.

So, when you use outsourcing to drastically reduce what you pay as salary for instance, you will maximize your business income, hence net profit. Workers’ salary is one of the major sources of expenses for businesses and companies. You can substantially cut back this source of expense by outsourcing your HR.

Get the Best Hands with Little Cost

Also, outsourcing lets you access professionals in an affordable manner. Whether you are looking for an administrative expert, marketing expert, legal practitioner, an accountant, a marketing executive or other experts, outsourcing is the best tool to hire such experts without paying much.

Are you wondering how that can happen? First, the internet has made it easy and possible for professionals to offer their services virtually. In fact, a lot of them are now on the web, so you can embark on comparison shopping to find the best in terms of both expertise and cost.

Besides, since these virtual experts are not being employed full-time, you will bypass overhead costs as well as the formal remuneration package that comes with hiring full-time employees. Also, you won’t need to incur office furnishing expenses when you outsource task to virtual experts.

Quicken Production time without Incurring Much

Even if you want to increase your workforce to quicken production time, it will cost you less as long as you adopt outsourcing. Perhaps you’ve been lagging behind in terms of the time it takes to deliver your product to the market. And as a result, you’re thinking of increasing your workforce to quicken production time.

Using outsourcing to hire more hands would promote cost saving on acquiring more employees. Outsource some aspects of production that can be handled virtually or outside of your business premises. This will cost far less compared to hiring the additional employees on a full time basis.

Besides, when the production period is over, you can cancel the outsource contract and disband the outsourcing team. But, if you hire additional workforce on a full-time basis, you will continue to pay salary and incur overhead expenses unnecessarily.

Indeed, you can adopt outsourcing to accomplish virtually every business tasks with less in comparison.

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.

Cost cutting is the major way that companies and businesses can increase income and maximize profit. Production is one of the major sources of intensive cost for businesses. Therefore, seeking effective ways to cut back costs emanating from production can help reduce overall business expenses. Don’t forget that outsourcing solution will help you cut cost, including production cost.

Step #1: Keep Track of Your Inventory Closely

While it may appear to be a smart thing when you keep excess inventory, it is not actually smart in reality. This is because the act can tie your cash flow, resulting in additional storage cost. Therefore, you should track your inventory on a regular basis. This will ensure that your orders reflect only what you need per time.

Here’s an instance; you may deem it fit to purchase one year worth of product packaging materials. But, have you considered the fact that new regulations may necessitate using a different inscription on your product label? If this happens, you will end up wasting resources since you can no longer use those production materials.

Step #2: Write Off or Sell off Inventory

Write off or sell off inventory or a line of product that only sold little, or products left over after promotion. So, instead of occupying storage space unnecessarily, you’re better off selling off or writing off such left over on your taxes.

On the long run, embarking on this step will help you minimize production cost. So, don’t keep anything that will constitute waste or lead to increased production cost.

Step #3: Consider Outsourcing Production Offshore

Offshore outsourcing has been effective in reducing production costs. So, sit back and compute what you’re spending on manufacturing in your country, and compare it with offshore manufacturing cost. If you find offshore option more favorable in terms of cost saving, don’t delay in outsourcing production or at least part of your production offshore.

Step #4: Get Multiple Bids Prior to Purchase

Don’t always be in a hurry to purchase production materials. Employ due diligence in comparing price quotes from up to five different sellers before making your final purchase decision. Don’t forget to get as much details as you can as you compare each quote. Look at all cost-cutting features in each quote – including free shipping, discount for extended purchase contract and so on.

Step #5: Engage your Unused Production Space Gainfully

Instead of allowing your unused production space to lie in waste, consider leasing it. Take advantage of co-working spaces that have become popular in recent time. So, don’t just keep unused space, lease it out and recoup some costs from the income.

Go ahead and take advantage of these five steps for cutting back on production costs.

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.

A business process model is intended to illustrate the processes of business, so that those concerned can understand them with ease and subsequently improve on those processes. This post would detail the preparation procedure for creating a business process model.

First, Define the Specific Process to be Modeled

The first step to creating a success-prone business process model is to define the specific process you are about to create a model on. Such process should have a clear starting point as well as output. It mustn’t be a complex process – an example is redirecting a customer complaint. It could also be a complex process such as an online product’s shipping process.

The entire business organization or just a unit can be involved in terms of the process you intend to define. The important thing is for you to ensure the process can be divided into clear parts with ease. And, identifying the relationships between those parts should be easy.

Secondly, You Need to Determine the Process’ Starting Point

Also, when preparing to create a business process model, you need to determine the starting point of the process in question. There’s a first step to every process, and that step could be anything in reality. But, it’s best to make the starting point something that triggers the process to action.

In essence, it is the input desired to be converted into an output. There are several categories that a starting point would usually fall into;

• Content Arrival: The starting point when it comes to content management systems could be the arrival of a certain form of content such as new document.
• External Events: Typical example is a transmitted alert emanating from a different business system. A typical example is an automated system requiring the attention of humans.
• Human Intervention: Examples are complaints from customers as well as other forms of intervention coming from humans within the business or outside the business.

Next, Separate the Steps involved in the Process

When you identify or separate the steps, ensure you show how they are connected to one another. Generally, the different steps would include events, activities, as well as decision gateways. Events refer to steps that don’t necessitate action from the business. Activities are carried out by the business as a way of responding to input. Decision gateways are splits in the process that require some qualifier to decide the path of the process.

Finally, Clarify the Instrument Responsible for Each Step

In essence, who or what is assigned to perform each step? Determining who performs what or what instrument achieves what will help make the process unambiguous and clear.

For instance, the accounting department, order fulfillment or customer service may be responsible for different parts or aspects of the process. Some specific individuals may also be assigned to perform specific parts of the process.

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.

Virtual assistants would always come in play when you mention outsourcing. Indeed, virtual assistants are great assets to businesses of various kinds and sizes because of their invaluable services offered in an affordable manner. However, you need to learn the best strategies for choosing the best virtual assistant.

After you’ve chosen a potentially best virtual assistant to outsource your business task to, you can adopt the following steps to make the outcome desirable;

Don’t Assign the Tasks all at Once

If you’re working with the virtual assistant for the first time, consider adding the tasks gradually instead of assigning them all at once. This strategy will help you assess the outsourcing provider from the onset with the little task, to see if it is worth increasing the task or not.

The aspects to assess as you assign tasks gradually include ability to follow due process, quality, attention to details, communication, ability to meet deadline and general work ethics. If you find these aspects satisfactory, you can go ahead and increase the task but not outsourcing everything yet until you can be rest assured.

Don’t delay to look for another virtual assistant to outsource to if the first virtual assistant did not measure up to your desired standard while performing the initial small task. You want to ensure you are getting nothing less than the best from an outsourcing solution.

Keep an Open Line of Communication

You should not leave the virtual assistant all alone after assigning the task to be done. You want to be sure that the outsourcing independent contractor understands the details of the project and follows due process in getting it done.

Communication is the major tool for tracking an outsourced business task. Don’t just kick-start a relax mode after outsourcing a task In fact, you have more work to do after outsourcing a task than when you were interviewing and assessing the outsourcing provider.

If you don’t put a monitoring process in place, you may find out that the outcome of the outsourced task will be a far-cry from the expected returns. This may be as a result of lack of communication or misunderstanding of what the actual job requirements are.

So, endeavor to keep an open line of communication that requires various and effective communication channels – email, phone call, conference calls, Skype, and messaging apps.

Keep Your Own Side of the Bargain

An outsourcing partnership shouldn’t be a one-sided thing. Often, clients expect so much from the outsourcing partner without giving back much in return. An outsourcing provider also needs you to keep your own side of the bargain in terms of providing the materials (where necessary) required for the work making payment as at when due.

Finally, if you keep these tips in mind, you will be able to outsource effectively.

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.

What really has become of the human resource department of companies? Can you still find the usual physical, single place known as HR office where employees walk in to lodge a complaint, make enquirers or get assessment?

Right now, the trend has changed! Even where you find HR office, it’s no longer the spacious room it used to be. In fact, you won’t even find a HR unit at all in some organizations. Currently, the trend is for workers to contact some virtual HR manager if they need help, or consult a web portal. Even hiring and firing is accomplished virtually in some places. So, what really happened to the conventional HR unit?

HR Outsourcing has Substantially Taken Over!

Over the recent past decades, Human resource outsourcing has increased in popularity. And for the record, it’s not just human resource that companies are outsourcing increasingly, but also other functions such as administration, marketing, call center…in fact, most organizational functions.

“From all indication, HR outsourcing will continue to be on the rise; and, it’s not only HR that companies are outsourcing increasingly, but also other business functions”, said a research vice president at a renowned market research firm.

Indeed, Outsourcing is a Lifesaver to Companies!

Companies and businesses are taking advantage of outsourcing to offload tasks that consume time and take away attention from core business functions. Outsourcing is also a money saver. However, some human resource experts are of the opinion that the use of outsourcing in handling human resource is becoming excessive.

They are of the opinion that workers in organizations are the ones at the receiving end of the consequences, in terms of career development and training. In addition, these experts feel that employers are possibly losing very important business opportunities by outsourcing HR increasingly.

Outsourcing companies can handle variety of tasks, including payroll, which in turn frees up the clients to concentrate on the task they do best. According to the product management senior vice president at ADP, Don Weinstein, some reforms as well as legislation’s on HR are definitely going to impact employers massively, while the complexities of these reforms would completely overwhelm a good number of the employers. This is where human resource outsourcing firm steps in to take the burden off the shoulder of employers.

A word of caution though…

While outsourcing human resources and other tasks as a whole helps save time and cost for companies, experts advice that companies should not throw caution to the wind. In essence, they should critically look at tasks that are better handled in-house and retain them in the company.

Also, hiring outsourcing vendors should be done with high standard procedure, which is the only way to ensure a desirable 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 build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.

You’ve heard that outsourcing offers great benefits to businesses of various kinds and sizes. So, you want to try out outsourcing and join in reaping the benefits that come with outsourcing. That’s definitely a smart decision. But first, you need to define your outsourcing needs, and what does it entail?

Step #1: Identify the Task You Wish to Outsource

Sit back and take a long look at your business needs. Then, write down a detailed definition and explanation of the process or task you wish to outsource. Remember to spell out your inputs in clear terms. In essence, determine what work tool (if necessary) you should provide to the outsourcing firm. You should also spell out expected outputs – the deliverable s or final outcome that you expect from the independent contractor.

You need to be detailed in writing down what you expect from the outsourcing company in terms of quality, speed and quantity. When you’re done, be sure to look over your record again to ensure you’ve not omitted anything needful.

Step #2: Monitor an Outsourced Project

It’s not enough outsourcing tasks, you also need to oversee the outsourced tasks from your own end. Therefore, you should consciously assign a team or an individual to supervise and monitor the progress of the outsourced task. In fact, depending on the nature of the task, you may even have to take up the supervisory role yourself to ensure the final outcome meets the standard you set at the beginning.

Don’t forget to also take cognizance of this monitoring aspect when detailing your outsourcing needs. The extent of the interaction with the outsource partner should be part of the details in your outsourcing needs description.

Remember to include conditions, restrictions, rules or limit to data that should be transmitted to the outsource partner. And, policies regarding security of data entrusted in the hands of the outsource partner should also be detailed in the outsourcing contract.

Step #3: Set Your Quality Standards

You should also set your quality standards in line with a suitable budget. It’s not enough setting your expected standards, you also need to determine whether or not the outsourcing service provider can meet the standards. You should find a way of evaluating the provider’s services in terms of quality. There should be a specific unit or parameter for measuring the partner’s quality and performance level. For instance, you can measure aspects such as the percentage of error in terms of outsourced payroll task.

Finally, when defining your outsourcing needs, don’t forget to put a bid package in place for the potential independent contractor. It simply means you should include expectations, job scope, expected quality and other features that will help the contractor calculate the appropriate costs.

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.

No doubts, it’s quite a major decision to start a business. The good news is, it is doable and you can succeed in your small business if you adopt the right approaches to starting a small business. It starts with brainstorming on a business concept, crafting a business plan, getting funding, and adopting suitable marketing approach. You should consider integrating outsourcing solution in the course of running your small business.

So, what does starting a small business entail?

Step #1: Spell out Your Goals

You need to define your goals early. Such goals include whether you want to maintain a small business that will continue yielding steady income, or if you eventually want to sell the business and move to something higher. So, you need to have a goal in mind as you think of starting a small business.

Step #2: Come up with an Idea or Choose from Existing Ideas

Also, if you’re planning to start a small business, the next phase would be to decide on a suitable business idea. From a fresh product that people would likely need to an existing product or service that is insufficiently supplied, there are tons of ideas you can consider as you plan to build a small business. It’s good to leverage help from creative and bright people when brainstorming on a suitable business idea. You can also ask someone who is doing well in business; it mustn’t be necessarily the type of business that the individual is running.

Also, during the brainstorming session to help you arrive at a suitable business idea, you should check inward and consider your existing knowledge, skill, talents, or a trade you’ve learnt. The skill or talent may not necessarily culminate into a business but can be applied in running your business eventually.

Step #3: Come up with a Business or Working Name

In fact, you should consider doing this even before brainstorming on a business idea. You may find out that the intended business name may even inspire a suitable business idea. Don’t forget you can always change the name to something else if you wish to do so. Of course, you should remember to check the availability of the business or working name you’ve chosen.

A great tip when it comes to choice of business name is to keep it simple and memorable. Also, it should point to the product and/or service that you offer.

Step #4: Think of Partnership

Do you want to run solo or bring in one or two persons to partner with you in your small business? Quality partnership can help grow your business faster as you can see in partnerships such as Bill Gates and Paul Allen, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. However, you should choose your partner wisely.

Finally, outsourcing will help you save cost and maximize profit no matter what business you eventually choose.

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.