OUTSOURCING NIGHTMARES!

12 replies
Hey Fellow Warriors!

Let me jump right in...

I've been running an offline marketing business for over 3 years now, and have done quite well in that time. Our primary focus has been to target marketing customers only, but as we grew, the demand for Website build became so consistent that I thought it was silly to literally leave 5-10k on the table each time. So I did what any red blooded American would do...I outsourced.

First we began by sending jobs to the India. BIG MISTAKE.

Then on the advice of John Jonas, we sent it to the Philipines. BAD MOVE.

Then, as a last resort, I paid more than double what I was being charged overseas, and brought it back to the good ol' US of A! Our first hire was a gentleman named Terry in North Carolina. He turned out to be a drunk who (honestly) married his 1st Cousin (and then built a website defending inter-family marriage). Long story about Terry, but he told me if he had to build another site, he would stick his double barrel in his mouth. I haven't heard from him since (RIP?).

Overall, I feel I have been a good, patient, and non micro-managing employer. I have given the outsources space when they need it, and have been up their ass when appropriate.... all withe the same result.

THEY ALL GO SILENT. I cant find one reliable guy to build a simple WP theme customization without having a minimum 3 - 5 MAJOR issues. IN fact, I've hired a full time girl just to interview, hire, and manage these outsourcers, and she is running into the exact same issues!

What I'm asking for is a little help here. I need a team that will get the job done well, for a fair price, and always meet our deadlines.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Perhaps I find a team that is managed by a company?

Maybe Im just doing something wrong???

Thanks so much!

B
#nightmares #outsourcing
  • Profile picture of the author jskarthik1
    I think you should learn from Big Marketers in the Industry who are outsourcing. They may not be doing the same work as you do here. If you are interested to listen to the secrets of a big marketer (armand morrin) regarding Outsourcing just pm me.


    By the way, are you the same guy who launched Rock Star Power Suite Software?
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  • Profile picture of the author Johnny Optimo
    Originally Posted by RockStarMarketing View Post

    Hey Fellow Warriors!

    Let me jump right in...

    I've been running an offline marketing business for over 3 years now, and have done quite well in that time. Our primary focus has been to target marketing customers only, but as we grew, the demand for Website build became so consistent that I thought it was silly to literally leave 5-10k on the table each time. So I did what any red blooded American would do...I outsourced.

    First we began by sending jobs to the India. BIG MISTAKE.

    Then on the advice of John Jonas, we sent it to the Philipines. BAD MOVE.

    Then, as a last resort, I paid more than double what I was being charged overseas, and brought it back to the good ol' US of A! Our first hire was a gentleman named Terry in North Carolina. He turned out to be a drunk who (honestly) married his 1st Cousin (and then built a website defending inter-family marriage). Long story about Terry, but he told me if he had to build another site, he would stick his double barrel in his mouth. I haven't heard from him since (RIP?).

    Overall, I feel I have been a good, patient, and non micro-managing employer. I have given the outsources space when they need it, and have been up their ass when appropriate.... all withe the same result.

    THEY ALL GO SILENT. I cant find one reliable guy to build a simple WP theme customization without having a minimum 3 - 5 MAJOR issues. IN fact, I've hired a full time girl just to interview, hire, and manage these outsourcers, and she is running into the exact same issues!

    What I'm asking for is a little help here. I need a team that will get the job done well, for a fair price, and always meet our deadlines.

    Has anyone had any experience with this? Perhaps I find a team that is managed by a company?

    Maybe Im just doing something wrong???

    Thanks so much!

    B
    I've really relied a lot on guru.com and its escrow service to get some big outsourcing jobs done... the key is to really examine the person's portfolio and never assume that what you'll receive will be better than that.

    When you outsource, you become the project manager, you have to make sure 1)you hire someone who's capable, 2)You give them an exact description of what they need to do 3)You keep up on the projects and make sure progress is being made

    It's more than just vetting candidates though - it's acting as a project manager the whole way through, and working with people who have experience (on guru.com you cna see their past projects completed through the site)
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  • Profile picture of the author mikemcghee
    I was just thinking about posting this same thing last night. I feel you. It's been extremely difficult to find someone who is reliable, responsive, and does quality work for a good price.

    If you find anything let me know.
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  • Profile picture of the author Davioli
    I've been using Odesk.com for almost a year now and I've only had a bad experience with one contractor.

    Its important to study the profile of a contractor before you assign a project to them. I always make sure that the contractor isn't part of a company and has a 100% (5.0) feedback score over the last year or more.

    This kind of filtering greatly reduces the number of applicants as well as increases the price I have to pay by the hour but it almost always leads to the work being done properly.
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  • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
    I know how you feel RockStar, I'm in the same boat. In the past few months I have hired dozens of VA's, and only 1 of them has actually done a good job and I've continued to pay them money. Heck, I even found a few people here on WF that were supposed to be working on projects for me and they didn't work out.

    A few weeks ago I posted a rant like this and got some really good feedback on how to manage your workers. You can read the thread here, there's some really useful tips in there from other people: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ng-people.html
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Sorry to hear about your problems - I've been doing this for over 10 years and never had any such problems. In fact, getting websites made has been one of the things that has always been easy.

    I also have a local web guy who has an outsourced team that build sites for his clients so if I get stuck, pushed for time etc.. I just get him to have his people do it. They're not mega cheap but he runs a full time business selling the sites they deliver for him so he makes money ok with them.

    If you PM me I'll give you his skype details and maybe he can help you out.

    Andy
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    nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author tamimabraham
    Liston to me! There are plenty of monopoly game and trap happening on the outsourcing market place! There many contractor id is fake especially girls ID with catchy profile pic. Some blackhat's do this dirty tricks to increase their job quota.

    O'desk or other outsourcing marketplace most of constructor's have made there 5.0 feedback by their own money. They post there job and hire themselves and then get 5.0 feedback. So, be cautious when you hire a constructor by only seeing his feedback or portfolio.

    You must be Interview a contructor before hiring, must, must, must. Then you should asked him How creatively he will do this? Can he provide you a short Scratch about your project?

    Lastly You should should should asked him, has he any online foruming or Community experience, Like WF, DP, devinart etc well known forum or community? what his performance on those forum or community site?

    If he has well true reputation here, then hire him! Don't get trap on feedback or Some portfolio. Never belive any constructor before verifying him. Although he has best feedback.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mou
    Before hiring anyone give him/her tasks (not with great details) to find how efficient the person is.

    The real good ones will do their level best to prove themselves.... the lesser ones will want you to spoon feed them.

    Have built a good team over the years. PM me if you need help.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Content King
    Originally Posted by RockStarMarketing View Post

    Hey Fellow Warriors!

    Let me jump right in...

    I've been running an offline marketing business for over 3 years now, and have done quite well in that time. Our primary focus has been to target marketing customers only, but as we grew, the demand for Website build became so consistent that I thought it was silly to literally leave 5-10k on the table each time. So I did what any red blooded American would do...I outsourced.

    First we began by sending jobs to the India. BIG MISTAKE.

    Then on the advice of John Jonas, we sent it to the Philipines. BAD MOVE.

    Then, as a last resort, I paid more than double what I was being charged overseas, and brought it back to the good ol' US of A! Our first hire was a gentleman named Terry in North Carolina. He turned out to be a drunk who (honestly) married his 1st Cousin (and then built a website defending inter-family marriage). Long story about Terry, but he told me if he had to build another site, he would stick his double barrel in his mouth. I haven't heard from him since (RIP?).

    Overall, I feel I have been a good, patient, and non micro-managing employer. I have given the outsources space when they need it, and have been up their ass when appropriate.... all withe the same result.

    THEY ALL GO SILENT. I cant find one reliable guy to build a simple WP theme customization without having a minimum 3 - 5 MAJOR issues. IN fact, I've hired a full time girl just to interview, hire, and manage these outsourcers, and she is running into the exact same issues!

    What I'm asking for is a little help here. I need a team that will get the job done well, for a fair price, and always meet our deadlines.

    Has anyone had any experience with this? Perhaps I find a team that is managed by a company?

    Maybe Im just doing something wrong???

    Thanks so much!

    B
    This is the very reason I stress how reliable I am in all of my freelance writing marketing materials. And it's the reason my clients come back for more every time.

    My advice is to speak to other business owners to find out who they outsource to. There are reliable content providers out there. But you must only search for the providers that owe their livelihoods to their craft, and so have little choice but to do the job properly and on-time. These providers are reliable because their reputations are on the line. And thanks to how wide-spread the Internet is, one bad review can hurt a business pretty badly.

    The content providers you've hired in the past won't last long. Hopefully they won't suffer the same fate as cousin-loving Terry, but the above just represents poor business practices. On their part, not yours.

    Good luck and thanks for posting this. It helps to highlight how content providers such as myself who put reliability, promptness and quality above all will do just fine, even in a recession like ours.
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  • Profile picture of the author Leveragist
    I agree with tamimabraham that the key to finding a good freelancer is at the interview stage.

    I've hired many freelancers both on Elance and oDesk. I only recall one bad experience, and that's because I was in a hurry and just picked the cheapest freelancer who responded quickly.

    The best freelancer I've ever hired and continue to use 'til this day is one which I did a thorough interview with. Come up with a list of questions about the project and see how the freelancers respond. How quickly do they respond? Do they answer your questions adequately or just say something like "I can do the job per your requirement"? Oftentimes you can narrow down the list right away just by weeding out the unresponsive ones.

    If a freelancer can answer your questions intelligently (communicate well enough in English) and correctly (to the point), you've won half the battle.
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