Outsourcing and How to Use it Effectively

This is what the big companies and top dogs do. Have you ever wondered why some phone companies, when you call up their customer service have people who are Indian or Filipino answering the phone. The big phone companies usually outsource their call centre work to external companies in India or the Philippines to save costs and serve their customers more effectively. This is in a nutshell, what outsourcing is. It usually is when you hire someone from the outside to do the work for you and you pay them a fee. Outsourcing saves a lot more time and makes you much more productive. When you outsource you can get someone more skilled then you on the job, thus producing better results. It is most likely you will outsource to someone who has expertise in his chosen field and in the long term it does save you money because you will not have as much costs.

However outsourcing does not come without its disadvantages. If you need to share private information you have a risk of exposing confidential information. Also the person that you have outsourced to may deliver the finished product late or even produce a sub-standard piece of work which you cannot use. You would not be able to physically check what he is doing and so their is less customer focus.

Hiring freelancers is one of the best decisions someone can make for their business. A freelancer is someone who works for someone as a contractor and is paid by that person to work for them.
Find whoever you are looking for when looking for a freelancer. There are many different aspects that a freelancer could help you with.

Here are some task you could outsource to a freelancer and get done much quicker. You could build a whole website, you could outsource you entire SEO, you could get your logo designed including any other graphics design work needed, get an app built completely from start to finish, get articles written, virtual assistance work, basically anything you think off, you can outsource it!

There are many websites out there that offer outsourcing and freelancing services. This ranges from hiring programmers to hiring graphics designer. You can chose how much to pay the freelancers depending on your budget. This can either be on an hourly basis or on completion of project.

Websites that offer outsourcing services include:

Elance - This is one of the most popular outsourcing websites. Here you can find everything for your business from accountants to web developers and mobile app developers. You can save a lot of money using Elance to build your business. We use Elance to maintain and develop our website.

Odesk - Odesk is an Elance alternative but generally specialises in web programming and mobile app programming. Although they do have freelancers that offer SEO services, Logo design, translators and virtual assistant.

Fiverr - Fiverr is different from normal outsourcing websites as users make money by completing mini tasks or gigs as they like to call them. This can include completing banklinks, simple SEO work, logo design, promotional work. The only catch is you have to get it done in $5. You'll be surprised at what you can get done for a fiverr.

Virtual Staff Finder - Virtual Staff Finder is a service started up by Internet Entrepreneur Chris Ducker and it helps you find a Virtual assistant for your business by from India or the Philippines. You pay them a fee and they find you the best virtual assistant according to your needs. Slightly more expensive option.

Mechanical Turks - This website is owned by Amazon however this site is similar to Fiverr. Users post HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks)  and get access to a 24x7 workforce and pay only when you are completely satisfied.

Ten Bux - Ten Bux is a website which is also similar to Fiverr however they charge $5 or $10

There are a whole bunch of other micro-task websites but they are less popular. They include; Gigme5 , Gigs Bull, Microworkers, and Fitty Town among many others.

How to get Virtual Assistants to manage your business

Want your own virtual assistant to manage your business? There are loads of people out there who are already doing this with major success and are making millions from their virtual assistants. You'd be surprised at all the tasks you can assign your virtual assistant.. A virtual assistant is basically your own personal assistant who is totally online. It is a bit like the real world, you can't run everything on your own, some things you will need help on.

Virtual employees have various skills sets, experience and knowledge and they can do general administrative work such as check email, post updates on your social media websites, research, data entry, blog management, flight bookings, article writing, design graphics and much more.

If you find a really good VA from India or the Philippines, you will find that some of them charge $3-$5 an hour (£2-£3 an hour) which is ridiculously cheap and would benefit your business so much.

Use elance, odesk, or Virtual staff finder to find virtual staff for your business and create your own empire. When you hire your VA make sure you set out clear guidelines on what they need to do and don't assume they already know something as this just creates confusion and wastes time. Make sure you give them clear instructions. Also give your VA a reasonable deadline and don't be on their back too much. This overtime will build trust with your VA and overtime as you and your VA get to know each other, you will create more of a bond.

Implementing a virtual assistant for your own business can be a very worthwhile investment as it will save a lot more time. If you use VAs to your advantage you can build an empire of workers to work under you while you do nothing. Check out this article about a couple from America who have created multinational companies with outsourcing.

We hope you enjoyed this article and hope this expanded your knowledge on outsourcing. Are you confused about outsourcing? Ask in the comment section below and we'll answer it. If you liked this article then please share it!