Outsourcing is something I do quite abit. I have been an advocate for well over 3 years now and have enjoyed it for the most part. It’s cheap, easy and time efficient. My favorite thing about Outsourcing is the fact that I could have a heap of work to get done before work time the next morning and if I don’t get through it all, I know I can have an assistant somewhere in a different timezone finish it up for me. Take for example the one time we were handling web development, design and branding for a new website and client. I had just started out with Gen Y startup and the section of it that handled website dev/design, so I felt the need to “show the S on my chest”. I didn’t care whatever it took back then and so I hired a team from countries around the world.

The new client had a bad experience with a previous supplier and was out of time, basically needed a turnover in less than 40hrs. I blindly took up the challenge and set out on a journey that I was 100% sure I wouldn’t finish, but the pride and need to make a point made me take it on anyway. I worked endlessly on the project but after a while it was evident I was running low on manpower and strength, that’s when I sent an email to my ever ready asst. in Lahore, Pakistan. It was 2a.m. in Baltimore USA but for him, it was the middle of workday. Suffice to say, somehow the project was done and delivered and the client is still with me till today.

Outsourcing also has it’s bad, actually very bad moments as well. It’s never going to be all rosy if you are into outsourcing some work. For people who are new to Outsourcing and don’t know people/teams you can pick as your partner or outsource team, it could be ridiculously daunting. Many take the decision process lightly and that shouldn’t be the case. It’s actually more important than hiring an in-house team because these are people you don’t know, never seen and have no clue whether their background and experience is only true on paper. You don’t know their style of work and have no control over how they do the work either. A close friend learned the hard way a couple of weeks ago when she picked out a team in India and handed them the reigns on a small project she was working on. She had 3weeks to get it done and so while she worked on the design section, she outsourced some of the dev. It’s been 6 weeks and the development is only 50% done. She lost that client and isn’t sure when the work will be done. Not all outsourced projects end up this way, neither are most of the developers looking for outsourced project, so don’t misconstrue the lesson of this post. You just need to make sure you learn to do the right things when you outsource.

To do List.

1.) Go through a trusted source. Merely doing a Google search of the word “outsource” will give you several articles on where to find great employees in other countries around the world. Elance is especially a huge meeting ground for tech work suppliers and people looking to outsource.

2.) Verify the information they give you. A lot of the people looking to take your work on fake their qualifications and experience. You must verify the information they give you and make sure all that work they claim to have done are actually their hand work. E-mail previous clients, call old employers…anything just to make sure you are not dealing with liars. If they lie about their previous work to win yours, you definitely don’t want them any where near yours.

P.S. A lot of suppliers do this, because most employers fail to verify any past experience.

3.) Keep good contact. Always stay in contact with whomever you do hire. Have skype meetings atleast once a week and build a closer relationship. Exchanging emails alone is never enough. Let them know that you mean business! Set up calls about twice a week or more depending the stage of the project or the amount of work required.

4.) Demand to see updates. This one explains itself. Don’t be led to believe you are closer to the finish line than you actually are. Most people fall victim of this.

In summary, Outsourcing can save you a lot of money and time IF done the right way. So do the right things to enjoy the experience.

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I read a book some years back while in college. At the time I couldn’t understand why my professor ( Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, Chemical Engineering) would ask us to read it and write a paper about it. It seemed very strange and unnecessary to say the least. Today, 3 years later, I am glad I read this brilliantly written book called “The World is Flat” by a certain Thomas Friedman. The book focuses on how the world’s work dynamic was changing and how companies were starting to seek/use the best talent from around the world rather than in their home state or country.

If you ever wondered why your HP customer service rep or Jet Blue customer rep (mistakenly) says “hello good morning” when it’s still 7p.m. your time and seems to have a rather exotic accent, it’s because the World is flat! Companies are starting to seek out people who are just as competent, if not more competent, to do the same task at a much cheaper rate. I mean come on, some guy says he’ll charge you $15/hour to be your assistant, while another steps up to the plate and offers to carry out the same services for $7/hour and do it just as well, won’t you be fascinated? even if you will probably never see this person? even if the only way you’ll send out tasks and receive answers is via email or skype?

I remember when I was looking to build a social networking site for my fellow chemical engineers around the country to keep in touch, I walked into a web services company office in Maryland where I was going to school at the time and pitched my idea. I am not a programmer, neither am I a designer who will deliver the results I was interested in. I am decent at best and that doesn’t cut it, so I needed someone else to do it for me. They told me it would cost $6,000. I thought they were taking the mickey out of me, but they weren’t pissing around. That’s how much they wanted. Then I checked out ODesk, having read about it on Techcrunch. To cut the long story short, I found a guy who did a good job for $1000. While the site did well, I had bigger dreams for it. I am working on making it more than just one major. I want a Biology major to sign on in UCLA and open his chat box on the site, find a fellow Biology major at the University of Maryland (who he has added, because they are the same major, or are in the same Sigma Alpha Lambda Frat) and ask him for help with a question he has about chromosomes. That’s what I want for the site. By the way, If you are interested in being a part of the (re)building process of this project, you are welcome to email me : tolu at genystartup dot com and we will see what we can do. Back to my story before I drifted, I basically saved $6k by outsourcing!

If you are a new Entrepreneur, you will have a hard time getting people to fund you, you will have a hard time convincing quality potential employees to come on board and make history with you, this is why you must outsource. I have a friend who owns his own small design company. He works out of his mom’s basement in Towson, MD. He makes about $9k every month and has two employees. He has never met any of them. Nirali is his personal asst./secretary/blogger/utility player, she’s based in Bangalore, India and according to him ” she kicks serious butt”. When he needs something done, he emails her the tasks, and when he’s up in the morning the completed tasks are waiting in his inbox…thanks to the big time difference between both countries. While he’s sleeping, it’s day time  for Nirali and she’s hard at work. How effective. His other employee, Jon, is a freelance web designer based in Shanghai, China. Whenever my mate has projects he can’t finish in the time allocated, he calls on Jon and together they complete the task. Both employees asked for $10/hour and do a great job. Sometimes I wonder that he’s taking advantage of them, but he mentioned how he never put a limit on their rate. He said he simply asked them what their rate was and they said $10/hour. The other good thing about outsourcing is you are not limiting your productivity or quality of results. You are not using the “best” talent in your home country of Australia (if you are Aussie) or England if that’s where you are from. You are looking for the best talent around the world and taking advantage of it. Crowdsourcing anyone?!

Starting out as an Entrepreneur could be rough, I experienced this first hand, you might have limited management experience, limited funds etc… Outsourcing is perhaps the way to go. It’s less expensive, less demanding and very productive if done right. Eventually as your company moves along and starts growing, you can start thinking of renting office space, hiring full time employees and expanding. But it’s a long hard journey before you get there, so in the meantime, Outsource!

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