Monthly Archives: September 2010

Test & Fail; Learn & Scale; Digital CMO’s understand this mantra

September 21, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Are you involved in digital marketing? You can’t just read blogs and learn what the experts recommend. Their advice is often very general, and might not apply to you. You need to test different marketing strategies out. See what works on what medium, and why.

Let’s say you find out that Twitter makes it easy to get followers for a particular account, but Facebook doesn’t. In such a case, it might make more sense to scale your efforts, and put more efforts into your Facebook account where you get a better return on your investment.

Another interesting angle, is that certain types of posts do well on certain mediums. If you are digital marketing, the medium most central to your endeavors should be your blog. But, your blog might have many types of articles. So, making a blanket statement of how Facebook is the best medium to promote your blog might not be a very good answer. Posts with lots of amazing pictures might do better on Instagram or Stumbleupon. Posts that have practical marketing pointers might do better on Linked In. Twitter tends to be good for SEO popularity due to the links you tweeted. Facebook tends to have the widest audience and is the social medium I would try first — for any industry just because it has the largest active following.

Generalized analytics results might not be the most helpful for your business. It is good to dig a little better. See what does well on each medium, and why!

After a recent analysis, I realized that the amount of labor and monetary investment that I had put into Twitter, the results were far less than those for our Facebook which we had invested relatively little into. I’ve decided to experiment by putting four times the effort into our Facebook for a month, and toning down my Twitter. Additionally, I learned that my fledgling Linked In accounts are delivering great results, and that I should build those to the point where they have critical mass, so that I can see if they deliver a value that merits the investment that we are putting into them.

It is hard to compare different social media accounts when some are just bigger than the others. If your Facebook has 10,000 members, and your new Linked In account has only 200, it is hard to compare where an hour of your time will go the furthest. Your Facebook will probably get you the most clicks. But, on the other hand, with Linked In, you can post on other people’s communities which might have a larger reach than your Facebook account. You are comparing apples and octopuses here!

If you are comparing the benefit of an hour of work with a large network and small network consider this. The hour you spend on a large network might get you some fruit (perhaps apples & oranges for example) while the effort you put into a smaller network might get you growth which also has a value that you can calculate based on future anticipated fruits once the network has grown to however you define its maturity. If you know how many quality clicks you get from your smaller network, then you can guess how many clicks you’ll get when it has grown to be of a substantial size. You can estimate its value by knowing that click rate.

The bottom line is that you need to try different social media mediums, try different approaches, see what works, why, and how long it takes for something to work. Try to estimate after 18 months of effort, what type of return you’ll get on your work.

Accounting Outsourcing

September 21, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Accounting | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Accounting Outsourcing 
 
In 2008, the global accounting outsource market was expected to grow 9.6% to surpasss 47.6 billion according to the IDC.  The accounting outsource profession is said to include transaction management, finance, general accounting, treasury and risk management, and tax management.    Spending on tax management is one of the accounting specialties that is expected to grow the fastest whilc accounts payable is the most widely outsourced finance / accounting function according to the IDC.
 
The finance and accounting BPO segment is one of the largest and fastest growing according to Anna Danilenco, program manager.  From a regional point of view, the U.S.A will remain the largest finance / accounting business process outsourcing market.   Cost cutting was one of the primary factors involved in what made companies want to outsource, while enhancing productivity was another main factor.
 
Payroll is the most commonly outsource finance / accounting work., while budgeting and forecasting are the least likely to be outsourced.  It looks like more manual work is more likely to be outsourced, while more critical work is more likely to be done back home.
 
Most companies engaged in outsourcing have no metrics to measure the success of their outsourcing efficiency, however, companies generally report a savings in costs.  Many companies worried, that outsourcing would cause a greater risk that critical information would fall into the hands of competitors.  Putting risk aside, companies involved in outsourcing reported an increase in business activity.  Another fact to note is that the Asia Pacific region, in particular China is growing in the FA accounting industry. China is growing rapidly in Finance and Accounting outsourcing, and we’ll see how they do in the long run.

What if America were tribal?

September 21, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: America | Tagged | Leave a comment

America used to be tribal, and so did the rest of the world. Many parts of the world still are tribal. But, those parts have bloody tribal rivalries, horrible social divisions, and poverty. We don’t want to be like them, do we? On the other hand, having tribes creates a sense of social security, family, social closeness, and belonging. So, maybe we want the good parts of tribal life without the bad.

How would modern day American tribes function? Well, the ladies could get together and do nesting activities. In this age, that might include some high tech tasks, and work at home tasks. But, the point of tribal living is partly so that children would be taken care of. If all of the ladies are in the nest either taking care of the young, or doing nest tasks (whatever modern nest tasks would be) that might be a lot better for the kids. They wouldn’t be abandoned like they are now.

But, how would tribes form, and what would that mean financially? Would each tribe have their own social security system? If you were old, would the tribe take care of you? Large societies like America make people feel uncared for, especially old people. Would tribes be more warm and caring? And how large would each tribe be, or would there be sub-tribes? Is 1000 people average per tribe good, or should there be more like 100,000 or a million? Would people join a tribe for a few years and then move on to some other tribe? That would confuse the social security system. If you were paying in at one location and taking out at another, boy would that be complicated.

Would tribes be based on family ties, race, or what type of person you are. Personally, I mix more with the yoga, music and spiritual crowd. I wouldn’t want a tribe of narrow minded Christians or Jews — not that there is anything bad about being narrow-minded. Would there be a tribe for me? If tribes are based on what type of person you are, it should be based also on what type of person you would raise your children and grandchildren to be assuming you would have them. It would be a long-term or permanent thing. Perhaps people could belong to more than one tribe. One for family, and another based on interests, beliefs, or lifestyle.

I don’t know if a voluntary tribalization of America would be good or bad, but it might be nice to feel you belong somewhere because modern society is very alienating!

Why you should spend 1 hour+ on your next blog title

September 21, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

I just read about something called the 50/50 rule of blogging. You spend as much time on your title as you do on the actual content. In my opinion this ratio is somewhat true. If you have a beautifully written article with a horrible title, nobody will bother to read it. On the other hand if you have a great title, and a horrible article, they will begin to read it, and then your bounce rate will go up.

I often spend an hour trying different titles out on Twitter just to see what people will favorite or retweet. If I am going to invest in writing an article, I want an article that will be popular. So, I spent an hour researching what is popular, and then more time to get the exact wording of the title to be of optimal popularity. Finally, I write the actual article. As you can see, my total investment in the title could have been 90 minutes, while I might spend less than 60 minutes writing the actual blog. In real life, there is no perfect ratio of how long to spend on each part of blogging or social media, but don’t overlook how important a catchy title or catchy theme really is — and don’t forget to experiment with up to a dozen possible title wordings for maximum appeal!

Find audio transcriptionists on 123outsource.net

September 21, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Data Entry | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Find an audio transcriptionist on 123outsource.net

123outsource.net is an outsourcing directory that places a heavy emphasis on data entry, data processing, data transcription and many related specialties including audio transcriptioning.  We have hundreds of service providers throughout the world doing various types of data entry and BPO tasks, especially in the U.S., and in India.
 
What is Audio Transcriptioning?
Audio transcriptioning is a type of data entry, where the data entry clerk listens to a tape recording, or some type of audio file, and types information into a computer file based on what they heard.  In general, data entry consists of entering data into a database that was previously on paper, an audio file, or on another online database. 
 
Medical Transcriptioning
Medical transcriptioning involves a lot of audio transcription work.  In addition to having good audio transcription skills, clerks need to be intimately familiar with medical terms, physiology, anatomy, diagnostic procedures, pharmacology, and treatment assessments. 
 
The Philiipines
Audio transcriptionists are located in large numbers throughout the planet, but the Philippines has a monopoly on the outsourcing end of this business.  If you are outsourcing this type of work, please think about visiting our search results in the Philippines for best results.
 
Video Transcriptioning
Video transcriptioning is yet another term for a particular type of audio transcriptioning.  Videos sometimes need subtitles or text printouts, and a good transcriptionist can provide this service for you.
 
Business Transcriptions
There are many types of transcriptions used in the greater sphere of business transcriptions. Common types include conference transcription, interview transcription, seminar transcription, and verbatim transcription.   Some types of transcription omit unintentional sounds such as “um”, and “ah”, while others leave it in.
 
If you run a company that does data entry or audio transcriptions, please contact 123outsource.net and ask us if we can offer you a free listing on our directory. Or, just visit our sign up page!

Cultural differences are not what you think?

September 21, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

We have all read books about cultural differences. We have read about people’s bizarre experiences in foreign lands traveling, teaching, and doing business. But, what do books really teach us? Do they teach the real culture, or some outdated behavioral patterns from a few subjects in a particular subculture of a particular vast area in the globe.

Culture doesn’t exist

I remember reading that the Arab culture is XYZ. Then, I met real Arabs and they were the exact opposite of XYZ. So, which one is it? Are they or are they not like XYZ. Next, the politically correct nitwits will take this window of time as an opportunity to insert their unwelcomed chime in about how you cannot generalize people. Guess what, the existance of the notion of culture suggests that you can generalize people who belong to a particular culture of having a high probability of having cultural traits associated with the culture — assuming you have correctly defined the culture.

What is the right definition?

But, putting aside who is right or wrong, and which book is better or worse, and what definition of a culture is right or wrong — it is complicated. No dated text can possibly encompass the complications of defining a moving target involving hundreds of millions of people who are dispersed over large areas of geographic territory with multiple classes, subcultures, ethnicities, and other variables. So, how can you learn about culture? Put the books aside, and get on a plane! Yee-haw!!!

Getting off the plane

So you get on the plane and get off in China. You are given endless praise, and eat it all up only to find that people are upset that you accepted their praise? And you thought that dealing with women was difficult. “Do I look fat?” “No, honey, you look fine”. “No, I really do look fat, I have gained an ounce”. “I don’t notice that non-existant ounce”. “I did, it is here, are you blind?”. “Hmmm, you are right, you really did gain an ounce!.” “How can you say that!!!”

Have you eaten?

So you mangle saying, “Ni chi fan le mei?” and the Chinese tell you that you are an expert in Chinese. You say, “Not really, but thanks anyway”. They don’t like it when you get too arrogant. But, then later on, you notice that they will make some inflated statement about themselves and then you go back to your book. Wait a second, you are not supposed to say that. We are in China after all. So, the locals break the rules — they just don’t do it that often. Americans love individuality — so, therefor you are being un-American by getting on a bus, or agreeing with large groups of people about what they believe in. But, Americans are very predictable in their likes and dislikes and a lot less individual than you think. Chinese also brag more than you might think as well. So — it is complicated.

So, how does this relate to your business? This is a blog about business after all?

You need to understand other cultures, so you can squeeze more money out of people from different countries. It is that simple. But, which part of cultural competency really matters? A book isn’t going to teach you that. The bigger points are how to gain TRUST, popularity, and comfort with your culturally different friends.

Many Americans never want to see your face in business. How inhuman — no wonder I don’t have too many American friends! Indians insist on seeing you face to face. Asians want to gain trust and develop a relationship in many cases — at least if they are serious about you. I guess I fit the Asian stereotype although I am not Asian in this birth. Putting culture aside, don’t prejudge people who are from a particular land. Maybe the Americans really do want to meet you in person a lot. Maybe it is the client from Beijing who wants the entire relationship online with no phone calls. Understanding what people from particular cultures USUALLY like is knowledge you should have. Catering to their ACTUAL likes is a much more valuable skill.

My bottom line advice is to spend time with people from different cultures. Understand the cultures, and individuals. Learn how to be attentive and figure out what matters to them as individuals while using cultural data to guess what is more likely to matter to them. Guessing probability and making unflattering assumptions that prejudge someone are different and you need to be very aware of that distinction

When you don’t blog, you miss it!

September 21, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Blogging is something new to me. I never used to do it until late 2010. As a child I hated to write. As an adult I have grown used to it. I never imagined that I would have a job that involved so much writing. As a child, I thought I would be an efficiency analyst for big companies. In a sense I do a lot of that for my directories and I am very efficient in many ways and very analytical in my daily activities — something my customers appreciate as I teach them how to analyze markets that they participate in.

But, I miss blogging when I don’t do it for a while. There are spells for weeks when I am busy on a project and I won’t write blogs. I even have dreams about blogging. Symbolically, I might see a pencil in the dream, or feel sad in the dream because I am not in front of a computer. This happened on a recent meditation trip. I was enjoying a pristine forest, meditation, hiking, great food, and the company of other like-minded people. I started having dreams about blogging. I realized I need to do it.

Twitter has become an obsession too just like blogging. I need to write tweets daily, and they need to be ones that will be popular too. Underaverage tweets just don’t cut it with me anymore. No more writing up a bunch of tweets and publishing them. Now, I compare my tweets before they go into my scheduled tweet list.

I encourage others to engage in blogging too. It expands your consciousness and becomes part of who you are. Write a blog entry today!

What makes your outsourcing company stand out?

September 20, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Are you doing your work the same lousy way the other companies are doing it? Or do you stand out? If you stand out, do you know how to communicate how you stand out? If you are going to sell your company to others, you need to be able to mention many convincing attributes that your company has that other companies can’t realistically claim.

Through my career, I have learned that very few people know how to express what is good about their service. Many people draw a blank, or start mentioning long lists of adjectives with commas between them. I am responsible, reliable, and honest. Nobody wants to hear this. Most companies in India don’t want to talk about what sets them apart, they just want you to read their brochure or the FAQ page on their website. I am not interested in that. I want to hear it from you, and hear how you communicate. I judge people on how they communicate which is a problem, because most people can’t communicate up to even my minimum standards!

Let’s say that you are in Web Design for example. Someone asks you what makes your company stand out? You can mention that you do regular web design, but you like to hire people who are more experienced than other companies do. You like to specialize more in Flash design and less in multimedia. You prefer PHP, but do .net for existing clients only. Show them some of your best work. If your company has an internal checking system to check the work of your employees, mention that. If you have a specialized customer service department that is open twenty-four hours a day, that is a great perk.

It pays to brainstorm for a few hours and think about what makes your company better. But, telling them and showing them are two separate things. If you have a flawless web site where pages load really fast, and the art work is beautiful, that will leave much more of an impression than your self-aggrandizing commentary! If you speak well over the phone, and communicate clearly and in a helpful way, that speaks volumes about the type of service people might expect to get from your company. Of course in real life, it is not how well the salesman talks, but how well the web designers design and handle communication that really counts.

So, think about it. What makes you better?
Drawing a blank?
Start making a list of things that make you better
If your list is blank, then maybe it is time to try to think of ways to BECOME better — then, you can make your list!

Indian offices and ego

September 20, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: India | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Indian offices and ego, power, abuse, etc.

In India, the land of spirituality, it seems that the workplace is somewhat less than what I could consider to be spiritual. Of course, every workplace is different, and each human being is different too.  But, in Indian culture, it is all too common to have managers who are on some type  of ego trip. They think they are so great and powerful because they are managers, and they want to step on others who are lower than them to show off their power.  It seems very primative to me when I see this type of behavior.

Relationships between managers and workers seem to involve a lot of yelling. Managers often behave like tyrants in some movie about Egypt when they had slaves building the pyramids.   It all looks very abusive.  Some workers are good for nothing and NEED to be yelled at often to keep them in check.  But, as a policy for treating people in general, respect is a much better policy — at least for those who can handle giving and receiving it.  Appreciation gets more mileage than beration as well.

My friend pointed out to me that workers are often very concerned only with what their salary and position is.  They are often saving up for a dowery for their sister’s marriage.  It is always good to be able to pay whatever the market rate for dowery is. However, if workers are only concerned with superficial things like their job title and salary, and managers are only concerned with finding new and creative ways to demean their underlings, then what do you think the future of companies with these types of maniacs would be?  The answer is not very nice.

There needs to be a sense of commitment to the long range growth and health of the company you work for.  There needs to be a sense of professionalism as well.  Larger companies in Bangalore often have very professional managers — often NRI’s or Westerners are chosen to be managers to bring a more worldly sense of professionalism to these multinational offices.  Owners need to find a way to create that loyalty and commitment.

Employees will never be 100% loyal to any company, because it is all about their immediate pay check, and about their personal desires.  Very few employees can see the long term picture, or would care about that view in even the best case scenario. But, if employees are treated well, and see themselves at that company in the long term, there will be a natural bond between them and the company, and that bond is well worth creating and maintaining.

If you set an example, by keeping employees around forever as a matter of practice, the never employees might see themselves as having a realistic chance of staying at your company for life.  Then, and only then will they care about the long term health of our company!  Think about it!

Does visiting the desert make you smarter?

September 20, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

There are all types of techniques for how to become smarter. You can read, or do thinking exercises. Some people train themselves to remember long lists of numbers or other information. Some people go to school and attend lectures. But, I have come up with a real shocker: Going to the desert made me starter — and I have proof.

I play this Chinese game called Go. It is a very complicated game. Players have ratings that could be a kyu or a don. The stronger players are don players and don levels range from one to ten (the world’s strongest player is a ten don). I play online Go, and have noticed that my rating goes up and down very quickly. If you are having a bad day, instead of giving you some leeway, they demote you to a lower ranking after you have lost a few games. It really makes no sense, but is a great way to track how good your thinking was on a particular day.

In any case, I had not played in about three and a half years. When I went back to playing, I noticed myself making all types of very careless mistakes that lead to huge losses. As business people, we can all appreciate the fact that a single mistake can cost us thousands. In any case, after a month of playing, I got to the point where I made very infrequent tactical errors. But, I noticed that I was working too much, and getting mentally fatigued as well as physically fatigued. So, I went to Joshua Tree.

Joshua Tree is a desert destination with lots of hikers, rock climbers, photographers and many who engage in overnight camping. The energy there really picks me up. I always joke that there are different types of qi according to acupuncture theory, but the type of qi at Joshua Tree is Joshua qi. In any case, after I came back from my happy day of hiking in 92 degree weather in Joshua Tree, I noticed that my Go rank jumped up 1.5 ranks. After the energy that I had picked up in the desert dissipated after a few days, my ranking went far down.

The point of this quirky little analysis is that getting energy from nature can enhance your thinking ability. It is temporary of course, but isn’t it nice to keep an edge and always be your best?

May the qi be with you!

Ratios & Metrics in my personal social media adventure

September 20, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Analytics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

It always interests me to understand how much I invest in building a particular medium, and how much I can get out of it. I have been working on a few Twitter profiles for years. My largest has about 9000 followers, and we get about 1.5 clicks per tweet assuming those tweets are not during the middle of the night. Sure, there are optimal times in the day for tweeting, but I can only do it when I can.

Twitter click/tweet ratio
What I learned is that it takes me about 15 minutes, three times a week to manage a Twitter profile and grow it by about 300 members per week. Sometimes I am busy and can only do it once, but if I do what I am supposed to, I get a new follower rate of about 400 per hour spent, and then put time into following people back, doing a little tweeting, and interacting. 400/hour is not a bad ratio. I can’t do much more than 15 minutes per session or my relevancy rate of targeting new followers becomes not worth it. Since my largest account gets 1.5 clicks per tweet, and has 9000 followers, you could say that it might take me 22 hours of labor spent slowly for several months to get 1.5 clicks per tweet. If I spent 100 hours of time, my tweet rate might go up to 7 or more depending on the relevancy rate. Another factor to consider is that my older followers might not be so active. New followers on Twitter tend to click and retweet a lot more than old ones.

With my other Twitter account I get .75 clicks per tweet with 2000 followers, so the ratio is very different because the followers were more recently acquired. Interesting data!

Google+ click/post ratio
On a brighter note, my Google+ account is getting me more like 4 clicks per post average with only 600 followers. This is a rough estimate. I’ll fine tune it once I get to about 1000 followers. It is hard to take a measurement because I don’t know how popular a particular post will be until afterwards. In any case, It is exciting to get all of these clicks.

Google plus makes it slower and harder to acquire followers. I have become good at it, but the actual physical process of implanting them in one of your circles is cumbersome as the load time is currently slow with Googleplus. On the other hand, unfollowing is easy if you remove the whole circle that particular followees are in. Five seconds, and I can delete hundreds of followees with whom that I have given a week to follow me back.

Comparison
It seems that with Twitter, I get about 1 click per 3000 newer followers per tweet, and a somewhat lesser ratio with older followers of perhaps 1 click per 6000. It might take 8 hour of labor to get 3000 followers to get that 1click/tweet ratio. With Googleplus, it takes more like one hour of labor to get perhaps only 60 followers. I can follow about 500, but only 12-15% actually follow me back. However, those 60 followers are much more valuable to me than 60 twitter followers. So, it might take 2.5 hours of labor to get 150 followers on Googleplus. Those 150 followers would get me the same click rate that 3000 recent (12 months or less) followers on Twitter would get me. However, for the sake of numbers, let me do a 100 hour guesstimate for both mediums.

100 hours of twitter: 40,000 followers: 12 clicks / tweet
100 hours on G+: 6000 followers: 40 clicks / post

This is purely an estimate though. Additionally, I will say that on on of my Google+ accounts, the length of visits is much higher than on other mediums. I got average visits of four minutes this month which is fantastic. My other Google+ account (for notary work) got slightly above average for minutes per visit which is also encouraging.

Based on inconclusive evidence, it seems that Google+ might be a much more efficient medium for getting clicks than Twitter, although Facebook is still the king of social media as far as vast volumes of clicks is concerned. Also, don’t overlook Twitter for SEO value as it can be the most effective tool if you get in depth interactions with others or high quantities of retweets!

Offshoring & Outsourcing — why does it happen and is it worth it?

September 20, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles, Popular on Twitter, Semi-Popular | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Do you have a company that needs to outsource part of its busy work to another company to save time? It is hard hiring staff to do odds and ends, or busy work in America. Costs are high, people are lazy, and then you have to deal with payroll taxes, unemployment taxes, EDD, and more! What a pain!

The government doesn’t get it.
If they really want to stop all of the offshoring that is going on, instead of having RULES that stifle offshoring, they need to have incentives for INSHORING (if that is a word). All of these taxes, payroll rules, and minimum wages create high unemployment and make it risky to hire anyone. Labor laws make it difficult to fire someone without risking being sued for wrongful termination as well. If you combine all of these factors with the laziness and disrespect which is part of the modern American culture — a logical person will draw only one conclusion: Take it overseas — and fast!

In foreign countries, people ACTUALLY want to work.
I know this might sound hard to believe, but it is true, and I am an eye witness. People overseas might not have the work skills or communication skills that you want, but you can get lots of work done really cheap if you know who to go to and how to handle them.

Offshoring takes skill
Many Americans are afraid to outsource because they are afraid of what people in foreign countries will do with their work. This is a legitimate fear. There is an abundance of sloppy and unprofessional behavior. It can get so unprofessional that you will say, “What is wrong with these people?” frequently. However, if you find the right people who really want to work (sort through them), you will find that you can get work done at 20% of the cost, and often much faster than you could get it done here. In addition to needing skills picking a company, you need to know how to HANDLE them. I have taken many rick shaw rides in India, and you have to know all of their tricks and how to manipulate them instead of letting them screw you. Either you have to be a player, or you will get played. Overseas companies can be very unresponsive and uncooperative, not to mention sloppy. You need to know when to bribe them, when to threaten them, and when to pack up and leave them. It is a lot like how dating is if you live in a low income neighborhood. It is a jungle out there, so if you want to thrive, you need to know how to play the game.

Don’t fear foreigners — You can get screwed right here on domestic soil
The typical white American feels so comfortable with other white Americans and so uncomfortable when in a foreign environment. Your feelings have very little to do with reality. Sure, if your senses tell you that an individual is trouble, you very well might be right, but outsourcing is not something to fear — it is something to master. I have dealt with many American companies. Although they are more professional on the surface, they are notorious for not returning calls, not returning emails, keeping you waiting indefinately, and even outright cheating clients out of thousands. Remember: when you get screwed in India you get screwed out of Rupees (2 pennies per rupee). When you get screwed in America by middle class white Americans and you can lose thousands. The scale of proportion is very different and you can lose big right at home. People here cheat all the time. My personal experience is that you will get screwed twice as much in India as you will here, but the one time you get screwed here will be of a monetary value of 10x what you got taken for in India.

Basically, I recommend trying to do some outsourcing and offshoring. Start on a small scale and try some companies out until you find someone you like. If later on, they are too busy or become uncooperative, you can try some others out. In the long run, if you learn how to play the game, you will increase your profit margin in ways that you might previously have thought were unimaginable.

You might also like:

An emotional experience with a Russian outsourcing company
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/18/an-emotional-experience-with-a-russian-software-outsourcing-company/

Are you dealing with a broker or an owner?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/16/are-you-dealing-with-a-broker-or-an-owner/