SMART OUTSOURCING

TOOLS AND PRINCIPLES TO HELP YOU GETSTARTED

byKevin Thompson

In his book,

, Thomas Friedman says, "

We are taking apart each task,standardizing it, and sending it around the world to whoever can do it best...this is not a trivialrevolution. This is a major one.

" We've all seen the effects of outsourcing in themanufacturing industry. China, with its enormous pool of labor, seems to be makingeverything from toys to cars. When was the last time you bought a product that didn't say"Made in China"? The idea of breaking up tasks and sending them around the world is not anovel idea. In manufacturing, it's always made sense to ship work to people willing to bangsteel and make stuff at lower costs. But now, something fundamental changing. The benefitsof outsourcing are no longer exclusive to large companies with big and expensive products.With the diffusion of technology and the evolution of Web 2.0, it's easier today than ever fortwo people (or two organizations) to connect and collaborate on knowledge-based projects.Over the past year, I've benefited tremendously by working with web developers in India,China, and Armenia. I also work with a virtual assistant, Neeti, in Mumbai to handle all my of

travel arrangements, data entry, product ordering, market research, and, my wife's favorite, theoccasional reminder of upcoming birthdays and anniversaries. The purpose of this article is toinform you of some of the tools I've leveraged to help launch my own business,

AdvancedAdvocates

REDUCED BARRIER TO ENTRY

It used to be expensive to start a business! People had to hit up friends and family for money,raise venture capital, or bet their life savings on high-risk ventures. They had to hire people,buy computers, programs, office furniture, and lease office space before a single dollar wasearned. With such high initial investments, the playing field was limited to people with easyaccess to cash. Now, companies can leverage open source solutions to cut down on the start-upcosts. If you haven't already, it would be worth your time to check out

Google apps

. For amere $10, a person can buy a domain name and set up email accounts for 50 people in under