Outsourcing - How do you track success?

14 replies
Hi,

I have Filipino employees working for me. but recently i started to think if it worth it.

My business is not selling services therefore its not easy to track if a position does cover it costs.

How do you track if your employees bring more money to your business or not with IM?
#outsourcing #success #track
  • Profile picture of the author darthdeus
    In general, you assign them tasks that you think are worth the money you pay for their work. If they finish the task and it's not profitable, then you assigned them wrong tasks.

    For example if I pay someone to code me PSD to HTML for $100, but I'm not going to make more than $100 from it, then it's kinda my fault for even assigning such a task.

    If you are looking for specific tracking options, you can try some project management service like Basecamp. I've had only great experience with it.
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    • Profile picture of the author edpudol1973
      Originally Posted by darthdeus View Post

      In general, you assign them tasks that you think are worth the money you pay for their work. If they finish the task and it's not profitable, then you assigned them wrong tasks.

      For example if I pay someone to code me PSD to HTML for $100, but I'm not going to make more than $100 from it, then it's kinda my fault for even assigning such a task.

      If you are looking for specific tracking options, you can try some project management service like Basecamp. I've had only great experience with it.
      Very well said darthdeus.

      People outsource their leg works because they believe they will be more productive if they pay someone to do the time consuming work part of their business.

      Your success in outsourcing is mostly depend on you not to whom you outsource, because you're the one who decide what your assistant to do for you. But of course the service provider should be knowledgeable also else even you give the best task if the outsourcing party don't know what he/she doing you will not be successful.
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      • Profile picture of the author davidjames42973
        Maybe you could give each outsource person a separate affiliate link.

        For example: if you're promoting products on Clickbank you could create different affiliate links for each outsource employee to use. I actually use this method to test which keywords are converting too.

        You could also track how many clicks an affiliate link is getting by using a URL shortener such as bit.ly .
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  • I already use a management software, thats not my problem, my problem is too see how they benefit me from what they do, lets say i have a writer and a seo employees, both do their job ok, but its kinda hard to track their success with money.

    How can i convert it money wise?
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  • Profile picture of the author darthdeus
    For SEO employees that's going to be little harder, since you can't really tell if your improved rank is because of what they did, or because Google decided to change one little thing.

    I'd probably calculate it by how much time do they save you. In my opinion it's not really relevant how much work do they have to put in. The relevant thing is how much do you benefit from it.

    For example if SEO guy creates you 400 backlinks which would take you a couple days to do, but you pay only your own 5 hour "salary" (how much you value your time for), then it is beneficial.

    You can do same thing with writers if they just create content for your websites. But if you are selling their copy directly, you can use the money you make from it as a measure.

    In general, I always try to see how much time would I have to spend if I didn't let the other guy do it. If it looks like fair trade of time vs money, then it is good trade for me.
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Ramsey
      Originally Posted by darthdeus View Post

      ...I'd probably calculate it by how much time do they save you...
      I agree completely here. My assistant doesn't really do a whole lot of bringing in money, but he handles my customer service and a few other things that I either don't have time to do or just didn't want to do myself.

      He makes my life easier, and for as long as I can afford to pay somebody to do those jobs, I'll have somebody to do those jobs.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mark Jordan
        Originally Posted by Chris Ramsey View Post

        He makes my life easier, and for as long as I can afford to pay somebody to do those jobs, I'll have somebody to do those jobs.
        I agree with this one. That's what my assistant do - I give him tasks I don't want or have no time to do by myself. On his end, he emails me a daily update on his work.
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        • Profile picture of the author Bo Mill
          Originally Posted by Mark Jordan View Post

          I agree with this one. That's what my assistant do - I give him tasks I don't want or have no time to do by myself. On his end, he emails me a daily update on his work.
          This is exactly what I do. So by the very fact that he has taken off the burden of doing monotonous tasks by yourself, he has already benefited you. Remember, a benefit is not necessarily money-related.
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    • Profile picture of the author tranndee
      This is a great thread. I just started outsourcing in the Philippines and I find a lot of info about hiring, but not so much on supervising. I was wondering if I was getting my money's worth, but when I think about how much he does that I don't want to do, I feel better about this process. After looking at this thread, I checked the ranking of site for its primary keyword and it's gone from 40 to 18 in a couple of weeks. Slowish I know, but I've spent time training. However I'm kind of happy with initial results. [But someone here can let me know if I'm off.]
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  • Profile picture of the author chenyanroger
    I think you could ask your employee to submit their everyday work by email.maybe it's useful.
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  • Profile picture of the author Silas Hart
    I've heard of Basecamp, I currently use ActiveCollab, but I haven't been too impressed with it lately.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Thompson
    Schlomi - how do you determine if it is worth it for YOU to be doing a task? You must have a way, right? Otherwise how do you know you're doing anything worthwhile?

    Same thing here. If you outsource, you must know two things:

    1) Is the task worth doing?
    2) Is the outsourcer doing his or her job.

    Part 1 is your responsibility. You can't ask anyone to quantify the value of the task unless they know the details of your business.

    Part 2 is the responsibility of the outsourced employee. Train people well and hold them accountable.
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  • Profile picture of the author myeanne
    Very well said guys.

    You're the only person who can track your success. The only thing that we can advise is to make sure that your staff is working and following your instructions correctly.

    This is the advantage of leasing freelancer, you need to monitor your staff more often unlike hiring an outsourcing firm with supervisors who manage the staff to ensure utmost productivity and quality of works.
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  • Profile picture of the author samuelseeto
    As others have said, I think as long as they do something that you either hate or where since they are doing that task/s and it means you can spend your time where you are more specialised or it will be more valuable, that is what matters.
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