You’ve decided you need help in your business and outsourcing abroad makes good business sense. It’d be great to throw your search net a bit wider and look to outsource abroad for the graphic design virtual assistant, web designer and maybe even ongoing web technical support. It’ll make your life so much easier with a virtual team, you’re already making lunch dates with friends.
You Need More Work Done in a Day
Your business is growing. You really need more work done in a day, but there’s no more hours in your day. Outsourcing abroad makes sense for your business and your bottom line will thank you. Your clients adore you because you deliver results. It doesn’t matter to your clients where the laptop is plugged in. They just want the work done well.
“ It doesn’t matter to your clients where the laptop is plugged in.” (Tweet this!)
More work means more revenue.
Getting high-quality work, on time for the right price is what matters. Working across multiple time zones extends ‘the day’. You can get a lot more done which means you can take on more work. More work means more revenue.
Outsourcing abroad when you can find the same quality and skill for a better cost, means better profit too. Once you decide to consider outsourcing abroad, it’s important to understand possible differences in cultural working style, computer security, internet connectivity or even language before you start working together.
Consider Cultural and Country Differences
During the outsourcing hiring process ask these 7 smart questions to make sure work aligns with your business needs. Of course, you should be asking some of these same questions if you’re hiring within your own country too.
7 SMART QUESTIONS
What are the local holidays and usual working hours?
- What are the options to connect ‘live’ by video, if necessary, during your awake hours. Will you need to get up before the sun or in the wee hours of the night to connect.
- If there’s a holiday, do you get work done in advance or suggest options for changing the due date?
How do you handle short turn around deadlines?
- When a client requests an immediate deliverable, for example an update to publicity materials, what’s the plan? Of course, every effort to make these ‘due yesterday’ deadlines evaporate will be done, but just in case you can’t, is there a plan?
How will your confidential content be protected and how are the computers secured?
- It’s important in any outsource relationship to know how your information is protected and not shared with a competitor who might also be outsourcing to the same partner.
- Computer security from hackers and viruses is another key. If the computer goes down, what’s the plan for getting access to the files before lost hours turn into lost days and weeks?
What is the plan to cover vacation and illnesses?
- Everyone gets sick or needs to take a break from work, even when you’re passionate about the work you do. Will your outsourcing partner notify you if they’re out for the day. Is there a back-up person you can connect with if there’s an emergency need? What are your options. Sickness isn’t planned so it can be a bit challenging to meet business needs when it’s more than a day.
If you’re outsourcing to an agency or company with a team of people, how frequently do team members leave the company and how long it takes to hire a replacement?
- It’s really important to understand if you’ll get a say in the replacement person who will work with you. Will you need to spend time re-training a new person and how will the work be managed before a replacement is found.
Is there a good personality fit and is communication easy?
- You’ll want to talk with the person who is going to do the work. Talking is a good way to check for chemistry and get to know them a bit. Are they easy to understand and communicate with and do they have the knowledge you need for your business.
What’s their language expertise?
- Does your business require a specific language proficiency (written, spoken or both)? If it does, you can provide a couple of your business examples to get a sample of their writing ability and response to spoken questions. If that’s not enough, you may need to assess language abilities with one of the standard tests.
Outsourcing abroad can give you better access to talent.
It can extend the hours for getting more work done. It can also be more cost effective. You just want to be sure you’re asking the right questions so there’s no surprises.
The last thing you need is to spend your time finding an amazing outsourcing partner only to realize after a month, it’s not working. The advantages with outsourcing abroad mean your business makes more profit because your expenses are less. You can take on more work and the work can be delivered faster.