Trends in Small Business Outsourcing

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S M A L L B U S I N E S S E S A R E A L S O C O N T I N U I N G TO P U S H T H E E N V E L O P E O N W H AT C A N B E O U T S O U R C E D .
T H E Y

A R E D I S C O V E R I N G E L E M E N T S T H AT C A N B E O U T S O U R C E D E V E N I N P R E V I O U S LY C O R E A C T I V I T I E S .

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

 Re-examine what you consider to be activities only you or your employees

can do.
If not the entire activity, can some parts of this at least be outsourced? Be prepared to invest some time up front in training your outsourcing

partner.

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

A D E C A D E A G O YO U M AY N E V E R H AV E T H O U G H T OF OUTSOURCING TO SOMEONE OUTSIDE OF YO U R L O C A L C I T Y O R R E G I O N . N OW I T I S CO M M O N PL AC E TO FI N D V E N D O R S A N D INDEPENDENT CONT R AC TO RS ACROSS THE C O U N T R Y O R E V E N A C R O S S T H E WO R L D.

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

 If you are a vendor, establish a presence on the networking sites

of your choice LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc. to create an online brand presence.

Make it easy to be found and for customers to get to know you.

Evaluate which mode of communication gives you the best results. Also take into consideration where your customers are located

and how they prefer to be contacted.

Sign up with Skype, or other email and Internet marketing tools.

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

W E R E S E E I N G P R I C I N G S T R U C T U R E S T H AT C O M B I N E T H E B E S T O F B O T H . F O R E X A M P L E , W E B PA G E D E S I G N W I L L B E F I X E D AT A P R I C E P E R PA G E .

S U B S EQ U E N T C H A N G E S R EQ U E S T E D BY T H E U S I N G A N H O U R LY R AT E F O R T H E E F F O R T.

BUYER

A R E PA I D F O R

T H E C O M B I N AT I O N P R I C I N G C A N S A V E T H E B U Y E R A S M U C H A S 3 0 % O F T H E T O TA L C O S T A N D A V O I D C O N F L I C T S . I T A L S O A L I G N S I N T E R E S T S OF THE BUYER AND THE VENDOR.

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

 Split your project into 2 parts: the part that is well defined and unlikely to change the part that needs to change as you see results of each phase. Fix Price the well defined part, while agreeing upon

an hourly rate for the rest.

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

SMALL BUSINESSES ARE OPENING UP TO OUTSOURCING ONGOING PROCESSES, IN ADDITION TO PROJECTS.

Task (or project) outsourcing (e.g., file my taxes) is primarily a oneoff activity while process outsourcing (e.g., manage my accounting) requires a relationship approach. Process outsourcing also places greater responsibility on the vendor to become closely familiar with the clients business and the clients customers.

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

 For the projects you are outsourcing, see if some of the

activities you do before and after the project can also be done by your outsourcing partner.
When outsourcing processes, evaluate providers for a

strong understanding of the legal and regulatory issues associated with the process they would manage.

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

S M A L L B U S I N E S S E S A R E M AT U R I N G VA R I E T Y OF FA C T O R S BEFORE OUTSOURCING DECISION.

TO LOOK MAKING

AT A THE

TA S K S T H AT R E Q U I R E P R E S E N C E I N T H E S A M E T I M E Z O N E

A N D A C U LT U R A L A WA R E N E S S A R E B E I N G H O M E S H O R E D .
TA S K S

T H AT A R E N O T T I M E S E N S I T I V E O R H E AV I LY I N F L U E N C E D B Y C U LT U R E A R E B E I N G O F F S H O R E D .

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

 Evaluate if your outsourcing partners can train themselves on

some of the cultural aspects if they belong to a different geography.

Offshore only those tasks that are well defined. For tasks that

need your input several times a day, choose a provider who can work in your own time zone.

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

S M A L L B U S I N E S S E S A P P R E C I AT E V E N D O R S W H O C A N S U P P O R T THEM THROUGH THE PROJECT EXECUTION PROCESS.

SMALL B U S I N E S S E S A R E I N C R E A S I N G LY R E A L I Z I N G T H AT B R I N G I N G C L A R I T Y T O TA S K S , D E F I N I N G M I L E S T O N E S A N D T I M E L I N E S , T R A C K I N G P R O G R E S S E T C . P L AY A P I V O TA L R O L E I N PROJECT SUCCESS.

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential

 Evaluate how much time you and your employees are

ending up spending on finding providers and on assigning and tracking their tasks. This could be another service you could outsource to an outside agency.
Look for strong communication skills and experience in

setting up processes that produce results.

2013 IO Marketing Proprietary and Confidential