OutSourcing

Sean,

I've outsourced various specific tasks/activities from time to time mainly using guru.com. Mainly a very positive experience by contacting people expressing an interest in my projects and seeing who is most responsive, what their approach would be, timings, reporting and similar. Then making a decision based on that - not always the right decision but that's life, right...

If you're looking for a full-timer there are plenty of BPO providers out there with the Phillipines having their fare share. Do your research and/or ask for recommendations from other Warriors.

I'd suggest when doing your research to find your full-timer you treat it as a job interview - they will be working for you so you obviously need to be certain they are capable of providing what you are requiring to the standard you require it.

As about experience, qualifications, examples, availability times (if in a different time zone for example), communication, reporting, is it a dedicated full-timer or one of a pool then subject to availability, check out the provider's terms and conditions to make sure you're happy with them, see if you might be able to negoitiate anything you're not happy with or move on - for example minimum contract periods and break/termination rights.

Not an easy thing to get right though getting it straight in your own mind first around what you want/need and being able to clearly set that out when "interviewing" your potential providers should help you.

Perhaps try a part-time/short term outsourcer (or two or three) first and if that works out go full time with them.

Hope you find the right one for you.

Best,

Andy.

The Philippines is definitely the way to go.

One of the best resources I have come across is OnlineJobs.ph

There is a fee to join but you get access to a lot of people looking for full time and part time jobs from the Philippines.

Not everyone you will find on that job board is serious. I have had a few VA's bail on me without notice before. But this is a given when hiring VA's.

There are a lot more serious people on OnlineJobs.ph than on other job sites (in my experience).

Onlinejobs.ph is good as mentioned above. I now get my VA's from Vietnam, actually, but still some great folks on that site.

I suggest you break the job into 2 to 4 pieces and hire a separate person for each part. That way when some of them fail, it doesn't affect all the work.

I find you have to fire 50 to 75% of outsourcers very quickly.

An intriguing thing I found was that giving instructions to my programmers by video worked better than by messaging. That way I could show them exactly where the problem was on the web site.

I am currently writing a seminar on outsourcing and will be speaking on the topic in January in my home town.

Hi seanthewebguy,

I highly recommend these 2 sites:

Best Jobs Philippines :: Philippine job search, job bank, employment and recruitment
Hire a Filipino Virtual Assistant - Outsourcing to the Philippines | Home

Interview them on skype preferably voice call so that you can really distinguish how good they are with the English language. Communication is really important.

You may want to test them as well by letting them to record their screen using jing on how to create a gmail account.

Please PM me if you need some help, I'll do my best to be of service.

Cheers,
Louie Tugas

Well, I suppose the first thing you need to be aware of is the gamut of employment laws and how they apply to full-time and/or permanent workers. If hiring a full-time assistant of some sort is really your goal, don't outsource within the U.S. without learning what your limitations are. The Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee? page will explain the Consequences of Treating an Employee as an Independent Contractor, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

I think if you have the funds, outsourcing is key to upscaling a system you know works. That will give you more time to be in your business, and working on your business and not working in your business.

I have to tell you and this is a big secret that those people that I hired on elance on a once off job, have become my fulltime and part time employees, what they did not know is that that once off job was just a test, to see if they had the goods. I turfed those that did a crappy job, but those that stood out and did exactly what I asked for....well.....I offered them a more permanent job, kept them close to me. To use again and again and we have a very good working relation. You look after them, they look after you. That is the way it goes.

So you can do outsourcing this way also. Think outside the box a bit, and pretend you are a company looking for the right person and test them out or give them small tasks first. You will find some bad workers, but by doing this, you will also find some kick ass working who are willing to take your business forward. Trust me you will save a lot of money doing this in the long term.

Just my two cents.

Something that I think is definitely worth noting is to take care of your workers that do a good job. These guys are constantly looking for more work and you don't want them to move on to another marketer who maybe gives them more hours or has an easier task for them.

If they are reliable I always like to give them something extra. It doesn't have to be a huge amount of money but the incentive that they might earn more if they perform well is a huge motivator.

They only so much you can do yourself!

What you got to think is.....

Isnt it better for you to outsource the $5 jobs so you can get on with the $200 jobs yourself!

Time is money at the end of the day so spend it wisely!

Thanks

TheKaver

I use odesk for most of my outsourcing. I know you mentioned that you didn't want to use it for one off jobs but odesk can be used to hire full time people as well. It's been great for me and helped me really change my online success in many ways.

I'm not rich yet but am making at least 10x more today than I was before working with odesk.

Hi Sean,

That would be a great idea. Please check your PM for all the services that we offer.
Hope to hear from you.

Phillipines is a good offer. For $200-$250 you can get a full-time VA.

I actually try to stay with vWorker for the first month or so - they have pay-for-time options that actually let you see what your employee is doing (desktop snapshots taken every 5 minutes) to help you build up trust. You can always leave vWorker later to get rid of their middleman fee, but I usually stay there, as paying the worker more to cover the fee is a fair trade for me for the time and activity tracking that I get with it.

Hi Sean,

Your post grabbed my attention as it is something i can quote better.I am in outsourcing business since last five years and here are few facts:

1- Dont pay lump sump amount.Divide it into chunks.Pay once you see work done.
2- Go for a detailed discussion before getting into business.It is to check person's credibility.
3- See some feedback on any freelancing site.

And few more.....


Hope it helps.

I always outsource content creation. Take a look at WF for hire and you'll find a lot of great writers who you can trust due to the 100s of positive testimonials.

I think outsourcing is a great idea, providing you know what tasks you wish to have outsourced, and which tasks you want to do yourself.

Also, do a little due dilligence on the people you want to do business with, for instance if article writing is going to be a task you want outsourced, ask to see some samples of work already done. If the person refuses, then steer clear, as good content writers are normally more than happy to show you examples of their work.

Take Care.

I have had success hiring personal VA's from odesk and elance. Basically judge their skill set in terms of IM and hire on the bases of 40 hours per week for a agreed upon monthly fee. Its worked well but you may need to go through a few before finding a good one.

I haven't had a bad experience for a while but one that I do remember a while ago was via a forum and they offered to hire you a full time virtual assistant for the week the only problem was they were really useless and worked at a slow rate and it felt like money down the toilet.

Nowadays I get my team from either odesk or fiverr and they are all really good.

Filipinos tend to be better workers and are more dedicated and know there stuff and stay for the long term.

If you are starting out I do suggest odesk and you can get some really good basic assistants for as little as $0.60 an hour.

good luck with it and here is to you and building your team!!!!

You should get John Reese Outsource Force.

It is the BEST PRODUCT i've seen by far on outsourcing.

Sean - I understand completely what you're talking about here regarding outsourcing. And I think you're taking the right approach.

Hiring a full time employee who works overseas is a cost effective move. It also gives you someone you can train to do the tasks that you need done.

Stick to hiring freelancers when you need one-off tasks done like graphics creation, or video editing, or custom web design.

Hire a full time VA for everything else.

I do recommend the Philippines also. I have a couple of people there and they do good work for me. They speak great English. They're loyal. They want to help my business grow. And they expect to be treated with respect and paid on time. They expect to have a permanent job with me.

On the topic of IM and outsourcing you'll find a bunch of great posts here:

The OutsourceFactor Blog | Helping Online Entrepreneurs Find and Train Awesome Help

(And a free podcast on the topic)

I have always had great experience in outsourcing, I usually just outsource writers and some programmers when I have too much work to handle myself. A good rule is to check their feedback!

As long as you know what your internet marketing specifications are it could be a good solution over time.

Bottom line is we're personally responsible for business success or failure as we have the power to make decisions and choices. You can outsource some things but you'll need to make all the pieces fit and work together -without costing a fortune. Just like renting out a house, nobody will take as good of care of it (eg. a business) as you personally. Become an expert in the critical areas and delegate our outsource a step at a time based upon the pay-as-you-go model making them prove each and every project step completion and value along the way.

I've hired lots of people on oDesk - both full time & for one off jobs. oDesk is actually designed for hiring full-time long term employees as well as short term.

oDesk is my favorite place to hire people, but the biggest problem is that if you hire a good person for a low price, it won't be long before other employers are harassing them with other jobs and higher pay than you're paying... which makes it hard to hire people long-term (but not impossible).

$250 per month is still not a lot of money for a Filipino. If someone is performing well for you, raise them above 300. That's my feeling.

Start slowly and make sure you can handle managing 1 person, then 2 and so on.

I hired a content writer second since at the time I wrote my own content and used a freelancer.

Outsourcing is definitely a plus and a money-saver too. I have my own fair share of VAs coming from the Philippines and they are all great. We constantly communicate through skype. An initial interview is done and performance appraisal as well. I have no complaint as far as work output is concerned. To this date, I still have my VAs that worked for me since February. When you treat them professionally and give a good pay, they will give back the favor tenfolds.

Outsourcing should be of no less for the advantage of your firm and therefore when sourcing consider out these points to unnecessary costs, delay etc.

i) Stick to operations and areas defining the core mission of your business and outsource other non-strategic operations.
ii) Move slowly i.e don't sign longterm contracts with firms before you test both their performance and their relationship with you.
iii) Consider carefully and figure out what should be really out-sourced to avoid sourcing out what can be solved out internally.
iv) Remember that it will take some to build a good relationship and that calls out for patience.
v) You can consider one of your employee as a go between for accountability purposes.

You're smart for starting out just one person at a time.

Also, i don't know how much time you've been doing whatever online operations you want outsourced, but make sure that you know the task inside out. Don't outsource a task that you've got very little experience doing. Problems or questions will probably come up and you will be at a loss about them as much as your worker will.

When you outsource something that you've done a thousand times, you will be able to better anticipate some of the pitfalls and can warn your worker of things that might come up and how to handle them. This will make things go much more smoothly.