Monthly Archives: September 2015

Using Linked In to network for your BPO or Call Center

September 29, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center, Marketing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

It is not easy to promote your call center and gain clients. You can cold call companies, promote a web site or use social media. There are so many social media sites out there it is hard to know which one is the right one. For business, LinkedIn has some definitive advantages.

The average LinkedIn member has an average yearly household income of $109,000
50% of LinkedIn members have decision-making authority for their companies.

But, how do you use LinkedIn for your call centers?

Create a profile
You need to create a LinkedIn company page. Make sure you fill the page in very completely with all of your background professional information and every pertinent fact about your company.

Post regular updates
You can post regular updates on your profile about what you are working on at the moment.

Connect by Networking
One way to gain new contacts on LinkedIn is to contact relevant people who follow your contacts. It’s easier to make a new contact if you have some common ground.

Participate in Groups
You can join up to fifty LinkedIn groups and participate in call center discussions. You can also provide good answers to other people’s questions. Being regularly seen helps, but being seen as a reliable source of intelligent commentary and knowledge helps even more.

LinkedIn Advertising
We tried LinkedIn Advertising for my discussion group. We did get new followers, but the cost was not cheap. It was $2 per click and we got a new follower for every $12-14 we spent which was not terrible, but not really cost effective.

Paid Memberships
LinkedIn limits the quantity of professionals that you can contact in a month. So, unless you have twenty profiles you use together, you can’t contact that many people. Paid memberships let you contact more people to network with.

Start a Group
In outsourcing, most of the groups have job postings. Our LinkedIn group has a lot of interesting outsourcing and business discussions.

What is a follower on LinkedIn worth comparatively?
I run 17 social media campaigns and I am constantly trying to figure out what a follower is worth. I can measure click patterns and see how many of them like particular blog articles. However, the actual human beings doing the clicks from LinkedIn are much more influential and hence could be considered to be of a higher value than perhaps a Twitter click to my site. How much more valuable is a LinkedIn click than a Twitter or Facebook click? I would tend to say more, but how much more is hard to say. If you compare various social networks, compare the costs of developing a group that will give you 1000 clicks a month to your blog or site. It might take a much higher quantity of followers to get the same result on Twitter, but might be easier to attain those followers. The math is complicated. But, if you want to get ahead in networking, you need to be able to identify the most time effective methods and avenues of promoting your call centers!

LinkedIn is not big on outsourcing
Keep in mind that there are not many outsourcers using LinkedIn and they are not at all interactive. To market your call center or BPO you need to find regular business owners who could be in any field that might need your services. Get to know them and see if they have an interest in trying you out.

Interesting Startups from around the globe

September 27, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Semi-Popular, Startups | Tagged | Leave a comment

Startups are a huge topic of conversation with young people today and on Social Media. I also find startups interesting as I have created many businesses in my short life, and a few of them have been very successful as well. Chinese investors are going all over the globe including places like Israel, Boulder, CO, and others to capitalize on venture capitalism involving startups.

After you see the various names of new companies, you might ask yourself: does it help to have a goofy sounding name if you are a startup? I think we all know what the answer is!

OurCrowd
OurCrowd from Israel helps regular affluent people invest in startups with the same verms that top venture capitalists get. By utlizing crowdsourcing, they are helping smaller investors capitalize on early stage wealth creation.

LafaLafa
This Indian startup sells mobile first coupons and has a cash-back app. It was chosen for the 500 startups accelerator programme which is one of the best accelerators in the world

Rubicon Global
Leonardo Dicaprio just invested in this trash startup. They use software to manage a network of independent waste haulers that bid on picking up trash from convenience stores and other types of businesses as well. I guess there’s truth the the saying, “There’s money in muck.”

IronSource
This company helps mobile developers find clients and find advertising for their apps. This Israeli company already has half a billion users per months.

Zutalabs
This Israeli company has a palm sized printer that walks across a piece of paper printing text on it.

Elio Motors
Elio Motoers is a top 2015 automotive startup. They make three wheeled vehicles and will be on display at the next Los Angeles Auto Show in November.

YotPo
Yotpo helps eCommerce sites fill their review sections with genuine reviews. They send an email to customers right after they bought a product and have technology to make it a snap for them to write reviews from their smartphones.

ShoeKicker
This deal hunting startup ranks particular models of running shoes by price. A shopper can quickly find out where they can get the best price at the moment.

Percentil
This European used clothing startup specilializes in “nearly new” clothing as well as coordinating pick up and delivery. They are a great alternative if you are fed up with the other startup ThredUp.

How do you inspire people who do boring BPO jobs?

September 20, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Motivation, Semi-Popular | Leave a comment

This must be the world’s oldest question besides the whole chicken and the egg paradigm. How do you inspire people to do boring jobs? In the real world, not all of us can do interesting jobs. We can not all be doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs. In fact, most Indian chiefs got out of the market when the business went South a few decades ago. Many of us have to do repetitive phone calls, data entry, check lists, and other boring back office work. So, what is the secret to making it tolerable or even fun.

Many of the larger call centers have mastered this art by having regular competitions, fun activities, and excursions. But, we can’t all do excursions all the time, especially when we are tied down by families.

Keeping the work place fun and positive is a good start. Even if your job is boring, if the job environment is pleasant or fun, that makes it all the better. Contests and competitions make things interesting too. Having group meals can give a sense of belonging as well. Seeing an opportunity for long term career advancement should also be on the horizon. People want to know that they can move ahead in the world. Another motivation technique is to let people know the bigger picture of how important their work is, who it affects and how. Many workers simply have no clue as to how their work affects the world until they screw up and get blamed for inconveniencing 10,000 people in some huge way! It is better to let them know in a positive way before they screw up!

On the other hand, the simple act of appreciation goes a long way. A simple, “nice job!” or other act of recognition goes a long way. A pat on the back (don’t try this in India with the females.) Just don’t get too carried away with the pats or you might go from having unmotivated employees to having sexual harassment lawsuits! Good God!

How to use the right keywords in your blog titles that lead to instant popularity

September 17, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Using the right keywords is like having a magic key that opens the door to winning over the hearts of the readers in the blogosphere.

I have written a few thousand blog articles in my career. I’m by no means a professional writer or anything close to it. But, I spend a lot of time looking at google analytics. I use Google analytics, and also try to figure out what works in the Twittersphere as well as the Blogosphere. I used to think that writing interesting articles that were akin to the interests of your audience was the secret. I was wrong! Yes, you need to understand your audience and what your audience responds to, but keywords make all the difference.

Positive Keywords
The guy at the coffee shop in my neighborhood is so interesting. I was talking to him about keywords today. We must have talked about over a hundred topics so far since I’ve known him. I said that the word “fail” doesn’t work with my crowd. He said that the under 18 crowd loves the word fail. They’re only interested in watching people screw up, or fall off their skateboard. But, my audience doesn’t respond well to this word. I won’t get retweeted, and people won’t click on my blog. If I use fail — I fail. On the other hand, if I use the tag #failure on Twitter in a blog about #success, that seems to be okay assuming it is accompanied by some more positive tags too. In short, I learned that my crowd liked words like millionaire, CEO, success, expand, grow, best, good, etc.

How To Themes
In addition to being perpetually positive, my crowd loves nothing more than how to blogs. They run businesses (or want to) and want to know how I think they should create and grow their business. If I have one hundred different marketing techniques, they will read each one if I phrase the title correctly. The minute I’m just giving “good advice” nobody wants it, but if there is a “how to” in the title — it gets read. How to motivate, fixing mistakes and finding solutions to particular problems are blog title fragments that almost guarantee success.

Interesting Content
If every blog article you wrote started with “how to,” I think that people might get bored. But, spicing up your blog with some really interesting and unusual content is great too. Not all of us can think of zany ideas, but I have thought of a few. I wrote a piece about what it would be like if classically trained musicians ran IT companies in India. I wrote another about what it would be like to have your office in the Himalayas. Ideas come when they come, but my audience eats up these interesting ideas. If you have some cool rule of thumb that is easy to remember, that will win over readers too. I wrote a piece about the 2 minute contact rule. It was easy to understand the concept, plus it was catchy.

Pairing Strategies
Using language in a fun way wins over readers too. I wrote a piece called:
The pen is mightier than the sword; But, is flogging mightier than blogging?
The title caught on right away, especially after the drama in Saudi Arabia where a blogger disrespected Islam and was going to get a whooping. I wrote another title called: Good Sign; Bad Sign — what to look for in newly hired workers. Once again another pairing strategy that caught everyone’s eyes.

Relatable Content
If you write a blog article and the readers say, “You’re preaching to the choir!” Then, you have got the right idea. People love to read about someone else having the same problem that they have. If you write about stress to an audience of stressed out maniacs, they’ll love you for it. If you write about job training where your readers are younger workers who need training, they will relate right away. Sometimes I write about my personal experience and start the article with the word “diary.” This is a strategy that works well too.

What Doesn’t Work?
Writing about negative concepts, or things the audience doesn’t care about like politics, the economy, etc. (on my blog — your audience might love those topics.) If your articles are too analytical, that narrows down the audience who care to think that intricately. Additionally, if you write about boring and nagging topics, only dentists and grammar teachers will want to read it. Sometimes ideas that are too goofy backfire too. Humor as a rule is good in writing, but if you use it in a way your audience doesn’t like, then you wasted a good joke on a bad audience!

Pimp my Tweet – a BPO company specializing in Twitter

September 16, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO, Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I remember the MTV show long time ago called, Pimp My Ride. But, how come there is no agency that can help give tweets a makeover? Most people write boring tweets that could stand a lot of improvement. There are after all 140 characters and endless tag variations to work with. With all of this flexibility, why is it that most people can’t tweet? Even the biggest profiles that I follow that have over a million followers write very dull tweets. They tweet the title of their blog instead of working some magic out of it most of the time. And when they do rephrase the tweet based on some juicy internal content, it still isn’t all that.

Here is some sales literature from a fictional India based social media BPO company.

Pimp My Tweet BPO Pvt. Ltd.

Tired of the same old lame-ass tweets?
It’s time to put some style in your Twitter handle.
Here is what our experts recommend!

If the tweet don’t flow — then it must go
If the tweet ain’t hype, you must retype
If the link don’t fit, you must find wit
If you put your tag in the wrong spot—good job – Not!

For the dopest, phattest tweets around, come to Pimp My Tweet BPO.

(ring, ring)

SUJATA: Thank you for calling Pimp My Tweet BPO, this is Sujata, how may I help you?

CLIENT: Yes, my Tweets are quite boring actually. I was hoping that you could help.

SUJATA: Yes, we can help jazz up your tweets. Let me take a look…. (pause) Oh, I see the problem.

CLIENT: Were you able to take a look at my work?

SUJATA: Yes. It is not (pause) bad… But, it is too straight. You just tweet straight facts and basic sentences. You need to put some play in yo jive.

CLIENT: Wait a second. You are located in Bangalore, and you know 1970’s Bronx street slang?

SUJATA: Well, it’s actually a problem you see. If aunty ever finds out I work for a company whose title includes the name pimp, I’m in huge trouble. I have rehearsed what I’m going to tell her if there is a problem. It is a typo, and it was supposed to be “Pin My Tweet” — on Pinterest, you know. Aunty is used to typos, they make a lot of them where she works.

CLIENT: Got it. I know how that is. I was at a hamburger spot in Chennai called Mary Brown, and they spelled Mary like Marry which means to have a wedding, etc., if it has two r’s. Comical actually.

SUJATA: You sound like a character. Which makes you 139 short of a full tweet. Well Anyway, you basically need to put some strut to get out of your rut. Do some jive to get out of your hive, and most of all — don’t tag outside your territory, or that could cause a turf war.

CLIENT: Oh, you mean graffiti? Well, the internet isn’t like that.

SUJATA: I know that, but we are trying to appeal to New York Street sensibilities. Our clients grew up on the streets of New York. Generally on more affluent streets if they can afford us, but nonetheless they would be familiar with street culture.

CLIENT: The other companies can barely function in English, but you know our slang — at least the antiquated slang.

SUJATA: We aim(s) to please! And we’ll make your dull Twitter handle into the hippest, coolest, dopest account in Twitter history. Just give us a chance. We offer samples of our work for a low introductory offer. After that we have a contract for a monthly arrangement. 60 tweet revisions per month for one low price of rps3000 / month which is only about $60. And we have a viral surcharge. If any of our tweets go viral, we expect a generous tip.

CLIENT: You’ll get tips, referrals and more if you help me go viral. Thanks a bunch. I look forward to you guys pimping my tweets. Just don’t get up on my honeys.

SUJATA: Oh, no we wouldn’t think of it. And one more thing.

CLIENT: Yes

SUJATA: If you meet aunty on any subsequent trips to Chennai, please don’t mention that I work here. Let’s keep it between you and me. Can you dig it?

CLIENT: Yes, I dig.

Do you have the Rupee mentality?

September 13, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

I know many people who think small.
They think I am foolish because I don’t care that I wasted four dollars on parking or spent too much on my sea bass soy paper roll at Sushi Unico. However, the way I think is just a matter of scale. In my opinion I still think small. As a child, my father was very frugal and counted every penny. I grew up being very concerned over small things. If I lose a pencil at school or wasted a single sheet of paper, I would be very upset. As I grew older, I grew out of this mentality despite constant bickering and protest from my miserly father. The important thing to understand is that the scale of your thoughts influence and affect the scale of your achievement as well. If you only think about the small things, you can never achieve big things. My father went to MIT and Harvard, got the best grades possible, and did well in his career. But, he thought on a micro level and is retiring on a very limited budget — but, comfortably. His mother also thought small and worked hard her entire life to retire on a very tight budget. She was educated and had good jobs her entire life. And yes, she survived until the end, but counting each penny the entire journey on an almost impossibly tight budget.

A story of two identical guys
There was a story that was told to me at Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles. Kabbalah is a spiritual side of Judaism and also currently a sect of Judaism that has an orthodox, yet spiritual interpretation of religion, life and just about everything else. The story was about two almost identical guys. They both were the same age, the same height, and the same IQ. They went to the same type of schools, studied the same topics, and everything else was similar. Their parents had the same type of background, similar incomes, and similar education. One of the guys made a comfortable income his entire life. But, the other became a billionaire! What’s the difference you might ask? One thought big. The average guy just wanted an average life. He could not think beyond what other people were doing. He didn’t think it was possible to become extraordinary. But, the rich guy had a burning desire to be amazing and believed it was possible. He envisioned huge success and worked constantly for that goal.

Losing track of priorities in business
When we do business, we can easily be distracted by one hundred things. There are so many things to pay attention to in our business. There are personal things like family, health, entertainment, social engagements, etc. With a hundred things constantly grabbing our attention daily, it is only natural that we spend a lot of our time thinking about things that are small, or at least not the most important. Business people in India think about their image, whether they get enough praise and respect from their customers and workers, etc. In India, they will think all day if they are paying Rahul a few Rupees more than he is worth for his call center work. They will think if the light bill is too high, and if that Rick Shaw Walla ripped him off. Sure, I think about the same things. Maybe Rajesh took an hour off and billed you for it. Maybe Sangita was on a phone call to her mother on company time. If you spend all day thinking about these things — you have the rupee mentality. In business, you need to try to focus on the bigger priorities which often don’t have analytics. Do your workers have good mojo? What does that mean? Do they have good drive, good energy, and do they gravitate or repulse your clients? It doesn’t matter how little you pay someone, if they lose you clients, they are a disaster. If you pay another guy too much, but he keeps attracting new clients, maybe you should pay him more instead of complaining. Did you miss an important marketing idea or opportunity because you spend an hour arguing with someone over a bill? Did you calculate your loss from getting stuck in traffic yesterday? Instead, spend a little more time staying late in the office to get some critical tasks done. Or spend an hour identifying which of your several dozen tasks is the most important and why.

The point to remember
I have written several quick articles on the Rupee mentality. I didn’t realize that I used that exact phrase twice in a title by accident. Now, I’m using it a third time since it is a catchy phrase that did well. But, the point of this article is to identify priorities and then focus on them. My Guru says, “Focus on priorities and forget the rest.” When you are a busy guy, you have to forget a lot of things otherwise 24 hours a day just isn’t enough. The second point is to dream big and envision your dreams coming through. I’m not saying not to argue over bills or waste time thinking about how the cab company charged you for too much waiting time. Just keep that stuff out of your head for the most part so you can focus on the thoughts that are going to get you your billion dollar empire!

My story — from dreamer to workaholic.
As I progress and evolve on the complicated path of my business, I realize that I want to grow, and that I am growing. The hard part is that I have no idea what I am going to evolve into. I see multiple paths that I could go down, and it is hard to see how they unfold. I agree with myself that I should spend more time meditating on those possible outcomes to strengthen them as well as meditating on huge financial success. Some people spend too much time dreaming. When I was younger I did lots of dreaming and not enough hard work. As I realized that extra hard work had to be done every day, I stopped dreaming enough. We all need to develop that balance of working the right amount and dreaming the right amount. But, when you are dreaming — don’t dream of Rupees, dream of Crores! Don’t dream of pennies, dream of billions!

You might also like:

Think big, but start small in business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/10/14/think-big-but-start-small-in-business/

How to expand your thinking in business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/11/14/how-do-you-expand-your-thinking-in-business/

Jeremy’s 11 tips for better business decision making
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/29/jeremys-11-tips-for-better-business-decision-making/

Best Motivational Quotes

September 10, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Motivation, Quotes, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Do what you’ve always done and you’ll get what you have always got.” — Sue Knight

“Winners don’t do different things; They do things differently” — Anonymous

“A journey of a thousand li begins with a single step.” — Lao Tze

“A journey to attain 1000 social media followers begins with a single stumble” — disgruntled Stumbleupon member

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it” — Henry David Thoreau

“If you are willing to do more than you are paid to do, eventually you will be paid to do more than you do.” — Anonymous

“Don’t hate the playa, hate the game” — Unknown Rap Artist (sorry, had to add that one)

“Whenever you see a successful person, you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.” — Vaibhav Shah

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin

“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.” — Bruce Feirstein

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out” — Robert Collier

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.” — Jim Rohn

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison

“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential” — John Maxwell.

“I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself” — Robert E Lee.

“There is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Both are based on authority. A boss demands blind obedience; a leader earns his authority through understanding and trust” — Klaus Balkenhol.

“It is often the case that the person with the most authority in an organization speaks the least” — Myself

“He who conquers others achieves some success; But, he who conquers himself achieves the highest level of success” — Myself

The difference between a successful person and a very successful person is that a very successful person says no a higher percentage of the time — Concept from Warren Buffet

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” — Albert Einstein

“Leadership is an action, not a position” — Donald McGannon

“Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar” — Orrin Woodward.

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” — Peter F. Drucker.

You become what you meditate upon. If you meditate on wealth, you’ll attain it. If you meditate on God, you’ll attain God. But, if you practice levitation instead of meditation, you’ll be in danger of being reincarnated as a bird! — Concept from spiritual Masters in India.

“Peace comes from within” — said by many Gurus in India

Who are your best business connections? They are not who you think!

September 8, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing, Popular on Twitter | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I am sitting here doing my monthly article reading. I pour through dozens of interesting (and a few not so interesting) business articles to find interesting content to write about. Well, here on Harvard Business Review I’m reading about how dangerous it is to assume your career is safe. I think it is dangerous to assume anything is safe. In this world, nothing is constant except change — and my Guru says we have to wait for change!

But, your best business contacts may not be who you think they are. Your family, close friends, schoolmates, and close associates at work might not be your best contacts. In a sense it is unpredictable who your best contacts are, and one may be great at one point in your career while another might be good at another time.

It is often the case that your best business contacts are people who you have known for years, but with weak ties. Maybe a customer who you had slightly longer and more interesting conversations with, or a vendor’s assistant who was a little more knowledgeable or interesting. That winning connection could be anyone. Perhaps it pays to keep a database of your interesting connections and try to develop slightly less weak ties with them. You never know what could happen. I met some of the most interesting industry related people I know on Twitter. Unfortunately, they were anti-social and the relationships didn’t last. Maybe I should go back to hanging around at coffee houses — those coffee house types never get tired of yapping with me!

You might also like:

My favorite business dream was about lions and giraffes
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/01/23/the-best-business-dream-i-ever-had-was-about-lions-giraffes/

Steve Jobs Principle — the more people you network with outside your field
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/08/28/outsource-steve-jobs-principle-the-more-people-you-network-w-outside-your-field/

You don’t get to the next level in business by being in a hurry
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/11/13/you-dont-get-to-the-next-level-in-business-by-being-in-a-hurry/

Should you work for a startup to learn how they operate?

September 5, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Popular on Twitter, Startups | Leave a comment

Portrait of a startup
I have a friend who wants to start a business. But, he wants to know how other startups do things. There is a certain energy at startups that is contagious — a zeal, a passion, a certain “je ne sais quoi.” The problem with startups is that the people running them don’t always have solid business experience. They are also working on a limited budget and don’t always have the best resources for hiring the right people. There will normally be one or two very talented people who have amazing skills, but are winging it as far as business predictions, human resources, and management are concerned.

Casual is good!
Startups are also fun because they are often casual, have a lot of younger energetic people, and have room for fast job advancement. If the company doesn’t fold, you’ll probably be promoted to Vice President the minute the boss can put someone under you!

Fixed routines might not exist
Companies that are venturing out into new directions are very different from long established companies with set routines and set procedures. I remember when I started my company how I changed my techniques for doing everything. My programmers and employees got really upset. They had just learned my methods, and then I changed them just like that. Being frustrated with change is not a good way to start if you want to work at a startup. You need to embrace change, and also understand the reasoning behind the changes (if there is any.) Additionally, your job description might need to include “other things.” The boss might not be able to afford a full time janitor or social media expert, so you might have to do both when you are not in marketing, you’re in management. If your tech genious quits, you might find yourself in HR when you signed up for a job in sales. If the company grows, but you haven’t yet moved into your new office, you might be stuffed in the corner. But, it’s all good, because this is part of the overall excitement of working for a startup. Personally, I love it.

Learning from the pros
If you want to learn from seasoned business people, the management teams at Coca Cola or Toyota are who I would sign up to learn from. Although they are far from startups, they have the most innovative, top notch managers that you can get. They have had to deal with more complicated situations, growth issues, marketing issues, and tactical situations than you can imagine. Those managers come up with smooth and well thought out solutions to any type of problem while managers at small businesses are often very limited in their thinking — especially if they have no experience like in many startups. Sure, working for a startup might be exciting, but learning from people who are competent is also exciting if you don’t mind being around suits all day long. My psychic and I channeled twenty companies using “magical” means (consciousness.) The results that we found were that the best business advice that we got came from seasoned pros. Organizations like Harvard or Hyundai were light years more sophisticated during the channeling than newly mushroomed companies like Uber or Twitter. My personal experience sounds very bizarre (and it is,) but try to think a little more deeply about the situation. Do you want to learn management skills from someone sound or someone who lacks a stable foundation? Who do you think you’ll learn more from? Personally, I feel you should try it both ways as you will learn different things from each experience.

The failure rate is high
Most startups do not succeed in the long run. There is a lot that can go wrong and many factors that will be out of your control. People who make the most money in business are able to perform a service or create a product that is better than anyone else’s. How can you possible be better when your company has no experience? However, if the owner of the company has twenty years experience working in robotics and your startup is in robotics, then you have a fighting chance since your skills are not just starting up.

If you don’t have the complete skillset
Many people dream about doing business. I once dreamed about it to. Now, I’m really “in business” as my friend Steve used to say with emphasis. The reality is not so glamerous. I need to do twenty types of tasks every day. If I only did nineteen out of the twenty, my business wouldn’t stay afloat. People I hire only want to do one or two tasks. When you ask them to do three, they start complaining. The lady who does incoming calls complains if she has to do outgoing. The lady who does over the phone testing doesn’t want to do social media. The person who likes social media, doesn’t want to write blogs. I have to do all of these things and more — and be good at all of them or I am out of business. If you are serious about working for a startup, you have to multi-task and be good at all of your tasks. If you start your own startup, then you have to do more than multi-task or you are out of business.

Think positively
If you do a good job, you might be the next Google, Uber, Baidu, or Facebook. So, work hard, try hard, and even if things don’t go as expected, you will learn a lot. Stay thirsty for success my friends!

You might also like:

What does Mark Cuban say about startups?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/12/04/what-does-mark-cuban-say-about-startups/

Should established companies create startups?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/12/should-established-companies-create-startups/

Interesting startups from around the globe
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/09/27/interesting-startups-from-around-the-globe/

How women can get even with men in the workplace

September 2, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Popular on Twitter | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

In the real world, there seems to be very little fairness. This is why I generally recommend that minorities learn to be good at creating their own businesses. That way they get paid much closer to what they are worth without all of the discrimination and affirmative action. Women seem to also always be held back in the workplace due to preconceived notions. However, there are many things women have in their advantage that can help them get even.

(1) Patience is a virtue
Young men are known to lack patience. Men want to get ahead, and fast. Many find it painstaking to endure a boring job for years in order to get a good reputation with their company. Women tend to be more willing to pay their dues and take promotions as they come. Try to capitalize on your patience as a woman.

(2) Building relationships
Women are better at building and maintaining relationships than men. If your job involves managing clients or suppliers, it is in your interests to do an outstanding job and make it so those clients only want to talk to you — and not the boss. That way you have power as you become somewhat irreplaceable.

(3) Unvirtue may not be a virtue, but women do it anyway?
Many unvirtuous women sleep their way to the top. Personally I think this is very immoral, but people do all types of immoral things without batting an eyelash. If you and some chauvinistic guy are stuck in the mailroom as your job, and you use your charms to get a management position during your first year at the company — you can go back to the mailroom to taunt that male chauvinist and show him who got ahead in the long run. Or, as the case may be who got ahead in the short run.

(4) Being less threatening.
Bosses are tired of workers who have all types of demands and who threaten. Of course in the real world, women can be very manipulative and threatening. But, many women are not. So, you can capitalize on being loyal and non-threatening. Your boss will like that and in the long run if you have job smarts, that could help you move up the ladder.

(5) The art of subtle manipulation
In management, getting other people to do what they are supposed to is hard. Although women typically are not respected as authorities no matter how assertive they are (proven fact, not just making this up) women are often good at sweet talking people into doing what they are supposed to. When I need the programmers to get off their rear and fix something, I have to ask ten times. When my female assistant sweet talks them, she only has to ask once and they do it. Hmmm. If a woman knows how to sweet talk, and makes sure things get done, she could be a superstar in management and get ahead of the aggressive guys.

Summary
Well, that’s it for now. Women face the glass ceiling in the work place, but if they use their female charms to their advantage, they can get a significant lead over men in ways you can’t even imagine. Instead of complaining about gender bias, use what you have and combine it with responsible business behavior, and you a good chance to get ahead of the boys.

You might also like:

Is it safe for women to take cabs in India?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/22/is-it-safe-for-women-to-take-cabs-in-india/

7 rules for women entrepreneurs to live by
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/30/7-rules-for-women-entrepreneurs-to-live-by/

Women programmers in the US and India
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/17/women-programmers-in-india-and-the-u-s/

Do you come off the right way to others?

September 1, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Leave a comment

Many of us live in paranoia that we will say the wrong thing and become socially ostracized. In America this is a realistic fear. Others are quick to point the finger at us an make false accusations simply because we said something that “could” be interpreted the wrong way even if there is no proof or likelihood that we meant what we said with negative intentions. India and Asian countries might be more forgiving in this respect depending on the context. Culture is a complicated topic, but let’s stick to the basics here. This article is not about culture, but about personality!

None of us come across the way we want to when interacting with others. We are simply not paying attention, or simply don’t see ourselves the way the other person does. Perhaps you use nice words but avoid eye contact. Or, perhaps you say things that could be interpreted as negative when you meant them as positive. Or perhaps you are too paranoid to say anything of substance. Americans tend to be super busy and keep conversations short to the point that you feel they don’t like you. In India, many people are so lackadaisical (yes, this means you) that they come across as not giving a damn. The Chinese are uptight and spastic in their interactions. Hey! I thought this was not going to be about culture!

I guess in this multi-cultural world, different cultures come across differently. Maybe I’m highlighting some critical cultural points in terms of how we come across.

In any case, in business, the main point is to come across as someone who is responsible, solid, caring, competent, and friendly — but, not too friendly — caring, but not mushy, solid, but not inflexible. I think you get the point. When you talk to clients, try to sense how they react to how you communicate. You’ll master the art of coming off the right way if you do this.

Another interesting point is to help the other person loosen up. I often start business calls off with jokes that worked well in the past. Remember, that jokes can backfire, so pick ones that have a proven track record.

“Hi, this is Frank from XYZ company. I’m calling to check your information on file and verify that you are a real person.”

Since there are so many fake people out there on the internet, most people laugh when I ask to verify that they are a real person. Adding little quirks to your interaction that you may never have thought of can often work wonders and soften situations that can be stressful under normal situations.