Marketing on the Internet can be done singlehandedly and you can earn yourself a pretty decent living doing everything by yourself. However, as your online moneymaking machine starts to hum and more opportunities start to come in, you can find yourself in a real pinch to try and keep up with all your tasks. Sooner or later, you?ll realize that you need help to maximize your business potential and you?ll have to start looking for people to take some of the load off your back.
In theory, all you should be worrying about when hiring someone is coming up with the money to pay the fella. In Internet marketing, ?help? usually comes in the form of web development, web design, SEO, and content writing. What you?ll probably realize fast is that people who can do these things are not that easy to get a hold of especially at rates that won?t cost you an arm and a leg.
Enter outsourcing. The practice of hiring offshore contractors to do jobs that can be performed remotely has been around for decades but it?s only now that the average Joe is hearing about it. Outsourcing offers plenty of advantages to small and big businesses alike. The most notable, of course, is the significant reduction in costs. Outsourced work can cost as little as 10% of what it would take to get the job done by a local professional and if you have the right people, the quality of work can be even better than home grown output.
Unfortunately, getting it right is not always a foregone conclusion. As with local hiring, there are good people to work with and there are bad ones. Not working in the same building can present organizational and logistical challenges that a lot of us have never faced in our careers. Fortunately, I?ve had a lot of experience in handling businesses that run on outsourced labor with some of my ventures throughout the years. Personally, I believe outsourcing CAN work if you do it right.
If you ever decide to get offshore help, here?s a quick guide of best practices that will ensure your success:
1. Have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish ? Just because it?s cheaper to outsource and it seems like everyone?s on this bandwagon doesn?t mean that you should hop on for the ride, too. Make sure that you have a definite set of goals that you want to be accomplished and that outsourcing really is the best solution to the challenges that your goals entail. Just like anything in business, understand the risks, investments and payoffs that getting offshore help brings to the table.
2. Understand what kind of personnel you need -? While I understand that outsourcing makes it possible to hire a high-caliber software engineer for the price of a local secretary, that doesn?t mean that you should go trigger happy and hire people at a whim. Identify what parts of your business you need help with. You can probably do the things you do well yourself and you can hire someone else to take care of things you?re not an expert on. Know the difference between a developer and a designer; distinguish the difference between an SEO specialist and an SEM expert. These are the things that you have to do your homework on so you can write the most accurate job descriptions possible.
3. Find out what makes a contractor good at what he does ? Not all professionals are made equal, but I?m sure you already know that. When outsourcing work from countries that are half the world away from your office, you won?t be able to meet the people you hire in person and you won?t have the luxury of getting that face-to-face dialog where you can really fire off all your questions. What you?ll have is a person?s resume and a list of companies he?s worked with before. Be sure to ask for a portfolio of the person?s work so you can see what he or she has achieved before. Also, ask for character references and the contact information of past employers so you can do some background checking. Finally, get a feel for what credentials really mean in a person?s field of expertise. Certifications, licenses and recognitions from credible companies and organizations are the things you should look out for.
4. Spend some quality time with your offshore employees ? Even if you don?t see each other in an office every day, it?s important to e-meet your people and spend some quality tine with them. Being businesslike is a good thing, but being businesslike while establishing and maintaining solid relationships with your team members is even better. It makes for a more open and dynamic work environment even if you and your people are separated by oceans. Having good relationships makes the flow of ideas from end to end much smoother and as a result, a more harmonious and creative virtual work environment can be achieved.
5. Help your offshore staff understand your business ? This one?s critical. Don?t make the mistake of thinking of your offshore team as some faceless sweatshop that just produces deliverables like a factory at your every whim. If you just give your outsourced team a barrage of tasks that they know how to do but don?t necessarily understand the value of, you?ll likely see quality issues start to show up at one point or another. There?s nothing wrong with showing your staff the big picture: it helps them understand the value of what they?re doing and it?ll be easier for you to motivate them and in turn, they?re more likely to give you inspired, high-quality output.
6. Set clear expectations -? In any business deal, it?s important that both sides agree on a set of expectations from each other. As an employer, you should set expectations on the kind of output you get, the quantity of work done, the time of delivery and what you can and can?t ask for when you?re not satisfied with the job your team did. Your team should review your expectations and agree on which ones they feel are realistic and reasonable. If both parties meet eye to eye on a set of expected deliverables and a compensation package, you can start drawing up a contract to make things official.
7. Give clear and easy-to-understand instructions ? This is another area where a lot of business people who outsource work overseas fail. Giving clear instructions that will guide production is crucial for success. Understand that most offshore employees don?t use English as their first language, so be sure to be very straightforward and simple with your correspondences. If you have the time for it, put together a document detailing how the work should be done. Set examples and provide constant feedback. It?s usually a good idea to have your offshore team do a small chunk of the work you want them to do to see what they come up with. If all is well, have them carry on. If not, provide constructive advice and calibrate. It can be a lengthy back-and-forth, but once your people nail what they need to do, you can leave them on autopilot and get great results moving forward.
8. Reward good work and enforce infraction sanctions ? Accountability has always been a great thing to have in a workplace. Even if you don?t work in the same geographical location as your team, you can achieve a level of accountability by giving them incentives for jobs well done. If they exceed expectations and their hard work translates into great business, I don?t see why you can?t send them some petty cash for some pizza. Better yet, give them a portion of the profit to send a message that there?s plenty more where that came from if they continue with what they?re doing. Conversely, draw a line between what is acceptable work and what you consider to be underperformance. Have a set of sanctions on your list of initial agreements that correspond with the gravity of whatever infractions can be committed by an employee. Make sure to enforce
your sanctions to help employees who misbehave understand that you mean business and there will be consequences for consistently messing up.
9. Hold regular performance Evaluations ? Whether you like doing it on a monthly, bi-monthly or on a quarterly basis, performance evaluations should always happen and should never be overlooked. This is your chance to let your people know how you feel they?re doing and it?s their shot to explain what working for you has been like for them so you can overcome challenges in a constructive and cooperative way. This is where you get to clear the air and really get to the meat of maximizing an employee?s potentials by means of telling him how he looks from your point of view and having him articulate where he?s coming from.
Alright, cuzins. Those are nine of the most important things that you have to keep in mind when outsourcing some work for your online business. I know it looks imposing right now, but once you get the hang of it, you?ll be able to be a boss LIKE A BOSS. Believe me, I know.
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Until then,
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Andy ?The Taskmaster? Jenkins
Tagged as: outsourcing, outsourcing help, outsourcing tips
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