Some small business owners wrongly assume that offshore outsourcing services are for the fortune 500 companies alone. Also, the mere thought of entrusting their business functions to an offshore vendor disturbs small business owners. Yet, small businesses are one of the greatest beneficiaries of outsourcing, especially when it is done for the right reasons and in the right way.

Typically, the small business owners handle virtually every aspect of their business alone. They feel more comfortable to do so, having the notion that nothing would go wrong, when they take complete charge of their business functions. On the contrary, a recent report from US Business Association reveals that most tasks carried out by small business owners (spending quality time to do so) are not usually profit-oriented.

While a small business owner is considering fund-intensity as the requirement for offshore outsourcing services, it is indeed cost-effective to hire an offshore vendor for business functions, especially the functions that are complex in nature. Then, you can refocus on the core activities of your small business.

When Is it Necessary for a Small Business to Outsource?

As a small business owner, your business will keep growing and would thrive to a point when you will suddenly notice how difficult it has become to handle the tasks alone. Topmost in the list of such tasks is customer service. If your business has reached that growth level, it is the right time to seek for external help. Compared to the cost of getting the external help in-country, it is usually cheaper to outsource tasks such as customer service or help desk to an offshore contractor. Thanks to the internet, in a couple of minutes, you can scan through the profiles of top-notch offshore providers and make the perfect selection after further investigations and research.

To clear the doubt that may be in your heart regarding the cost of contracting offshore outsourcing services versus in-country provider, you can interview 5 people in-country and 5 people offshore to compare wages. Subsequently, you can settle for the option that promises the best cost advantage. Going by global analysis, offshore outsourcing option will always win the contest.

Here are some costs you will by-pass by hiring an offshore employee;

• Monthly wages plus government-imposed health/welfare benefits
• Office equipment costs
• Utilities
• Cost of training and re-training staff
• Employment insurance
• …and others

Obviously, a small business is not capable of footing the recurrent bills associated with in-house or in-country staffing. It is far way cheaper to embark on offshore outsourcing services. It helps to maximize cost savings advantage, hence increasing profits significantly. However, profound selection process is necessary for successful outcome with outsource offshoring. We’ve written a couple of useful guides on how to select the right offshore partner.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

One of the best ways to fully enjoy the benefits of outsourcing is to do it the right way. Outsourcing best practices involve the right selection process among other factors. So, if you are considering hiring offshore outsourcing Philippines, you need to follow the best practices in order to do it right.

Selecting an Offshore Partner

The success of outsourcing efforts is largely hinged on choosing a vendor that would offer cost saving, plus the quality of service required. A company that sets out to outsource should bear in mind that the contract is usually a long-term project. Therefore, choosing the wrong partner (vendor) may end up increasing costs – this is the cost associated with failure to deliver and poor response time.

Factors that Drive a Company’s Choice of Outsourcing Partner

Sometimes, some companies may be solely driven by cost factors in selecting an offshore vendor for its business functions. On the long run, the company may discover that the job quality and the vendor’s level of responsiveness are not up to standard. Therefore, since it would cost the company more to switch to another vendor, the organization would be forced to accept the sub-standard service from the current vendor throughout the life of the contract. Ultimately, the company will not achieve efficiency benefits that were intended by choosing to outsource.

So, adequate selection process is necessary while trying to hire offshore outsourcing Philippines vendor or providers from other locations. Ultimately, cost reduction shouldn’t be the sole driving force, other factors should be placed side by side. One of the great ways to monitor offshore projects is to set up an in-house or in-country liaison between the outsourced company and the offshore vendor. Hence, a line of communication should stay open 24/7.

Operational Analysis

A great outsourcing strategy is to carry out detailed operational analysis. The company planning to outsource should embark on a study to find out the business functions or processes that are best suited for outsourcing. The study should also review the phases that may necessarily require responsibilities transfer. The study can be set up in-house. Alternatively, a potential outsourcing vendor may be involved in the study.

Typically, business functions that are purely technical and repetitive in nature (e.g. systems/ database administration and help desk management) should be subjected to preliminary transition. Following closely are maintenance and application development; these require technical skills as well as domain knowledge.

Finally, successful effort with offshore outsourcing Philippines or vendors from other locations involves putting a performance measurement system in place. This is the only way a company can determine if the outcome is desirable or not. Once you follow the best practices, your company will enjoy the full benefits of outsourcing.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

4. Follow Up

After the novelty of the outsourcing relationship finally wears off, it is only natural for one to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride for some time. Sadly, this usually leads to complacency and of course most times attention to performance will be totally forgotten. So, in order to avoid these issues, you will need to set up a time table or schedule to review your outsourcing company’s performance. You will also need to appoint an executive or manager that will be held responsible for the periodical follow up of the outsourcing vendor. If the need arises, you can send your employee to be well trained in vendor management techniques and skills – you can start by checking with your local universities and colleges. This tactic will also yield the ability to handle unforeseen circumstances (which are bound to occur) in a timely fashion and mitigate the risk that is associated with outsourcing.

5.  Know When You are going Way In Over Your Head

You will need to seek a very well experienced consultant or advisor if your outsourcing job involves any one of the following situations:

• The task is big enough that it will expose the organization to significant risks – that is, if it is not well handled.
• Organization politics are totally jeopardizing the achievement of the task
• Management most certainly do not have the experience in vendor selection and vendor evaluation.

Important Note

When choosing a vendor one of the most important things to do is to analyze your business requirements. Before you start to gather information or perform interviews, you will need to put together a team of individuals who have a vested interest in the specific vendor selection process. The first assignment that the vendor selection team will need to accomplish is to clearly define (in writing) the product, service or material that they looking for in a vendor. Then go on ahead to define the business and technical requirements, and also clearly define the vendor requirements as well. Lastly, publish your document to the specific areas that are relevant to this particular vendor selection process and then seek their input. You will need the team to analyze the comments and then create a final document.

In a nutshell:

a. Gather an evaluation team
b. Clearly define the material, service or product
c. Clearly define the business and technical requirements
d. Clearly define the vendor requirements
e. Lastly, publish a requirements document for approval.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

One needs to understand that outsourcing success really depends upon how well one manages the process before and of course after the outsourcing contract is signed. A lot of companies are known to award outsourcing contracts to the lowest bidder without taking some time to understand what it really means to the business and they also outsource without performing a complete vendor selection process. So when things start to go south, such as missed delivery dates, quality problems arise or awful customer service, the blame-game card is played and everyone start to run for cover.

Well, the following tips for successful outsourcing will sure help you make sure that your organization succeeds in outsourcing and that you will achieve desired results.

1. Make Sure That You Outsource for all The Right Reasons

When you take a bad business process and outsourcing, what you actually do is to make the problem a whole lot worse. Look, you have to understand that an outsourcing company should add great value to your business, but they should not in no way be relied upon to fix the issues that are inherent in your business. For instance, if your Information Technology (IT) department is regularly missing deadlines because the users keep changing their minds, when you outsource this function, this will surely result in much higher costs and higher of course higher levels of frustration.

2. Careful Vendor Selection Process

According to a recent outsourcing report, 35% of executives who responded said that they wished that they have taken more time on vendor selection and vendor evaluation before they signed an outsourcing contract. Let’s face it, most times outsourcing decisions can be a wee bit distorted by emotions and influenced also by company politics as well. A successful and thorough vendor selection process will help remove the emotions and also control the company politics as well.

3. Make it Measurable

Also, according to the same outsourcing report, 49% of the executives who responded said that they really should have defined the realistic service levels that go hand in hand with business objectives. If one does not take time to analyze and also define quality measures and or service levels, just think about, how on earth will he or she know if the outsourcing vendor that he or she has chosen is really performing up to his or her company’s standards, huh?!

To be continued…

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

Many people make the mistake of thinking that they can only outsource complicated office tasks such as information technology. There are several other office tasks that can be outsourced and trust me, it is not going to cost you an arm or leg.

Outsource Secretarial Duties

Do you presently run a small one-person office? You will need to outsource secretarial tasks so that you can have the chance to concentrate on the money making aspect of your business. You need not worry yourself silly over carrying out secretarial tasks such as confirmation of appointments, appointment scheduling and travel arrangements. You can simply outsource these duties so that someone else can take care of all the aforementioned duties (and more). Thanks to modern technology, you can hire employees from any part of the world.

Every kind of business sure has very unique functions, and the good news is that these unique functions can be outsourced. For instance, you will find a company that can help you effectively handle your back office operations for your type of business.

Outsource Typing / Transcription Duties

Okay, you are very good at typing, but do you really want to spend precious time converting written words in a particular format when you should be doing other things that will make your business grow? All clerical work that has to be converted into written form in a particular format should be outsourced to an outsourcing firm that specializes in that area of service. For instance, legal notes that need to be converted into written texts need to be sent to experts in that field.

Financial Outsourcing

The field of accounting and finances is a pretty delicate area and not everyone s blessed with the ability to handle their own business finances. There many accounting outsourcing firms that are more than ready to help you handle your financial statement preparation and the following:

• General billing functions
• Pay roll processing
• Legal and medical billing special services

HR Outsourcing

This will also include all the necessary paperwork that is needed to employ and fire a staff. Outsourcing this area is particularly great for small businesses that actually have low hiring rate or turnover rate. You can also outsource the administration of staff benefits as well.

There are so many office tasks that can be outsourced so that business owners can concentrate on their company’s core business. As mentioned earlier, outsourcing these services will not cost you an arm and leg.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

Email marketing is the key to selling more products and keeping your business image fresh in the minds of your customers. Email marketing creates a rapport and trust with your clients that increases the customer service level you need to compete in this tough economy. Are you there for your customer? Do they have access to your information about your products and services? What additional services can you provide to monetize your business further? What new services can you sell them down the road?

These are the solutions that a good email marketing program can provide. But this can be very time consuming. Consider outsourcing as a way to cut labor costs when implementing an email marketing strategy, and put your marketing on automatic while you are busy deciding what major business strategies will grow your business for the future. Outsourcing provides the peace of mind that you need to know that important tasks are taken care of in a professional, yet inexpensive manner.

Imagine how much your business can grow when dutuies such as email marketing, researching, social networking and customer service are taken care of for as little as  $5.00 an hour! This not only means larger profits for your business but the growth strategies it needs to compete with the big dogs. A strong marketing campaign is what the big firms rely on to keep their brand fresh in the minds of consumers, build a strong customer base and sell additional services down the road. Don’t be left behind! It is critical now more than ever that your company takes it’s marketing to the next level. Outsourcing these marketing tasks will give you the opportunity to market like the big guys and stay a part of your customers lives and mindset.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

It is definitely no secret that many businesses are outsourcing their customer services abroad – no wonder there is an NBC television series titled “outsourced”.

Many companies are beginning to invest in offshore call centers so as to take advantage of untapped labor. The great news is that you can successfully outsource your company’s customer service department as long as you know exactly what you are doing – simply follow the tested and trusted steps.

You need to understand that outsourced customer service employees will help reduce the expenses that you would otherwise incur if you ran an in-house call center. If you are a manufacturer of popular products, you will definitely not be surprised at the increase in traffic during the holiday season – so, you will be needing help.

Are you worried about accents? (Of course you should be, especially if you are outsourcing to a country where the native language is not English) But truthfully, you should not worry about this; outsourced customer service operators usually speak well.

Top experts will always advice you to hire a reputable outsourcing company, because you know for a fact you will be getting professional service. If you watched the trailer for the NBC television show “outsourced”, you will notice how well a young Indian “faked” an American accent perfectly!

The Philippines is the number one call center destination for those who want to outsource their customer care services to employees who understand the American culture very well. A reputable outsourcing firm will provide best quality compelling scripts. Many outsourced call center operators are very well trained and will be able to convince or appease even the most difficult customer(s) – an in-house customer care operator who lacks the necessary skill may not be able to stand irritating or angry customers (we all know what this means, don’t we?)

When you outsource your customer care to a reputable and competent offshore outsourcing company, you do not have to deal with the hassles of training new staff – this will leave you with the time to concentrate on your core business.

You also do not have to shell out money to purchase EXPENSIVE communication equipment.

Another great thing about outsourced customer service operators is that you do not have to put up with annoying excuses made up by many employees in order to miss work such as:

• The traffic is murder! – Translation: I woke up late
• I am so sick, I think I am gonna die – Translation: I went out drinking and just need to sleep in.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

Business research is an important aspect of finding, creating and promoting new products for your company. When you feel as if every new niche has been snatched up and all great ideas are gone, research opens up the doors to new opportunities and goals. Having the right people and the right tools for research however, is the key to it’s success. Where do you find the right people? Is it as simple as placing a classified ad?

Outsourcing reps with their own equipment, training and resources are the perfect solution to business research tasks. For as little as $5.00 an hour, you can have as many or as few virtual assistants on hand to do critical research for your business. No need for hiring new employees and all the expenses they incur, you’ll find the freedom in getting any job done for a great price. Saving money is making money in this economy.

Research is critical for businesses of any size and for many reasons. Locating the best prices for packaging, materials and training are just a few of the reasons why you need someone on staff to do these things for you. But this can be a time consuming endeavor, racking up high labor costs in short order. Your outsourced rep can handle dozens of tasks as well, freeing up cashflow and other resources for growth. The Internet is an expansive place for information. Sorting through so many resources and whether or not they are really needed is a huge undertaking. Don’t get caught settling with the first source of information you find.

Outsourcing can help with this and many other tasks faced by your business everyday. How much are you spending now to run your business? How much could you save by outsourcing? And what tasks are going unfullfilled because you can’t afford the resources? This new year is not the time for cutting back on service or product development. Every resource you have needs to be in place. Let outsourcing take this burden off of your shoulders and take your business to the next level.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

Did you know that people utilize local searches more often than a general worldwide search? That’s because most commerce is made locally rather than mail order or downloads. When people search the Internet locally, they are looking for numerous products and services that they need right now:

* Restaurant menus
* Directions to establishments
* Printable coupons
* Customer reviews

Not long ago, restaurants had to rely solely on print ads in newspapers, direct mail advertising, yellow page listings or TV commercials. All of these mediums are very expensive, but the Internet has changed the way a local business can get the word out completely. Using local search directories like Bing and social networks like Twitter, you can reach and advertise to many
of your customers for pennies.

Outsourcing is the perfect solution for local business. An overseas rep can take care of all these tasks for your restaurant. They can identify Facebook and Twitter followers that are just in a localized area and target them with specials and discounts. A Facebook fan page is a great tool to advertise a local business and access the menus, reviews and directions. Printable coupons can save a ton of money over traditional coupons that have to be delivered door to door.

Running a restaurant is very time consuming. For as little as $5.00 an hour you can have an outsourced virtual assistant keep your restaurant fresh in the minds of consumers. You can choose as much time as you need for your rep to work with you and then upgrade anytime as your business grows. The old way of doing business is over. This weakened economy has hit restaurants especially hard. Increase profits and growth with the new era of online advertising.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

The internet has revolutionized the way companies conduct their business. A few years ago, it was impossible to sell or buy anything online. Today you can buy or sell anything online. The best part is that you can shop for anything on the internet from the comfort of your home. This new technology meant that companies had approach a different tactic of dealing with their online clients. Hence the field of software development was born. This field was highly demanded but the experts in that field were very few. This pushed the cost of these services to unimaginable rates. As time passed by, the profession was crowded with people from all over the world. Hence making it just like any other profession. However there are people who are still defiant and they still charge high prices for the software development services. This forced most of the companies to turn to software outsourcing company for help.

The companies that opted to seek the services of a software outsourcing company should bear in mind the rules that pertain to the selection of a software outsourcing company.

The very first rule is to have detailed information about what you want from the company. this information should be available prior to the selection process. This will act as a guide to the criteria that the candidate software outsourcing company should meet in order to qualify for the job.

In the selection process, you will find out that there are very many software outsourcing companies that offer the services that you want. At this stage, it is very difficult to choose the right company. Hence you should do what is known as match making. Choose the company that you think best matches your needs as a company. How do you know if a company is a good match for you? This can be achieved through a simple background research. If the company has handled a project similar to yours, then that particular company can be said to be a good match for your company needs.

Dig deeper about the company that you think is best suited for the job. This will give you a rough idea of the company you will be dealing with. If it has a bad track record, then you might have to start the process a fresh. In most cases you will be able to get the software outsourcing company that can be able to meet your demands.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com