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Is it worth setting up a data entry business?

by Chuckles88
4 replies
I am a European in Bangladesh. I used to have a factory here and as a legacy I still have a dozen people working for me doing craft things (for my own collection). It would be handy to put them all on the payroll of another business that pays their costs.

A couple of Japanese companies have set up data entry businesses near me. They have a building, or buildings, in villages. Simple set up; bunch of PCs and people typing in data. The one I visited was entering (very) old US census data, like "Mr M. Murphy, address, other details...". They had scans of the census data on CDs which they bought out to the village. Then the "village people" typed the data into their database application.

People do all sorts of things dirt cheap on odesk.com. That wouldn't give a return on my costs here - staff, building, etc. Has anyone here looked into this to see what makes money?

The Jap companies might be treading water until they get their staff to do something further up the BPO food chain, or they could already be making money.

On the down side, Bangladesh is a complete dump (but with nice people). Setting up and running a business, from an admin point of view, is torture. Right now I try to spend as little time here as possible.
#business #data #entry #setting #worth
  • Profile picture of the author TrafficExpert
    Setting up the business is the easy part. Finding people to use your service is where it gets tricky. There is a big demand for data entry services, but you're going to have to offer something those other companies can't just to start and build up a reputation to go after bigger clients.
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    • Profile picture of the author Chuckles88
      When you deal with people in Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan you find that you get a low standard of service (in general) and a lot of dishonesty. There are exceptions everywhere, and some companies made it big by offering good service. I live outside the US and Europe and I can be honest without worrying about political correctness.

      When I had the factory people from Europe, US, Australia, Canada, NZ, Singapore and HK gave me business because I am a European. It was a relief for them to deal with someone they felt that they could trust. I took the whole burden of the third world onto myself.

      That is what I can offer that is different. The question is whether this sort of work pays costs and the hassle. Also, as you say, another question is whether I can get the work.

      I read this forum for a long time and just now joined to ask this question. This is me thinking out loud, and I appreciate your kind attention. Thank you. I think I will have a look through the different jobs offered on odesk.com, to get a further idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author keyideas
    Professional data entry, data capture data processing, forms processing, ocr scanning, xml, business process outsourcing and document scanning services for companies. Some companies are also offering professional outsource data entry software that allows you to enter data up to nine times as fast and with twice the accuracy of databases, spreadsheets or the indexing module that comes with most imaging systems.


    - LinkPayroll
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  • Profile picture of the author roxelgestiada
    The potential is there for a data entry business. Being in a company that offers data entry and management, I think this is the right time to invest in this kind of industry. For additional updates, you may also check out Infinit Datum's blog. Hope it helps.
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