Does It Makes Me A Bad Guy For Wanting To Outsource Outside of The US????

Of course not, you can hire anyone from anywhere in the world. Nothing wrong with that. If you can save money then go for it!

Adam

The age of "buy American" is gone. Thanks to the WWW we now can deal directly with anyone, anywhere. If the work is high quality then go for it.

Personally though, I would not outsource writing to a non English speaking location. I have been burned too many times getting stuff written in India or Africa and the grammar is atrocious. That is just my personal opinion, though. You have to do what will make you the largest profits. I hope this helps.

The fact that you even have to ask is a sad commentary. Not on you, but on how our society views such things. My grandfather told me once a long time ago that everyone should start a business at least once in their lives. I didn't really understand that when I was a kid, but I sure do now. When you start any kind of business, all the "feel good" nonsense you hear academics and the media yammering about gets put in real perspective.

It might make someone feel better to live in a pie-in-the-sky dream world where everyone can make $30/hour no matter what his/her job is, but in the real world that's silly. What do you suppose would happen to prices for everything you buy if 'someone' (ie, government) forced businesses to only hire fellow citizens and/or pay them an artificially high hourly wage? Have fun paying $10 for a loaf of bread. At least you'll "feel" good about yourself as you slowly starve.

Jeez, I must be in a bad mood today. I'm ranting all over the place. LOL

John

You have to do what makes sense for your business. It is up to those in the US to compete if they can. The people in other countries need to eat just like anyone else. More power to them if they can do it cheaper.

I used to buy only American. Then I bought a Saturn LX300 new. I paid $30,000 for it. No doubt it was nice, but for a few thousand more I could have had a BMW or Mercedes at the time. Just two years later I sold it for $10,000. Had I bought my BMW then, it would have been worth perhaps $22,000 when I went to sell it. Lesson learned. I have to do what is right for me and my family, not what I think will help the US economy.

Once the US auto makers have vehicles that retain value longer than BMW, I'll get one. Ford is getting close. They have some nice stuff now which wasn't always true.

I would say outsource and not just for a lot of the good business reasons already mentioned. You are giving work to people who need it more. To me it is a little unpleasant that billions will get spent to go 200 miles into slightly outer space while people right here at ground level are starving.

It would be a really good thing to do.

The fact that outsourcing to another country is more appealing than hiring someone stateside means that there is room for opportunity in the US. Having an overzealous allegiance to anything American is impractical in the worldwide economy we have today, especially since so many of the goods we buy every day aren't even made in the US.

Only if you think it's a negative thing for people in 3rd world countries to have employment while you save money. People are people brah.

The bottom line is the bottom line, and when you're in it to succeed (whatever your personal success means) you need to do what's right for your company. US or outside-US...matters not.

I could understand you being against outsourcing to the third-world if you take advantage of dirt poor people (which I don't agree with), but the 'buy American' argument is weak. I am not an American, but I do understand that most of the West has gone from producing goods to consuming them and eventually that's going to need to be corrected. You create something of value -> You get a job. The situation in the US has come about because of people believing you that you can get money without working for them (printing and lending by the FED). So, no, I actually think you are doing your country a favor by taking your money elsewhere.

If you have $10 to spend on some service, and it would be really hard to find an American who would take that, but there's a guy in Singapore who can feed his kids for a week on it... which choice REALLY makes you a jerk?

Don't forget that the more money he saves, the more profit he makes.

The more profit he makes, the more tax he will pay (or should).

Then Uncle Sam will get his cut and then Uncle Sam can use it to bail out another bank and allow its executives to keep their swimming pools clean.

So indirectly he is still supporting the US economy just by having the balls to do something, getting productive and earning some money unlike a lot of people who are still waiting for a government handout!

My answer is No Way...it's totally my first choice, BUT met with a guy yesterday who is a potential big future client that runs a business based on being "green" and "American", THUS would insist that any outsource work be kept in the U.S..

Will it cut into my bottom line? A little. But it will also impact that proposal that he gets from me and the rates included therein. I respect his business model and for that sake and the promise of future business, I don't mind sharing a small portion of that offset.

This is an amazing comment on US attitudes to the rest of the world.

• Not every country outside the US is a third world country
• Some of the non-US, native English speaking freelancers that you might employ are probably better educated than you are
• Protectionism isn't patriotism

Do me a favour - (and that's English spelling) - look out beyond the US border and leave your prejudices behind.

Sarah
:p

The world doesn't begin and end in the US, if it did then a lot of us should quit now because people won't buy anything which isn't American. How many American products are truely American?

CDarlock, $10 in Singapore wouldn't feed a family, have you seen the cost of living there?

I wonder what would happen if people outside the US stopped buying products created in the US.

If you're selling online, do you target only people from your own backyard?

Do you mind if foreigners who don't know enough English, spend our hard earned UK Pounds with you, or does it make a difference because the money is the only thing that matters?

You're prepared to take our money, but suddenly we are of a lower class, because our grandparents/great grandparents didn't leave the UK but stuck there and worked through the problems while yours went to the Good Ole USA.

To the OP you outsource to whoever does the best job for you.

I know if I wanted software developed and he was offering the service, I would chose BigMike even though he is in Greece.

I think it depends a lot on how you're doing it. If you're paying barely-living-wages to people who work in terrible conditions in other countries and then charging people in your own country exhortation prices, then maybe there's a problem.

International (or inter-tribal) trade has probably been going on since people learned to walk upright and there's certainly a place for it. It doesn't necessarily bankrupt one nation and while making another stinking rich.

That said, when I buy products or hire, I do tend to favor those from countries friendly to my own or other countries I like. There are quite a few of those. There are certain countries I like to support and I seek out their products even when they're sometimes much more expensive. You might call that racism or tribalism, but I don't really wish to support countries that want to seen mine destroyed. I'm talking about "faceless corporations" I don't know much about. Buying from an individual I know something about (even just online) who's from such a country is a different thing, though.

Honestly, I think, price and quality being equal, most people do this to some extent, even if it's choosing to work with someone just because they went to the same college you did.

Some time ago a company in Boston (I think) was preparing to outsource software design work to India because they presumed no one in the US would work for the low wages they were offering. They felt bad and decided to run a help wanted ad stating the same wages they were prepared to pay the Indian designers. They were inundated with offers and ended up higher someone in the States.

So, OP, you could always just put your offer out there and whoever looks like the highest quality producer with the most reasonable price gets the job, regardless of their nationality.

Bev,

>>Moscow is the most expensive place in the world.

Didn't Tokyo steal the title in 2009? I don't know about Tokyo, but around Moscow, like in the south end, it's still possible to live fairly cheap.

I know of a city where the cost of living is similar to that of Hamburg (or some mid-sized German city) where the average wage is 5000 USD a month BUT the average wage in this (other) city is only 1000 USD a month. Now talk about disadvantaged.

You try to support your local economy as much as possible but sometimes the bottom line is more important.

As long as the work is done reliably and well. You're running a business thats most important for now.

The way I see it is that if I am hiring someone overseas it is usually because of price. And if I used someone in the US I would not be able to afford it so they would not have gotten the job anyway.

I pay whoever and wherever the job gets done right...I don't care is it is U.S., Japan, or Mars....

We are talking business here. If your decisions are not derived from business parameters you are likely to be making the worng choice.

When you need to outsource a job it is imperative that you are looking for the right candidates. AN unqualified, repetitive task that can be done with minimum training may be outsourced to someone capable of doing it for the most affordable price ( assuming your legal requirements are satisfied).

If the job is more specialised you are looking for the person who can do it better, faster, and more affordable, among other things. That's where you start playing with balance. A copywriter that charges you 250$ for a sales letter that converts 0'5% and takes 4 weeks to have it ready is not cheaper than the copywriter that makes a 4% converting letter in a week but chrges you 5k for it ( except if you are targetting such a small group that said 4% conversion won't be enough to cover the cost of hiring the copywriter).

The idea of whether you should hire within your country or outside relies on a broad measure of your both your business needs and your personal ethics. If you are a donor to local causes and you dedicate a more or less fixed percentage of your profit to that, chances are you will prefer to have a bigger bottom line so you can channel those resources. If you are not, you will probably feel better with yourself and more involve in your country's recovery by helping your own community.

Not a single person in this thread can make that decision for you. You will need to ponder the many arguments in favour or against outsourcing in your country and make a choice. If you have done it ( and this thread proves you have) no matter which choice you make it will be the right one, based on the information you have, as there are arguments for both sides.

Though from an American point of view, that would not be right because you are sending away money that could be useful to the economy. But to you, outsourcing would be better so it depends on you really.

As a US based programmer, I've come into rescue failed offshore projects several times and the price for me doing so hasn't been cheap. Then again, I've probably lost some jobs because my price was too high.

You have to look at what's cost effective for you. Often outsourcing trivial or tedious tasks to a reliable, low cost, overseas source can be very worthwhile. On the flipside, outsourcing a complex task to an unskilled offshore team, perhaps in a politically unstable part of the world, can cost you considerable time and money.

The important part is knowing what you're buying. If done right, it can save you money. Done wrong, it can more than double your costs and timeline of your project.

Congrats on being successful enough to do that!!!

Seb

Anyone that says that outsourcing overseas is bad doesn't understand business. It's all about your bottom line - period.

Many major corporations in the U.S. outsource overseas. There's simply no way they could compete otherwise.

I had an offline business for years and used to buy what I thought was strictly "American made". I was shocked when I discovered that these American companies had manufacturing plants in India and imported regularly from India, China and South American countries.

What I DO NOT endorse is anyone affiliated with running a sweat shop or mistreating another human being in any way, shape or form. That's 100% crap and I'll gladly pay more elsewhere if I know that a company is encouraging these types of practices.

What people need to keep in mind is that not every economy in the world is the same as wealthier countries like the USA, U.K., Canada, etc. What some people here might think of as "taking advantage" is actually a windfall for some people in poorer countries.

Some families that had been living in poverty have made huge strides financially since being employed by Americans online. I read a story not long ago about a Philippino worker who was able to take their entire family to visit a dentist for the first time in their lives. This same person is also buying property! All from the $500-$600.00 per month that they are earning.

Why do companies like Agents of Value | Webmaster Outsourcing Services exist. These are Philippino workers ASKING us for work!!! Why? Because hiring them betters their lives!!!

Now, if someone asked me if I'd hire American if I could get it at the same price, my answer would be, "I'm not sure". Why? Because many of these workers overseas are college educated and more qualified than what I could hire here at home. Also, these people would be LOYAL to me for that amount each month while someone here would be always trying to find another job, therefore, I'd have to be constantly training someone new.

Hiring overseas just makes sense. Case closed.

Supply and Demand can be a Bitch for someone with no skills.

Call me an elitist, but if you lose your job to someone that doesn't speak English...ummm, time ot acquire some real skills.

Anyway, my company uses "employees" in the Phillipines and India to do a lot of the internet things (video submissions, description writing, etc) that are time consuming and boring...

These are tasks that other people don't even know about until we train them to carryt out the tasks... and these foreigners have 5 times the college education that I have and they only cost us about $2.50 per hour...Sorry America, we love you, but we're not tards!

Send me a message if you want to know what outsourcing company we use.

The world is a much smaller place now that it was years ago.

To stay competitive, many businesses source products and services from all over the world - I don't see any reason why an IM shouldn't do the same.

Steve.

I'm outside US, from a country not far away from Philliphines and have similiar income level. I outsource my works to my local people because it helps people to get additional income.

I think as long they have qualified skills and they willing to do the work with the fee we agreed, there is no unethical things about outsourcing.

I would like to thank everyone who have voiced there opinion on this matter. I really do appreicate it.

OP, you are definitely no bad guy.

If outsourcing makes good business sense to you, why not?

Jag

As always, things are more complicated than it seems at first.

Yes, as a whole, the US economy benefits from outsourcing, that's why big companies make more money today than never in the past.

But on the other hand, a lot of people are suffering from it, look at the people in the manufacturing industry for example.

So if the total is positive, that doesn't mean it's good, that means that some people are getting richer and richer while middle class is becoming poorer and poorer (actually, middle class is getting smaller, with a growing upper class and lower class and less people in the middle one).

So the problem is not "Outsourcing is it good or bad?" but "Outsourcing is it sustainable or not?" and I think the answer is no, because without middle class, you get countries like Brazil, Russia and all the developing world, violence, corruption, etc.

My bet is in the next few years, all the western countries are gonna start to increase taxes on outsourcing (Obama already started to implement a plan) because it creates too much tension in the economy.

My 2 cents,

Patrice

Why would you think that way? The important thing is that you get quality work done for what you are paying.

Outsourcing is based on preice and the offered service. It shouldn't be dependent on the country if these 2 are met.

The tired old adage of "buy American sell American put our people to work" just does not work...why?...some examples come to mind, how many industries have been lost to other "not 3rd world" countries due to the greed of the American workers? ... and as far as the post above delving into Macroeconomics goes global finance is a two way street...so in short if you can get the quality of work you want and find it cheaper in the USA or abroad you should go with what makes the most cents (yes as in dollars and cents) for your business

you're not a bad person when you care about your people, but before that you need to care about yourself and your business, if outsourcing outside the US will save you more money, why not?

OP: You shouldn't even think twice about it.