Nowadays smaller companies aren't at all like they were even 10 years ago. Not only is running a small business complex, it's also continually changing. Back in the day you used to place postings in the local newspaper when you wanted help, today if you want the most value possible for your clients you'll be looking online, sometimes for people who live in far-away countries. The move towards using people you find on the internet means you must know about how to find, coordinate, and keep track of these people.
Outsourced or remote workers break out into about four different categories: BPO, KPO, Technology Services, and Virtual Assistants. Let's take a look at them.
BPO, or Business Process Outsourcing, is where you have a well-described and quantifiable business process and want to have someone else do it, like collecting sales leads, replying to queries, taking charge of phone calls, and so on. If you've read through business books like the E-Myth, you know that your most important job as a small company owner is to create a system that operates on its own. You don't want to be required constantly. Stop being the hero. This means for a lot of your processes you'll want to prepare instructions and standardize them. BPO enables you to take these detailed instructions and pass them off to people you select from around the world. Then they can do them for you.
Knowledge Process Outsourcing, or KPO, is when you have confidence in international helpers to think for you, performing investigation, analysis, working independently, and so on. Working with folks over the phone or net is tricky enough as it is. Knowledge Process Outsourcing can be especially rough. Typically the rule of thumb is that nobody really cares about your business as much as you do. Asking people to think for you is very challenging, but many companies manage to do this by carefully outlining the type of analysis they want and the acceptance criteria that will be applied.
Technology Services Outsourcing, or TSO, is where overseas professionals maintain a lot of technology-related jobs for you like configuring internet servers or corporate services. The majority of small businesses won't need this kind of work, but it doesn't hurt to know about them.
Virtual Assistants are the service that everybody is talking about and you may very well use in a small business. They combine all of the above kinds of work, depending on how you've put together your hunt. As long as they work effectively, they're just like having a "girl friday" at your bidding; handling calendars, putting together information, answering the telephone. You can find a highly-trained helper on the net to assist you with admin work for a significant savings off locating somebody locally.
A partner company or a relationship with a larger company is necessary for large-scale work, but there are a wide selection of sites for finding 1 or 2 workers at one time. Some widely used ones are www.elance.com (the leading site for finding and hiring on-demand workers), www.99designs.com (for design work), www.agentsolo.com (for professional services), www.contractedwork.com (general contracting work), and www.guru.com.
Managing remote workers is a book in itself, but below are a few tips.
- Anticipate failure. You have to hire more than once or twice to get the knack of it - Record every little thing. Vague verbal instructions or half-baked suggestions will not get what you want done - Some kinds of work will never work without somebody in the office - Avoid frivolity. It's really tough to do well over the net - Make use of email and Instant Messaging daily - Get a progress report from them in an hour or two, not at the end of the week. Little tiny steps to start with - Present an introduction to why this job is very important and precisely how to do it - Provide a maximum limit or cap to how long you think it should take and don't pay past that
Once you start really looking at the opportunities out there, you'll see that outsourcing or using remote workers represents an entirely new way of understanding how your business operates. It's going to involve patience and lots of trial and error. The benefits are huge, however, and it's well worth your time.
Outsourced or remote workers break out into about four different categories: BPO, KPO, Technology Services, and Virtual Assistants. Let's take a look at them.
BPO, or Business Process Outsourcing, is where you have a well-described and quantifiable business process and want to have someone else do it, like collecting sales leads, replying to queries, taking charge of phone calls, and so on. If you've read through business books like the E-Myth, you know that your most important job as a small company owner is to create a system that operates on its own. You don't want to be required constantly. Stop being the hero. This means for a lot of your processes you'll want to prepare instructions and standardize them. BPO enables you to take these detailed instructions and pass them off to people you select from around the world. Then they can do them for you.
Knowledge Process Outsourcing, or KPO, is when you have confidence in international helpers to think for you, performing investigation, analysis, working independently, and so on. Working with folks over the phone or net is tricky enough as it is. Knowledge Process Outsourcing can be especially rough. Typically the rule of thumb is that nobody really cares about your business as much as you do. Asking people to think for you is very challenging, but many companies manage to do this by carefully outlining the type of analysis they want and the acceptance criteria that will be applied.
Technology Services Outsourcing, or TSO, is where overseas professionals maintain a lot of technology-related jobs for you like configuring internet servers or corporate services. The majority of small businesses won't need this kind of work, but it doesn't hurt to know about them.
Virtual Assistants are the service that everybody is talking about and you may very well use in a small business. They combine all of the above kinds of work, depending on how you've put together your hunt. As long as they work effectively, they're just like having a "girl friday" at your bidding; handling calendars, putting together information, answering the telephone. You can find a highly-trained helper on the net to assist you with admin work for a significant savings off locating somebody locally.
A partner company or a relationship with a larger company is necessary for large-scale work, but there are a wide selection of sites for finding 1 or 2 workers at one time. Some widely used ones are www.elance.com (the leading site for finding and hiring on-demand workers), www.99designs.com (for design work), www.agentsolo.com (for professional services), www.contractedwork.com (general contracting work), and www.guru.com.
Managing remote workers is a book in itself, but below are a few tips.
- Anticipate failure. You have to hire more than once or twice to get the knack of it - Record every little thing. Vague verbal instructions or half-baked suggestions will not get what you want done - Some kinds of work will never work without somebody in the office - Avoid frivolity. It's really tough to do well over the net - Make use of email and Instant Messaging daily - Get a progress report from them in an hour or two, not at the end of the week. Little tiny steps to start with - Present an introduction to why this job is very important and precisely how to do it - Provide a maximum limit or cap to how long you think it should take and don't pay past that
Once you start really looking at the opportunities out there, you'll see that outsourcing or using remote workers represents an entirely new way of understanding how your business operates. It's going to involve patience and lots of trial and error. The benefits are huge, however, and it's well worth your time.
About the Author:
Interested in how small businesses will evolve to meet changing technology? Take a look at the author's article on writing your first paycheck stub and his blog on all things payroll and business.
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