Think big, but start small in business

October 14, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Success | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

There are so many people out there telling us to think big, and that big businesses are the only ones that count. There is a problem to this type of thinking. The problem is that we all have to start somewhere and accumulate knowledge, technical and people skills. If your rich dad handed over a multi-million dollar business to you upon his death without training you, you would fail without question and fall on your face. I’m not trying to discourage you. Business takes skill, endurance, wisdom, and hard work. These traits can’t be manufactured overnight — you need to work at it. So, it is imperative that you start small in business.

But, what about having big dreams?
Dreaming big and thinking big are so important. Without a larger vision, you are stifling your company without even realizing it. You might be wasting twenty hours per week doing small tasks that don’t matter that much while much more critical tasks are being completely ignored! I personally spend far too much time doing inconsequential data entry for my company simply because I don’t trust anybody else to do it. A week ago I came to the conclusion that I just need to NOT do it at all. Let it slide for the most part. I need to focus on bigger things. If you don’t dream big you will never focus on tasks that lead to bigger things.

Part of dreaming big is to dream about employees
Some bosses dream about having star employees, others just want people who will work, while there is also the type that dreams about his secretary. That last guy will have a disgruntled wife — guaranteed! But, growing a successful business requires dreaming not only about what you are going to sell or do, but also about the systems in place for you to do that, and also the individuals who you are going to hire. A great corporate culture is so important. Also, the lifestyle of your employees matters tremendously as well (not to mention your personal lifestyle.) Part of setting yourself up for success is to spend more time testing out new employees and subcontractors. You can’t make good hiring decisions unless you become an expert at the topic.

Do you have a business model which has capacity for growth?
Most people are so caught up in their daily reality, that they don’t have any idea how their business model would grow. Is there room in the marketplace for growth? Can your company adapt to growth? Do you have the right management team that can accommodate new employees and train new managers? If you do not have the capacity to train new people to do key tasks at your company, then you simply can’t grow. And if God forbid, you lose a key employee, do you have a mechanism to replace them?

What if you have a company with ten employees.
Two are managers, and eight are workers. Those managers are so busy managing everything that is going on, that they have no time to hire, fire, inspect the quality of work, or think about growth strategies. Your company is stagnant. At most companies in India, the manager:employee ratio is more like one to twenty-four which is much worse. Regardless of what type of management:employee ratios are optimal for your company, you need to have some SLACK in the equation for someone to think of optimizing efficiency, growth, and analysis.

What about your systems in place?
Forget about employees for now. How do you want your company to do what it does? Do you dream about having better systems? Part of dreaming big is not only about imaging your annual million dollar income, although keep that thought! It is actually a proven fact (at least with me personally,) that focusing on top-line income on a daily basis raises your revenue. Checking your income stats daily and being determined to keep the numbers up really does make a difference. But, if your company doesn’t have really great systems for getting work done, then there really can’t be any substantial growth. If you are doing data entry, perhaps there is a better system you can have for checking on the quality of your work-force, or a better way of attracting new clients. You might have ideas of investing in better technology to make your work more streamlined or convenient. The specifics are something you would know more than I would know.

Experimenting
Your company will have an easier time growing if you are always experimenting with new systems, new employees or types of employees and growth models. If you keep everything the same, you might find your company to be stagnant, so experiment, and develop upon what got you positive results. Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is the key to success just as long as you don’t repeat your failures! Have fun, think big, start small, and get rich — then, take a vacation for a while and de-stress!

Is it safe for women to take a cab in India?

October 8, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: India | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

It is safe taking a cab in India if you are a woman?

Many feel that taking a cab in India is not safe for anyone, but conditions for women in India leave a lot of room for improvement. The first thing to remember about transportation in India is that there are many modes, and each mode has its own hazards. Just crossing the street in India involves risking your life! Taking the bus means being crammed against other humans. There is always a risk on a train of being a victim of terrorists. Taking a rick-shaw means that you are getting into a vehicle that won’t last in an accident, and only God knows who the driver is.

Many middle class women in India take cabs instead of rick-shaws. Cabs work for a centralized office who dispatches their call. The cab driver can’t get away with price gauging or sexual harrassment since the main office will fire him if there is an issue. Just a note that if you get a cab at an airport, make sure you confirm that it is really registered with a reputable company so you don’t get kidnapped or robbed. But, rick-shaws don’t offer the safety of registered cabs. I had a female friend who generally took cabs. But, one night she was in a hurry took a rick-shaw. The rick-shaw guy liked her and followed her home. Thankfully her family was home and told him to go away.

In India, women can’t go to parks alone because they will be followed sooner or later. They are not safe taking a rick-shaw. They can’t take the bus without being inadvertently touched by men. India is a prison for women in many ways. Additionally, on the road, there are no safe places for women to visit the restroom which is another huge issue. And if there are restrooms, they are so filthy, that no woman would want to set foot in them.

The irony is that Hinduism is the religion that supposedly respects women. Islam has a reputation of oppressing women — yet, there is no safer place for a woman to be than in Saudi Arabia. If anyone harasses you or molests you they will be sent to jail! In India if a policeman witnesses a woman being harassed, they will generally not punish the victimizer much if at all. I’m not from India, and have only visited, but based on what I call “word on the street,” the government really needs to think of ways to protect women in India!

Think Pink!
I suggest a new rick-shaw system for women, and by women called Pink Rick! It would be a network of rick-shaw stops around major metros. The rick-shaws would be pink. There would be security at night at rick-shaw stops. They could have share ricks going to other nearby stops as well to economize and cut down on traffic. I also suggest that rick-shaws have safety mechanisms inside. If you get hit by a truck you will die in one of those. Perhaps some padding or airbags (or anything soft) would help.

Women only buses
In India, train compartments are by use and by gender. There is one car for those with huge bundles, others for mail, women have their own cars so they don’t get groped, and then there is a men’s compartment which women are allowed in but don’t go into unless they are with someone. Why not have women only buses? That would solve a problem for women. Maybe mini-buses, so that they could come more frequently. I also recommend that these buses should be pink. My final note is that buses are not washed much in India. I think they get a wash every three years whether they need it or not. But, to emphasize the pink color, perhaps a wash every few days would be in order. Women like cleanliness after all. Having clean and clearly demarcated bus stops would be nice too.

Restrooms for women on the road
If you are a woman on the road, it is often not safe to use a restroom in someone’s home. You don’t know what could happen to you, especially in North India. It would be safer to have clean, state-run restrooms on the road with soap, proper lighting, and last but not least — toilet paper. When I say that it should have toilet paper, I don’t mean that sometimes it should have toilet paper until it gets stolen or runs out and then you wait two weeks to replace it if the manager is available. I mean you should always have it, and the roll should be padlocked to the wall so it doesn’t wander off!

Enjoying the “Four Hour Work-Week” by outsourcing

October 2, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Popular on Twitter | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

There are people out there who run small businesses who have read the book: The 4-Hour Work-Week by Timothy Ferriss. It was a very interesting book that gave me a lot of new insights about outsourcing. The basis of the 4-hour philosophy is to outsource almost all of the tasks that you do. You need to calculate exactly what you do all week, how long each task takes, and who you could outsource it to. Part of my problem is that I like doing as much as I can myself, so I know that it gets done correctly. If you outsource without knowing who you are dealing with, you could get into a lot of trouble. You need to make sure people are reliable and not ripping you off.

Outsourcing mundane tasks so you can grow
Regardless of whether you want to enjoy a lot of free time, or free your time up to use it in other ways to grow your business, you need to understand the concepts of a four hour work-week. If you bog yourself down doing mundane tasks that someone else could be doing for you, you will not have time for more critical tasks that you need to grow your business. You will also not have enough time to take a long daily walk and keep your weight down.

Finding the right people
Finding overseas virtual assistants in the Philippines or India is easy. There are so many of them. Outsourcing your bookkeeping to someone in India or locally is also easy. There are many people who are good at that. But, what about harder tasks like blog writing. If you want to find someone who can write viral blogs, you might spend more time searching for them, that they spend writing blogs. As hard as it might seem, it is worth it to learn to be an expert at hiring people to do more difficult creative tasks like writing and blogging. It will take a lot of time, but if you find the right person, the rewards could be huge.

Empowering people to make decisions
Part of the philosophy of decreasing your workload is enabling your outsourced workers or employees to make their own decisions. If you let them make smaller decisions themselves, they won’t be bothering you while you are on vacation or working on a big deal. Your time needs to be spent making big decisions, or creating the rules for making small decisions which you share with your workers. The more your other people can do themselves, the more you can do more critical tasks.

Finding great travel deals while you enjoy your free time!
To get to the point in your business where you can outsource almost everything means that you probably worked twelve hour days for over a decade to get into that position. That means that you deserve a vacation. Optimizing your vacations is a skill that is quintessential to any four-hour work-weeker. There are particular cities in the world where you can enjoy five-star comforts for a very affordable price. Timothy Ferriss mentioned that Berlin, Tokyo, Buenas Aires, and a few other locations offered a great lifestyle for less. That was many years ago, and it is unclear where the bargains are to be held these days. But, if you search around, you can find great deals on villa rentals, dance lessons, karate lessons, and other fun stuff to do.

Personally, I enjoy travel in America and to other fun locations in the world. I am less worried about the daily cost, and more interested in how cool my experience will be. But, for domestic travel, I learned that Albuquerque is a wonderful place to visit where I can get a comfy hotel room for $55. Going to Phoenix when it is hot, I stayed at the Hilton for $95 which can get up to $500 during peak season. Tucson is more mild during the summer and I was able to go hiking every day and get 4-star hotels for $89! The bottom line is, if you have money and time, and an eye for optimizing your experience, you will find great deals in parts of the world you never thought of. You will be using the same skills you use when finding optimal employees who can do it all for a reasonable price. BTW, next year I want to visit Bali and enjoy comfortable hotels at $20 per night and great spicy meals for $2 per dinner. Wish me luck!

You might also like:

How different cultures handle time
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/08/18/how-different-cultures-handle-time/

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

What is your entrepreneurial IQ?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/10/what-is-your-entrepreneurial-iq/

Mastering the cultural code; how to handle intercultural employment & work

September 28, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

I hate working with people from other cultures!
I sometimes travel from country to country and work with people from other cultures. I love other cultures, but I don’t like working with people from other cultures. I also don’t like working with Americans. I feel that all cultures are badly configured for getting work done. The Japanese and Germans are much better about their work ethic, but there are difficulties with them too.

Cultural differences are more than just food.
If you work with people form other cultures you will notice many things if you are paying attention. You will observe that some people are very detail oriented, while others are neglectful. You will notice that some people are openly untrusting, while others demand that you trust them. Some people communicate well, while others are more aggressive. These differences can really bother a person, even if they are used to a particular culture, and even if they like that culture.

Adapting to different cultures
Some people think that it is necessary to adapt to a foreign culture if working overseas. They feel that it is necessary to wear a sari upon landing at Mumbai international airport. It then becomes necessary to eat your food with a roti using your hands. Next thing you know we are learning Hindi with a Marathi accent and bargaining with people at the grocery store. The problem with this is that Indian culture is a lot deeper than samosas and chai. Wearing a sari doesn’t make you Indian any more than living in a chicken coop makes you a chicken. There are cultural things that they just don’t teach in books, that you would only pick up on by living in a particular culture for a long time.

When to speak up and when to be quiet.
Sure, you can learn to make rotis and become semi-fluent in Bengali, but do you know when to shut up? In Indian culture, relationships have a pecking order. Sure, there are vast cultural differences between downtown Bangalore and 1.5 Km South of there in the more traditional neighborhoods. But, in India, the boss is generally a sort of a tyrant and his workers bow down to him and never challenge him. You will not learn this by stuffing yourself with samosas every day. You need to be in an environment of real Indians in India to learn this — and not some 3rd generation Indian-American who lives in Chicago who doesn’t like to be stereotyped as someone who likes samosas.

Why can’t they voice their concerns?
It is a common problem for Americans doing business in India that the workers will not speak up and voice their concerns. They will be very timid. When they do voice their concern, it will generally be after a problem has been brewing for a long time and they have been bottling up their upset feelings for several weeks. There are two ways of dealing with such a problem. You can learn to deal with them as an Indian boss would which might be heavy handed. I’m not implying that Indian bosses are always mean, because many are quite nice. But, they are culturally very authoritative, and that is what people are used to. If it were me, I would authoritatively inform them that they are to tell me about any issues in an organized way as soon as possible to avoid any suffering on their part. That way we can solve problems early on and keep everybody happy and a little less awkward.

Enough voicing concerns already!
The next problem in India, is when the workers speak up — that’s even worse. Workers tend to tell me their opinions in a very annoying and awkward way. Their concerns are often valid, but tend to be from a point of view that is very petty from a larger point of view.

The job interview: compensating for being from a passive culture
It is common for people from Asian countries including India to be overly passive at job interviews. If you don’t take the lead, they will just sit there. They will seldom boast about their achievements and answers tend to be shorter rather than longer. Yes, Indians look quite different from their East Asian counterparts and behave differently too, but they have more in common than you think. There have been case studies of people from Asia who tried to overcompensate for their Asian-ness and act too bold in interviews. One gentleman went so far to claim that the boss’ idea was completely wrong in a very important meeting to show his leadership qualities. In American culture, standing your ground, and promoting your worth is important, but as in all other cultures, there is what I call a “range of acceptability” in behavior, and arguing with your boss at an important meeting crosses the line even in America!

Being liked is more important than fitting in
Many people feel that they have to culturally adapt themselves in order to be liked. This is sort of true to a point. It is okay to be different, but not that okay if your differentness clashes with your boss. Even within the same culture, there can be tremendous clash, and the clash bothers people a lot more than others who have different attributes. People might appreciate you due to your different attributes.

A tale of two cultures
Let’s take two opposite cultures: Americans and Thais. Americans generally seem to like Thai people, Thai food, and even Thai Buddhism. Thais tend to like all white people (falang) by definition as well. What two cultures could be more different or opposite than Americans and Thais? If something bad happens to an American they will yell or cry all day while the Thai will be a lot more accepting of their destiny and seek solace in the comfort of the Buddha. Americans are often serious or angry, while Thais are outwardly happy and smile all the time. Americans are in a hurry and talk fast. Thais talk slow in a calming nasal tone of voice. Americans tend to like mild food while Thais like spicy food. American women like to confront men while Thai women are more agreeable. So, how is it that these two seemingly opposite cultures like each other so much? Do opposites attract? That might be part of it. Thais don’t step on people’s toes much. They are normally gentle people. They are seldom rude, although they will be if they really don’t like someone (I have a story about that.) When Americans are with Thais, they appreciate how nice people are. Sure, there are differences, but the differences are not generally seen as bad differences. To date, I’ve never met an American with Thaiaphobia!

Expats in China verses London.
American expats tend to last longer in China than they do in England. Why is this? Perhaps, the expats who visit China are used to the idea that things will be different and embrace the differences. Meanwhile the expats who live in London don’t really want to live in a different culture and can’t tolerate the minuscule differences that confront them in London. On the other hand, Brits can be condescending and rigid, while Chinese are more happy go lucky and bow down to white people. Maybe Americans are treated better by the Chinese and tolerate China as a result even though it is ten times as different as England.

Bottom line — what is important in intercultural work?
Being liked is important. You never know why someone will like you. They might like you for your differences. They might like you because you took the trouble to learn how to make samosas while wearing a selwar kurta. They might like you because you don’t abuse them as much as their regular boss. The possibilities are endless. Becoming similar to the culture you are living in is not always the solution. Sometimes you need to adapt only to a point, but learn how to work positively with your new culture rather than to conform to it. Perhaps it is what is different about you that helps you deal better with Bengladeshis in the work force than their local born boss. Have you ever thought of that?

Zen and the art of retweeting

September 15, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Do you like to retweet other people’s content? So, do I. But, what helps your Twitter account grow is not random retweeting. Don’t retweet to woo people into retweeing you. That rarely works. If you want to gain someone’s positive attention, interact with them. Respond to something they wrote. Write something interesting, or funny that really sends an important message that they will enjoy reading.

Don’t just retweet anything.
Choose from hundreds of tweets. Make sure the tweet has good content. Make sure the link to the article functions and that the article is worth recommending to others. Make sure the topic will be popular with your audience. You need to know your audience’s tastes by watching carefully to know this. Being picky about retweeting can gain you a lot of followers. I like to retweet great photos, and sometimes a really good photo will gain me lots of new followers. I tend to repost that same photo a lot since it gives me good luck.

Tweeting other people’s blog entries
I do this all the time. I’ll come up with a different title for their blog entry and tweet it on my network. The result is that they get lots of traffic and I get more followers. It is a win win situation. But, I don’t just pick any blog entry. I’ll read through many entries to find something really good. With videos it is more time consuming, but I’ll watch several videos until I find one worth sharing.

Don’t just write a tweet
I will write many variations of tweets for a single article. I will size them to make sure the text, link and tags all fit. I’ll refine my variations. I’ll pick the best one or two and tweet them, but not in a row. I’m interested to see what tweets are popular, which are not, and then figure out what it was that made the tweet popular. Sometimes small changes in wording can make a tweet get exponentially more retweets!

Good luck in your tweeting.
Observe, pay attention, and enjoy the process. Twitter is fun, but take it seriously. If you put quality out there, you will get quality followers and lots of them!

Getting retweeted on twitter does miracles for your blog’s SEO

September 12, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Even though, the total number of clicks to my blog was only a handful, the fact that people were clicking, reading, and enjoying, not to mention getting lots of retweeted did miracles for my blog’s optimization. Please keep in mind, that my persona twitter accounts are managed organically. We don’t do PPC, or use any special software such as unfollow software. We just follow hand-picked relevant, quality accounts and try to follow others who retweet tasteful material.

I started promoting my outsourcing blog on my travel twitter. This was an odd decision. I did this because many of the outsourcing articles were about social media optimization which is of interest to those who do social media for travel. Although the industry is different, they also do social media, they also do twitter, and they also supposedly want to optimize their results.

The secret to seeing your site or blog traffic take off using twitter is not having lots of followers, although that helps. It is more about how many new followers you have gotten recently, how many interactions there have been, how many retweets, and by whom. A lively twitter account can do miracles for your blog. Be lively yourself and follow other lively people either in your industry or related industries.

The plusses and minuses of Google+

September 11, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Analytics, Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I have just started doing a lot on Google+. Yes, it has its pros and cons as well as its pluses and minuses. Should you use Google+? Here is what I think.

(+) If you use Google+ a lot, it will do miracles for your analytics and site traffic. Something magical happens when you hit the 1000 mark on Google+. Your site traffic will spike according to what word on the street is.

(+) Google+’s feature of having circles is so much better than Twitter. You can arrange your followers by category, interest or industry. You can also segment your favorite accounts by creating a favorite or VIP circle. It is amazing the quality of the material in my VIP circle while my industry specific circles are filled with cyber trash. Oh well… At least I can separate them. On Twitter, you would have to create a separate account where you could follow your favorite accounts. On Twitter you can favorite a post, but not an account. At least not as of today — things could change!

(+) Google+ has great communities where you can post content. This feature is very similar to Linked In’s feature where you can have discussion groups or communities. Linked In often has much larger and better groups for business topics, but they tend to be a little too oriented towards self-promoting content and job search while Google+ gets better quality interactions in many cases.

(+) Google+ is a fast way to get clicks to your blog if you use communities and post interesting and relevant content. Twitter and Facebook do not make it easy to get clicks until you have a huge following. You don’t need to have a single follower on Google+ to get a ton of clicks, and those clicks will boost your SEO rankings for your site a lot if they are “quality” clicks.

(-) Google+ doesn’t have that many accounts compared to Twitter or Facebook. I’m not sure what the growth rate is, but Google is going to be promoting Google+ less from now on as well. Maybe they should find a new way to promote it instead of slowing down? Additionally, communities on Google+ tend to be very small except for a few photography and travel groups. In general, Google+ seems to be very much more geared towards visuals than Twitter or Facebook. Google+ allows taller photographs, while Twitter has a one size fits all on your profile page until someone clicks on it.

(-) Google+ makes has a multi-step process to see what your followers posted. If it is that difficult to see what they are publishing, it will be difficult for others to see what you are publishing too!

All in all, Google+ seems like one of the better social media sites out there. There are a few areas that they need improvement and over the next few years, they might make a few renovations and become #1 in the social media industry. We’ll have to wait and see.

The Lamborghini effect in Social Media marketing

September 6, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Popular on Google+, Semi-Popular, Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I have been doing marketing for my entire life it seems. I remember as a kid, I marketed my lawn mowing business. I came up with sweat intensive methods for attracting clients in a heartbeat. I used to write an estimate on a flyer and leave it under their door mat if they were not home. I got hired by 10% of the people I left a flyer with. That is phenomenal. But, it is because I used a personal touch, and gave a quick and customized bid to everyone. Being fast at doing accurate estimates has its advantages.

As an adult, I have been running websites for more than a decade. It is hard to run a website, and the marketing keeps changing. Google is basically in charge, so whatever they like, you had better do!

The Lamborghini effect
It sounds like a movie. The Italian Job, The Bridge on the River Quai, The Lamborghini Effect — playing at 5pm, tickets sold at the door. Basically what I am talking about is having a marketing methodology so potent, that if you just tap the gas pedal, you will hear a huge “Voom” sound, and magic will happen. Today, I had a Lamborghini moment, if I may coin that phrase. I published a popular blog entry. But, I had also channeled some traffic to my outsourcing blog (the one you’re reading,) from my newer travel twitter which gets a lot of retweets. The result is that my traffic was more than double for a few days on my blog. Wow! All I did was tweet a few tweets and voom!

Followers are useless, you need results!
Lots of companies and individuals are in social media marketing, and claim to be good at it. You will see offers where they can get you 2000 followers overnight for a low fee, or maybe even 30,000 followers. Followers are useless. You need relevant, active, engaged followers, even if you only have a hundred. Most companies hire people who are not that experienced, and who will not get you amazing results. They will get you some new followers, maybe write a few tweets if they can even write well, and perhaps get you retweeted a few times. There is no focus on results, only on spinning the wheels. I don’t like this. I not only want results, I want to be blown out of the water. Real results are traffic to your site from clicks, and getting new customers — not new dormant followers who just sit there collecting cyber-dust.

My goal
My goal in social media is to learn how to get results so potent that I can help others to promote their social media campaigns. I want one or more twitter accounts, and blogs that get so much active traffic, that one tweet from me, and you won’t know what hit you! It amazes me that my older Twitter accounts have 4000, or 8000 followers, but only get retweeted two dozen times a month, while my newer travel twitter gets two dozen retweets per day, on a bad day. Wow! But, what if I can get my campaign to the point where I am getting hundreds of retweets per day? I think it is possible.

Blogging
As far as blogging is concerned, by blogging more and more, I learn what is popular and what is not. Writing a popular blog entry in a niche market can get you a few thousand clicks over the life of the blog entry. Some entries get a lot of clicks their first week, while others slowly get clicked on and attract search engine traffic over years. Some of my most popular blog entries were written in 2011 by the way! My goal is get better at identifying what people like, and to continue to write more popular blog entries. I want to get so good, that all of my blog entries are popular. We’ll see what happens, but it is going well so far.

Summary
Most social media companies will give you “a” Twitter account and “a” Facebook account and perhaps a blog that is “blahg.” Don’t settle for less. I like it when you get results that are so amazing that you say, “What happened?” That is the Lamborghini effect in Social Media Marketing. Once you’ve experienced it you’ll never forget it!

How to use Twitter to get more BPO & Call Center Clients!

September 1, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Twitter is a mysterious animal. People use it daily to interact with so many other people. It is really baffling. If you run a BPO, Data Entry company or Call Center, you will be equally baffled at the daunting task of finding customers on any medium. It is possible to find customers on Twitter, but it’s not how you think it is.

Don’t sell
Don’t use Twitter to sell. This might be a hard concept to grasp as someone struggling to get your fledgling business going. You use Twitter to network, not sell. So, how do you get clients if you don’t sell? You mingle with them. Get them to feel comfortable with you, and get them to know you. Ask them if you have any questions about your industry.

Give, but don’t ask for anything in return
By answering their questions rather than selling you are being a valuable resource rather than a desperate and pestilent salesperson! Get others to value you by being nice, helpful and a source of reliable knowledge. If they have lots of questions about the technical support industry and you are the smartest person they have talked to in conjunction that industry, they will be likely to buy your services in the future. Maybe not tomorrow, but they will not forget you if you are the most helpful person in the world who gives, but asks for nothing in return.

Indians often feel that you get by pulling
Many people in India feel that the way to get more is to grab, and pull, and use force. This unfortunately has an opposite effect with Americans. If an Indian cab driver says, “Come with me,” and grabs our bag without permission, this is upsetting to us. If the same guy said, “Would you like a ride anywhere or some travel tips for Pune?” I would be much more likely to hire that cab driver because he was polite and helpful unlike the other pushy nitwits. The more sophisticated crowd in India has learned that you get by giving, not by grabbing. Sophisticated Indians have helpful blogs, and will talk to you about their service without being desperate to make a sale. They give, without asking in return.

How do you know if you have a contact person?
If you network, it doesn’t do much good if you’re not networking with a decision maker. It is hard to know who the decision makers are in the sea of hundreds of millions of Twitterers. My suggestion is to find either business owners or managers in large businesses. They will either need similar services in one form or another, or have friends that need those services. They might be doing their call work in-house, but they will have call work that needs doing. If you “get in good” with these people by making friends, they will be likely to use you when they have a need, or refer their friends to you. It is hit and miss finding the right people, but at least start with the right crowd.

Where do you find such people?
There are large Twitter accounts for business oriented people such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, and others. These accounts have over a million followers each. if you look through their followers, you can find lots of great entrepreneurs and decision makers. After mingling with many of them, and you will have to mingle a lot, you will eventually meet some of the right people.

Twitter takes time, and grammar
If you want Twitter to be quick, it is not for you. I think that Twitter is exciting and fun. It’s fun to meet new people and fun to watch your number of followers go up. It is like an addiction in many ways. You also need to make your interactions in clear, and grammatically correct English which will be hard if English is not your native language. If your English is less than perfect, it is always a good idea to take writing lessons. Good communication skills translate into higher incomes statistically, so instead of wishing you made more money — learn to communicate like a polished professional and the money will come more easily.

What is step 1?
Create a Twitter account. Get an attractive picture for your icon, and another attractive picture for you top of page image. If your tweets have beautiful photos attached to them, that helps too. Photos are time consuming and can be expensive, so choose your battles wisely.

Step 2… Be a follower
The next step on Twitter is to start following people. Don’t follow more than a few dozen people per day. If they don’t follow you back after a few days, you should unfollow them. Twitter doesn’t like it if you follow substantially more people than follow you, so be mindful about your number of followers.

Step 3… Be an unfollower — and a leader!
Tweet about interesting things. Don’t just tweet about your services. 95% of your tweets should be valuable information about your industry, and other interesting stuff. Only 5% of your tweets should be about special offers that your company has.

Keep tweeting good stuff and people will follow you. You can retweet valuable information that others post as well.

Happy tweeting and good luck.

Outsource: Steve Jobs Principle: The more people you network w/ Outside your field..

August 28, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Innovation, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Steve Jobs felt that the more people you networked with outside your field, the more connections you will make that could lead to breakthrough ideas.

I have noticed that people in the same profession sometimes tend to think in similar restricted ways. If you only talk to people who think kind of like you, it is difficult to broaden your thinking. If you hang around with lots of different types of people in different fields, industries, cultures, walks of life, etc., you can be exposed to different ways of thinking which will by default, expand your thinking.

Intel sends employees to live in villages in Malaysia and India to see how people live and see the world. These employees often lived with families, ate their food, met their friends, and saw how their daily life was. By understanding how they might use computers and other technological products, they can design products that people will enjoy, and be able to use.

I feel that sometimes companies go overboard with features. If you have too many features you will baffle and overwhelm people, especially the non-technosaavy. I personally feel that technological projects should be simple, nice looking, easy to use without much if any tutorials, and fun. If you make it so complicated that there is always something critical that you are missing — you took it too far. Common sense needs to accompany innovation. Over-innovating can be a bad thing. Just give people enough to solve their problems and work effectively using a new system — that should be enough.

Anthropologists working for Intel learned that dust and electrical outages were serious issues in India, so they designed computers with longer battery life. If it were up to me, I would have detachable batteries, so that you just plug another one in when the first one runs out!

Traveling to many countries, meeting many people, having many hobbies, and studying many different subjects are all great ways to form the foundation that you need to be a great innovator. Of course, if you have an intense desire to innovate, start doing it! The more you do, the better you get at it, especially if mixed with lots of different life experiences to widen your consciousness!

“Widen your consciousness”

Solutions to India’s transportation problems (2014)

August 23, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: India | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

My original blog article in 2011 about Solutions to India’s transportation problems was a huge success. We got thousands of readers and it was fun to write as well. So, I am writing a different version of the same article in 2014 with some new and exciting ideas to help India win the battle of congestion.

My original article had practical ideas like removing the seats from buses so that more people could squeeze in them and have vinal compartments in the buses so that each person would have a private standing area! I hope that idea gets a standing ovation! I wrote about having moving walkways in long indoor corridors like they do at many international airports which would be a fast way to get around downtown areas. Mini-buses were on the list as they could arrive more frequently at designated stops. Luxury buses were my attempted to get the upper class out of their cars and into a more space-efficient mode of transportation that would reduce traffic. My final zany idea was a snake train and you really must read about that.

http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/04/10/solutions-to-indias-transportation-problem/

Here are some more innovative ideas to save India. We’ll start with the more obvious approaches.

A new bus system

Indoor raised platforms at bus stops.
It is a pain in the neck to jump in a bus that wants to start moving before you are in it. Going up those stairs with other human bodies blocking you. The system is designed to make you hate it. But, this is India, at lease these days. I’m looking for a kinder, friendlier India (sorry to sound like George Bush.) What if bus stops were enclosed by glass and were raised up a few feet? That way it would be clearly designated WHICH bus you were waiting for (which is always ambiguous in India,) and you would be able to get in the bus as easily as you would get in a subway train with no stairs. This would be great for children, the elderly, and those who like to take the chaos out of life.

Double decker buses
Since road space is so limited in urban parts of India, double decker buses would save a lot of space on the road. Imagine having elevated docks so that you could exit from the top floor? Additionally, if buses were longer, they would function a bit like a surface train, and on busy streets you could keep those buses coming — one after the next. If you allocated some of the seats (or a closed off section of the bus) to have luxury larger seats, you could command a nice price from upper class customers as well which would help fund the entire system.

Transfer stations for buses
It is a pain in India getting off the bus onto a smelly road with trash everywhere and having to walk anywhere, especially if it means crossing a road which is a complete nightmare and a risk of life and limb. What if you could get off a bus, climb up some clean stairs, and then come down into another glass enclosed waiting area for the bus that you were going to transfer to. India’s population density causes problems, but it could be used as an asset, since it makes it possible to have efficient transportation systems involving trains and buses (which don’t work as well in most parts of America due to the sparse population.)

Standing only buses
Buses in India are notoriously packed full. Having seats bolted in prevents you from squeezing more sardines (human sardines) into the vehicle. Removing seats on some buses will allow more people into the bus. Having vinal separators would allow for individualized standing locations which would make the entire trip a whole lot more comfortable for you (and harder for the pick-pockets.)

Segway & Bike highways
This has always been my dream, but not enough urban planners think outside of the box, or the rick in the case of India. The reason why traffic is such an issue is that cars, rick-shaws, and buses are so large and clunky. If you have a safe way to ride a Segway or bicycle, traffic would flow so much more easily. A Segway is a small device that you stand on. It has two wheels on one axle and balances itself. It is sort of magical, but it’s real. Segways are popular in the United States for giving walking tours of cities since you can have a lot of people follow each other around in congested areas without any danger.

But, imagine an indoor enclosed highway for Segway traffic and bicycles. It could be elevated, so it could pass over roads. Since the highway wouldn’t carry a single heavy vehicle, the weight load on the infrastructure would be light which would mean that it would be a lot less expensive to build than a regular overpass — perhaps only 10% of the cost. There could be refreshment shops, news stands, bicycle repair shops, and internet cafes along the highway for the convenience of the people using it.

Since it is expensive to own a Segway, it might make more sense to have Segways be shared. If you enter the Segway highway, you could see a long line of Segways waiting to be used. You would just jump on one, and take it to the station where you want to get off, and then someone else could use that very same Segway. Theft would not be possible, because the Segways would not be able to exit the indoor passage without setting off an alarm.

The indoor nature of this highway would be convenient if it was hot, or raining. It could be temperature controlled as well if the budget permits. Additionally, it would be a safe way to get around at night!

Bullet Trains for the wealthy
When you think of India, you probably think of poverty, and people who are just skin and bones begging for food by the side of the road. India also has millions of very wealthy people, and those people need transportation. There are many wealthy types in Mumbai who simply need to save time getting around which is why they take the train. But, what if there were a better solution? Imagine a spotlessly clean bullet train system for the wealthy in big metros of India. It would cost a mint, but you would get great meals and refreshments at the stations, have a very fast ride wherever you are going and enjoy the company of other opulent folks at the meticulously maintained stations that all have ample paid parking! What a concept. Typically in India, if there is a rail station there is no parking, and if there is parking, there is no station, and if there are both, then something else is wrong. But, what if you could have it all, and with a clean and comfortable fast ride? I think the rich would pay for that. Bullet trains could be mag-lev trains for short urban commutes as well as from city to city. The security for getting on planes is a real hassle — taking a fast train from Delhi to Mumbai would be a lot nicer if you ask me!

Longer trains (perhaps double deckers)
India’s local rail system (they say rail, not train by the way) is overburdened in many areas. People have to squeeze in and it just isn’t funny. The only way to fix this problem is to either have more trains, longer trains, or double decker trains. Unfortunately, platforms at existing stations are not long enough to allow for longer trains. Should they all be rebuilt? The answer is unclear. But, India needs to adapt to its huge and ever-growing population and adapt its existing train infrastructure.

Tolls for cars to use the main roads.
Although I believe that having separate roads for buses is a sensible idea to help allow those buses to move freely, that is not always easy or possible. It would make sense in areas where buses and cars share the road to have fees for using the road. After all, if you drive on the road, you are taking up space that someone else could be using. There could be yearly fees for being able to use congested roads during certain hours of the day, or daily fees to use those roads. Singapore has yearly fees, and the result is that the locals complain, but there is never congestion in the entire island! Maybe India needs to think more like Singaporeans and permanently solve its transportation problem! If there were fees for using the roads, more people would use buses, and those buses would be able to move quickly since there would be a lot less traffic. I would honestly say, that for Indian urban roads to function well, there needs to be an 80% reduction in the quantity of cars on the road. Reducing the number of cars by half would still be a nightmare.

A web of indoor golf cart routes
This idea is similar to the Segway or Bicycle highway idea and would also function in indoor highways. If you visit many airports, the staff drive around in golf carts. But, what if larger electronic indoor vehicles could be built that would accommodate about eight people that you could just jump on and jump off of. The seats might even be on the outside of the vehicle, so you don’t actually get in. How these vehicles are shaped is a secondary issue, but imagine this reality! There could be stations throughout the line of these indoor highways. Or there could be a web of interconnecting highways. At each station, there could be eight possible directions that you could go, and eight carts waiting for you. Each cart would wait until it was completely filled, or until a certain amount of minutes had passed. This would be a very clean, fast, and convenient way to get around a city. Why can’t someone in Dubai put this idea to use — it is a really cool idea!

If you liked this article you might enjoy reading about my SNAKE TRAIN idea too.
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/12/02/the-snake-train-revisited-a-solution-to-indias-transport-nightmare/