Category Archives: Of Interest

Outsourcing your government bond purchases?

February 14, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

If you are looking to invest, international bonds are an interesting investment. Stocks can crash, and stock markets are intrinsically unstable. Long term bonds on the other hand fluctuate with interest rates. Buying long term bonds is a type of financial gambling, but if those bonds are a mixture of international bonds with different maturity dates managed by a professional company, does that make them safer? In my opinion, there is still risk, but a whole lot less risk in that case.

One interesting thing I noticed is that the “safe” countries to invest in are not necessarily that safe. The United States has a relatively low rate of return on bonds, yet we came close to defaulting on bond payments during our government shut-down. Other wealthy countries have low long term bond rates of about 4% or less. In the long run, the debt ratio of these countries could get out of hand, long before your maturity date!

When my investor friend goes out with an older woman, he calls it a “Maturity date.”

Risky countries might not be as risky as people think as well. Look at Kenya, Brazil, South Africa, and Russia. They have long term bond rates from 7% to 12%. When was the last time they defaulted? How high are their debt ratios (not high at all). Do these countries have much civil unrest? Africa used to be a very unstable place twenty years ago, but recently, there are relatively few coups, riots, and rebel uprisings. Somalia seems to be lagging behind from this point of view. Egypt has some serious recent uprisings. Kenya had a small massacre. But, compared to twenty years ago, Africa is safe enough to merit more investment than it gets. Brazil and Russia have their share of trouble, but they are not countries that are going to go under either.

On a more confusing note, look at Iceland and Greece. They were going bankrupt a few years ago, and now you just don’t hear about them in the news. What happened? Their interest rates on long term bonds are around 6-8% which is a lot less than many other countries that never came close to default.

The moral of the story is that we live in a confusing world. If you buy bonds and interest rates go up, you will lose principal. But, if your bonds are overseas, their interest rates in the respective countries might not go up when America’s does which gives you more of a hedge against market instability. Good luck!

Tweets:
(1) International bonds might be stable when stocks crash. A great diversification!

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Should your company try a shutdown?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/02/15/should-your-company-try-a-shutdown/

Where is Warren Buffet investing his money?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/02/21/where-is-warren-buffet-investing-his-money/

Is bigger always better in business?

February 11, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Indians always think that bigger is better. If you have a JOB at a MNC in their BPO division, then you can marry any girl you want and your life is set. You either have to be a manager at a small company, or work at a big company.

But, after calling large companies all last week, I discovered that the people working there were almost all incompetent. I called smaller companies and there was a sense of function. Not all the people were smart, but you could always reach an intelligent and caring person without too much trouble.

I think we need to get out of the habit of thinking that a particular size, location, or look is better. Let’s just look at what a company is, who is there, what they do, and how they do it. Kabbalah, the Jewish brand of spirituality talks a lot about consciousness. To me, the consciousness of a place, house, business, person, group, or state is the most important thing. You might meet someone who is wealthy, but who has a bad consciousness. Another person might be smart, but crooked or careless. Some people think a lot about words while others preoccupy on artistic matters. Many people are brain-dead and think about nothing all day long.

Take a deeper look at companies. Try to see how they tick. Don’t judge by size. But, there is more. Companies have a sort of personality. Putting aside whether a company is better or not, certain personalities will gel with you. If you are working for, working with, or hiring a company, it is so critical to be compatible with them. Spend some time getting to know people. Don’t be in a hurry to calculate how much you will make or spend. See if you are getting along naturally with them. Ask yourself if you would want to have dinner with any of these people. If the answer is yes, then they might be a potential match for you.

Remember: Bigger isn’t necessarily better. Better isn’t always better either. It is about a happy match of people with the right consciousness that counts in the end!

Tweets:
(1) Bigger isn’t always better. But, better isn’t always better either. It’s about compatibility!
(2) Big companies in India make it like pulling teeth to talk to a competent person!
(3) Don’t judge a company by its size but its personality. Kinda like dating.
(3) Bigger companies aren’t necessarily better. It’s whether you click. If not, hang up and let them hear ‘click’.
(4) Don’t judge a company by its size but its personality. Kinda like dating. But if blind date has “great personality,” beware their size! (retweeted already)

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You are as good as your worst employee
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/23/an-outsourcing-company-is-as-good-as-its-worst-worker/

The 2% rule; Only 2% of companies are worth hiring
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/21/the-2-rule-only-2-of-companies-are-worth-hiring/

I fantasized about having my own nation. But, without land?

January 29, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I always dream about having my own dictatorship. I have neither the money, nor the skill to create or run such a place. Maybe I need to visit Arabia and befriend a bored Sheikh who wants to be my partner. But, then it would be THEIR dictatorship which would ruin all the fun. They would get to say, “Off with his head”, but I wouldn’t… damn-it… Not to mention Islamic law which prohibits Cabernet Sauvignon which is another deal breaker. Hmmm.

But, what about starting a country without GPS coordinates. That solves more problems than you think. Most countries have to own and occupy land. You have to either buy it, inherit it, or steal it. Land doesn’t come cheap these days. The only way to get cheap land is to have a boat and hope that Atlantis resurfaces after 12,000 years under water. Think positively — it could happen. The only realistic way to get land these days is to spend a few million or billion and buy it in the Caribbean, or South Pacific.

The next consideration is securing your land. If you have a country, you need a population, assets, and a way to protect that population and those assets. You need a military. You have to have military equipment, soldiers, training, and someone to lead the forces. Hmm, that is not exactly my forte. I would prefer to be a music critic.

Having a country that doesn’t exist solves all of these problems with one fell swoop. No land means no financial expenditure to purchase the land, and no military expenses either to secure the land. It is like a Seinfeldian dream — a country with no land! Of course with global warming and ocean levels rising, it might become a reality for Bangladesh and Louisiana.

I had this joke about the Mediterranean rising to the point where Israel was 90% under water. They had so many people that they had to build really tall buildings on the land, and the rest of the population had to live in boats on the water. So, they created a floating partition wall to separate the Jews from the Palestinians. The Jews yelled, “The water belongs to Israel!”, while the Palestinians yelled back, “No, the water belongs to Palestine!” The irony is that during the night, the partition and the boats all floated into Egyptian waters. After a long night of Debke dancing, a Palestinian boat drifted on the far side of the floating wall to the Israeli side of the wall and they got into a big argument which was settled by the Egyptian military who said, “No, you are both wrong — THIS water belongs to Egypt!”

But, getting back to the point here — a country without land would be inexpensive and fun. You could have imaginary currency, create your own passport for “Wahoogistan”, and even create your own flag! Have fun getting your passport stamped, and don’t give up your US citizenship either. The problem is getting your nation recognized. What other country wants to recognize a nobody of a country? What would you use for currency? And who would protect you if you were invaded. You need allies. For small time fries, starting your own country is not realistic, but if you ran a huge corporation, the corporation would have the funds to create a country. A corporation and a country are very similar in nature. They both have people, assets, and are a legal entity that has income and pays bills. Think about it…

Tweets:
(1) I want to have my own dictatorship, but without land for my country?
(2) I have neither the money, nor the skill to be a quality dictator. “Off with his head!”
(3) What about starting a country without GPS coordinates?
(4) If you started your own country, what would you use for currency?

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A stand up comedian at a stand up restaurant in India
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/01/05/stand-up-comedian-at-a-stand-up-restaurant-in-india/

What if classically trained musicians ran IT companies in India?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/01/01/what-if-classically-trained-musicians-ran-it-companies-in-india/

What if classically trained musicians ran IT companies in India?

January 1, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: India, Of Interest, Semi-Popular | Tagged , | Leave a comment

When you think of refinement, what type of people do you think of? Do you think of Mercedes engineers? Do you think of Samurai? Or, do you think of classically trained musicians? Think about it. If you are in a profession that requires intricacy, refinement, and mastery, a background in classical music would be a huge plus! The irony of what might really would happen would be that the musicians would bang their head against the wall in frustration when the people around them screwed everything up.

I wrote another quick article about how tabla and sitar lessons could help you succeed in business more than anything else. Well, it is true! Classical music teaches refinement, timing, grace, subtlety, and cooperation with others. What other recreation besides ninjitsu can teach you all of that?

The beauty of a classical music training during your youth is that you notice things. Your ears are tuned to hear subtle (or not so subtle) differences. You notice how different players on a team hand projects off to each other at the prescribed times — or don’t. If anyone makes an error at any stage, you notice. A classical music background can also be a detriment because you might become overly critical of the clueless morons that surround you which can drive you (and them) absolutely crazy!

If these reasons to engage in classical music are not enough, think of how nice it sounds to listen to Mozart. And besides — many do it for the wine and cheese that follows the performances!

Tweets:
(1) When you think of refinement, what type of people do you think of? Classical musicians?
(2) A classical music background is a detriment because you’ll be overly critical of the uncultured!

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Slow by good, verses fast and sloppy programmers
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/16/slow-but-good-verses-fast-sloppy-programmers/

Communication is not always possible
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/10/16/communication-is-not-always-possible/

Why your sitar & table lessons are the most important training for business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/09/why-your-sitar-tabla-lessons-are-the-most-important-training-for-business/

The Korean Work Ethic is Based on Impatience

December 31, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Korean Work ethic is based on impatience

I remember a year ago my Korean friend read me some sociological findings on Koreans. Their most distinguishing characteristic was impatience. Some say that patience is a virtue, but when you are doing business and have deadlines, you might enjoy working with Koreans. They have expectations of themselves that might be higher than what you expect from others! I have gotten tired of the American work ethic which seems to be based on broken promises and negligence. It is only the old-school Americans who believe in hard work and integrity in my experience. If you have deadlines to meet, find someone who is accurate and in more of a hurry that you.

Korea has demonstrated an uncanny ability to do things faster. Take ship building for example. They build huge ships in pieces and put them together on floating devices — seamlessly and very quickly. Their process is very innovative, and extremely reliable too. Koreans are leading the world in electronics too these days. If Koreans were doing typical outsourcing work like Data Entry, Call Center Management, or IT Outsourcing, I assure you that the rest of you guys would be out of business.

As with many Asian cultures, communication skills are rarely outstanding with Koreans, but my personal experience has been that the work gets done correctly and quickly even with some communication issues.

My Korean friend’s joke about Koreans is that when they microwave their instant noodles they stand next to the microwave counting the seconds so they can get their noodles fast. They will start stirring the noodles fresh out of the microwave instead of letting them sit for a while (like you should). Such impatience is a global anomaly, but great if you are hiring them to do work that involves deadlines! I’m going to talk some Koreans I know into going into typical outsourcing businesses. Maybe they can clean up the industry! We’ll see!

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How do big companies get big? It is not an accident!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/20/how-do-big-companies-get-big-it-is-not-an-accident/

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http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/02/02/what-is-your-management-style/

Rates for Office Space around the world compared

December 19, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Here is some 2010 data for yearly office space rates per square foot.
Please keep in mind that Class A office space in prime parts of town can often be more than double what space would cost in less expensive parts of town.

Hong Kong 161
London 130 (West End)
Tokyo 101
London 62 (Docklands)
Mumbai 60
Delhi 59
Singapore 59
New York 42 (Midtown)
Los Angeles 39
Madrid 37

I thought it would be fun to compare these rates to rates in the American South and Midwest. So, we took three sample cities and compared them. It seems that America could compete well in outsourcing simply because the infrastructure is better here, labor is more skilled, and office space is a bargain if you are in the right part of the country.

Koreatown Los Angeles 20-24
Rates are a lot cheaper in Koreatown than downtown. Koreatown is on Wilshire Blvd with access to buslines and even the subway making it almost as convenient as downtown. Parking rates are about $110 per month per spot in Koreatown as well making it a bargain for a commercial center in Los Angeles. So, what is the disadvantage? Offices are older, and not kept up as well as in downtown. Offices in Koreatown for lease would seldom be Class A. There are other parts of Los Angeles such as Commerce and other suburbs that have even better bargains on office space!

Little Rock, AR. 12
We read through the classifieds and found that office space here ranged from $7 psf to around $17 on a yearly basis. If you compare that to Los Angeles, that is less than half the price for Class A office space.

Oklahoma City, OK 11
Rates ranged from around $9 psf yearly to $12 ($11 average) making Oklahoma City a great place to go if you need a large office space at a good rate.

Indianapolis, IN 9
Rates Ranged from $5 psf to $15 yearly averaging about $9 psf for the advertisements we saw. This is the least expensive place we have seen to get an office. Some people think that India is less expensive than America, but one square foot in Mumbai will cost you what seven square feet will cost you in Indianapolis. If you think that India is a bargain — think again!

You might also like:

How the US can survive as a nation
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/11/how-the-u-s-can-survive-as-a-nation/

Small talk, Indians and attracting US clients
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Optimizing your Twitter PPC Campaign

December 10, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Optimizing your Twitter PPC Campaign

Many of us use Twitter, but how many of us use the pay-per-click program? It is a different animal. You have to be careful not to overspend, but also be careful about how your structure your adgroups. Twitter PPC has adgroups. You might put a bunch of different tweets in the same adgroup, or you could divide them. You can bid a different amount of cents for each adgroup. You can also bid for getting new followers. It is complicated.

My recommendations

(1) Keep separate adgroups for each tweet.
This might take more time. But, you need to see which tweets are getting clicked on, and at what price. If they are all bunched together, your google analytics will tell you which one is getting traffic — that is all you will know. If you raise the bid, then maybe the other ones will get traffic. It is complicated. If you keep your campaigns separate, then you can see the price breakdown for each tweet and see if it is worth it. You might get very cheap clicks on certain tweets which might do miracles for whatever those tweets link to. If a particular tweet doesn’t get many clicks, you can abandon promoting that particular tweet. My experience is that you should choose your tweets carefully before submitting them. Of the ones you think might do well, only 20% will actually do well. But, 20% is enough. As time goes on you can continue testing new tweets to see how they do.

(2) Paying for followers
It is hard to know what a follower is really worth. For each 1000-4000 followers, you might get a single click for each link you put in a tweet. That is not a good average. This is why you need huge volume to do well on Twitter. You also need really interesting content. Most Twitter followers are extremely dormant and are following so many people that they are not paying attention to any of them! You can start bidding low for followers and see how many you get. If you don’t get too many, then experiment bidding higher. Keep records of how you did at various levels. Stay at each price break for a week before going to the next level and keep very careful records with dates and times of price changes. Once you find your ideal price range that gives you good output without destroying your bank account, then stay there for a while.

A good PPC campaign on Twitter can give you a huge account in a year or two. Niche accounts might get 10,000 followers in that time while more general interest accounts could get a million. To get ahead in business, networking on Twitter is a powerful source of SEO power. The actual new visits to your site you get from Twitter is only the tip of the iceberg of what it is worth. The SEO value of having a big Twitter account tweeting links to critical pages on your site and blog is huge! Whether it is price effective or not is up to you to find out, but don’t underestimate the power of Twitter.

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Active vs. Dormant followers on Twitter
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Types of tweets that win the game!
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How to optimize your Twitter campaign

December 7, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How to optimize your Twitter campaign

Twitter is an interesting beast. It is hard to tame, and hard to harness. But, some people have figured out how to use it optimally and almost effortlessly with great results.

SEO benefits of Twitter
I have learned that the actual new traffic we get from Twitter is negligible. However, the SEO benefits we get on Google derived from our use of Twitter is unbelievably good. Twitter as a tool should be used to link to your important pages on your site and blog. My experience that a link to each important page every four months is perfect. You basically get points with Google every time you post a link on Twitter, and then get even more points each time the link gets clicked on by someone other than you (they know if it’s you). If your Twitter account is large, you get points for having a link from a larger account. Twitter is powerful in optimization, so don’t underestimate its strength.

How to grow your Twitter the easy way
Twitter requires daily care just like a plant, or a pet. You have to water a plant regularly, otherwise it withers. You have to feed your pet and scratch its back and talk to it, otherwise your pet gets lonely. Twitter is just like this! The secret is to use the suggested other Twitter accounts on the left, and follow a few of them every day. Pick the more interesting and relevant ones.

(1) Follow new accounts every day, but don’t go overboard or the Twitter gods get mad. If you like over 1000 people in the same day you will get into trouble.
(2) Find all of the new people who followed you and say, “Thanks for following”. This is important because it engages not only the person who followed you, but is visible to those who frequent that person’s account — and those people might follow you too after they see your icon.

(3) Make thoughtful, interesting, and unique comments on the tweets of people who you follow. Those comments are visible to anyone visiting their page, and those visitors will retweet you and follow you if you are intelligent enough. This is a skill that requires daily refinement, so start today!
(4) Study what types of tweets other people respond to, and make more of them. Learn to do “profiling” or “segmenting” of types of tweets. Avoid downers and give relevant information, shockers, and entertaining information in your tweets.

(5) Retweet others, but don’t retweet the same account more than once in two weeks unless it is 200% relevant to your material. The purpose of retweeting is that it is a great way to get your icon seen. Retweeting general news issues, or things of general interest is a good idea.

(6) Your tweets should be a mixture of industry specific, social media, and current events / news. This is what the professional marketing managers use as a mixture. The exact percentage of the mix might vary from account to account. By social media, we mean interesting commentary that one of your Facebook friends might have made on Facebook or Twitter, etc. Don’t tweet boring stuff, but people love a cool quote — this is what the experts do. I tried this approach and got results from it.

(7) Filter your tweets. I might write 200 tweets and pick the best 80 if you want to keep your fans happy. It is about quality if you want to get retweeted and followed.

(8) Pay-per-click is not for everyone, but that is a fast way to get followers. We get 500 new followers per month on our notary twitter and that is a very tiny niche market. It took us four years to get 3500 people, now we can get double that in around one year — now that is speed. PPC is time efficient. Instead of spending lots of time following others and commenting on their posts, PPC gets you 10x the results in 10% of the time! If you have more money than time, use PPC.

It takes time!
Expect to spend 15 minutes a day on Twitter. Don’t waste time on it. Go through steps 1-7 daily. It should become a fast routine. If you are bored, then you can read through your entire inbox for three hours and make responses to 100 tweets that other people wrote. If you spend 15 minutes a day, you can realistically expect to get about 60 new followers per month if your tweets are any good. In a little over a year, you might have 1000. If you want to have results faster than that, you need to either spend an hour a day on Twitter, or use the PPC program.

You might also like:

Optimizing your Twitter PPC campaign
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/12/10/optimizing-your-twitter-ppc-campaign/

Twitter Stock — a good idea?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/02/20/twitter-stock-a-good-idea/

Outsourcing: Build it and they will return

December 4, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

One of the reason so many American companies outsource their work overseas is that America simply doesn’t have reliable companies doing the work on American soil at any price! If you need custom programming done, there is not a single large company who does .net programming on American soil. There are many in Belarus and India, but not here! What if someone created a huge company on American soil that could get custom programming done for smaller clients? What if they had a location with lower office costs and lower labor costs because they were in Arkansas or Oklahoma. Such a company might actually do well if they were well managed.

Build it and they will come!
OR — Build it and they will return!

All of the companies who are offshoring your tasks to India, Philippines and Russia will be whistling a different tune if they can hire a friendly company on American soil! That different tune is likely to be Dixie if my dream comes true! California and the Northeast are expensive places to do business — they cannot compete for costs with overseas companies. But, land in Texas is cheaper than land in any metro in India. Transportation, cyber infrastructure, and phone lines are also more dependable. Locations in the American Midwest and South have a real chance to compete in outsourcing in the long run. Imagine if someone builds a huge outsourcing mega-center in Arkansas, companies that are outsourcing overseas will turn right around and hire the local company if they are any good!

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The outsourcing equivalent of fast food?

December 3, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Have you ever hired a BPO outsourcing company to do anything for you? You are always kept waiting and waiting. You never get any feedback unless you pester them to just let you know — “What is going on?” This is not friendly behavior, and certainly doesn’t help their business grow. Larger companies are rarely interested in providing outsourcing services to smaller companies, and larger companies are the only ones who have a chance to figure out how to be efficient.

But, what if there were a company that could deliver convenient outsourced services like web design, custom programming, call center, and other tasks — without all of the headache. I would pay a lot more for the convenience, wouldn’t you? Imagine a company that has no service contract. You just tell them what you want — and they do it. What if you wanted a website, you talked to the rep, you went over specifications, they sent you an email, you okayed it, and 20 minutes later, you got a layout. In the real world this is not possible, but in the world of “drive-through” outsourcing, it is! Let’s keep an open mind. Let’s be creative. If someone wants an idea to happen, it happens. The only reason it doesn’t happen is because people don’t care enough about it.

Let’s say you need an assistant to help you when you need it. Let’s say you send specifications over for 20 hours of call center work. You send the script, and instructions. Imagine that the next day it was done. Imagine that you get a confirmation email explaining who the project manager is, who the callers are, and when they will be doing the call. Three ladies were assigned the work and got it done in less than one day. Unbelievable. If a company wants to have streamlined outsourcing services, it is possible. It is all about having the dream!

Having a very well organized outsourcing company structure and a very flexible labor force would make it possible to attain this type of fast results. You might have to charge a bit more too, since there would be down time when there weren’t any last minute projects. Or perhaps there could be some non-time-sensitive projects mixed in with the last minute work being billed at different rates! Create your own billing structure — be creative.

I like living a dream. My lifestyle is something I created. I work from home (and work too much). I travel on a whim. I provide fast service to my clients (usually), and work with cool writers and psychics. Pretty cool, huh? This lifestyle is possible because I:
(1) Thought it was possible
(2) Worked to attain my goal
(3) Was creative and innovative, plus flexible
(4) Work far too much.

Time to go to sleep!

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To micromanage, or not to micromanage, is there a question?
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Work/Life Balance… or Integration?

November 30, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Work/Life Balance — or integration?

To me this comes naturally. I work at home. I am in a sense always working. I blend work and play, as well as blending play and work. I bring work with me on vacation, and bring play to my daily work routine. How is this possible? I work from home and take regular breaks where I drive to other cities to relax.

Balancing work and life
Many people have trouble balancing work and life. They go to offices. They work when they are at work. Then they come home to be with their family. Some work too much, others too little. Some are lazy while they are working and accomplish very little in their eight required hours. Others work fast and get tons of work done. Those who overwork are the ones that have trouble balancing work and life, because they are at the office too many hours a day. Those who leave immediately at 5pm generally have trouble balancing their retirement funds — because there is very little to balance.

Integration techniques
For me, it is easy. I work, take breaks, go back to work, take a walk, work, sleep, work, etc. I enjoy living like this and I am passionate about my work as well as my play. Play rejuvinates you for work, and work makes you ready to play. Being stuck at an office is good for many. For those who do not have a good work environment at home, or who lack the discipline to work hard at home, an office is the only way to get anything done. But, for those who can function at home, we have greater flexibility.

Don’t work regular hours
I’m not saying that working regular hours is bad for business, but it is bad for work / life integration. If you work, then take a break, then go back to work, then take your walk, go out to dinner, and come back and work until 2am, you have achieved integration. Ooops, I forgot to include meditation and spiritual rituals. Spirituality creates balance in our lives. It happens very naturally if you meditate an hour or two per day. But, how can you do all of this blending if you work in a stifling office environment. Work from 9-12, take exactly 60 minutes for lunch, then work from 1-5. Ouch. Can you take a late lunch or even go to a dentist appointment without getting fired? Can you create the type of flexibility that I enjoy in an office?

Offices need to rethink how they operate
If I could operate any type of office environment, I would put an office in the Himalayas and you would walk on dirt paths from your hut to your office suite. Very soothing, and with great hiking and views. If in an urban atmosphere, you would be able to get acupuncture once a week, perhaps a massage, food delivery with many choices, and have many places to take a relaxing walk. Forget about weight rooms. How about a glass dome in a forest that had a fitness room in it with fresh air piped in. Work shouldn’t be a torture. It should be fun and mixed with fun activities in fun settings to keep you charged up to do your miracles! If I didn’t have fun regularly, I don’t think I could perform at the level that I do. I would be too depressed! How you structure your office environment is up to you, but flexibility and thinking out side of the box is key.

Don’t think for a minute that you can be lackidasical about missing deadlines with this flexibility — “au contraire mon frere!” Just because you are having fun and living an integrated life doesn’t mean that you slack off!

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Balancing work and recreation
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/10/02/balancing-work-and-recreation/

Handling stress in a call center office
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/05/22/handling-stress-in-a-call-center-office/

How do you expand your thinking in business?

November 14, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Semi-Popular | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Thinking of what you don’t think of

In business, there are often dozens of ways to solve a problem. Humans seem to have minds that get stuck in a rut. They think the same thoughts over and over again. The trick to being “smart” is to be able to think of many solutions to problems. I recently hired a writer who is really smart. If I ask him to make a situation “funny”, he will think for about 90 seconds, and then he always thinks of something — and I generally blurt out laughing when I hear it. To succeed in business, you need to become very resourceful and learn to think of more possible solutions to problems.

So, how do you expand your thinking?
When I meet people who are “smart”, they generally read a lot. Some of them can even quote great literature, or famous statements made more recently by politicians. Reading books is good. Recently, I have been learning a lot by reading blog posts that I saw on Twitter. The limitation was that I always went to the SAME resources to find interesting articles when what I should have done was to look everywhere! The mental limitation to not thinking of everything is very similar in nature to the mental habit of not looking everywhere. It is a rut.

The difference between a successful person and…
I read on Twitter that the difference between a successful person and a very successful person is that the very successful person says “no” more. This is a very misleading statement if you don’t interpret it correctly. My interpretation is that a very successful person will consider more options before making a decision. If you are hiring people and interview ten, then you will pick the best one. But, what if that one is mediocre, or not perfectly attuned to what you need to have done? A very successful person might have an HR staff that interviews 1000 people, and then picks the best ten, and let’s you try them out one by one to find the best one. This is a perfect example of saying “no” a higher percentage of the time! Big companies think of this, but small business owners will typically say, “Gee, I didn’t think of that” or “Hmmm, I don’t have the resources to do that”.

Having an office in the Himalayas
I was recently looking for office space, and trying to apply my idea of thinking of everything. I was thinking about various parts of Los Angeles. Then, I thought about getting a temporary office in an entirely different metro. I could travel one week per month to that remote location. I like to travel in any case. Travel revives my soul. But, what about getting my office in India in the mountains? That would be super cheap. Labor is cheap there too. I don’t need to be in America 12 months a year. I can disappear for a few months at a time without too many consequences. The Jury Duty folks might not appreciate a long absense, but I can just tell them that I was at my office in the Himalayas! Most people would not think of having their office in Dehradun. But, why not include that as an option on the list. If you are thinking of everything, that is a fun option to think of — and might even be the best one if you like to meditate!

You might also like:

Wouldn’t it be nice to have your office in the Himalayas?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/04/27/wouldnt-it-be-nice-to-have-your-office-in-the-himalayas/

The mindset of a millionaire
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/05/the-mindsetof-a-millionaire/