Tag Archives: Outsourcing Business

One outsourcing company advertised on apps & got big business

December 30, 2016 by 123outsource

Categories: Marketing | Tagged How do I advertise my BPO?, How do I advertise my outsourcinb business?, Outsourcing Business | Leave a comment

How do I advertise my outsourcing business?
How do I advertise for my BPO?
Advertising in the outsourcing business is a tricky thing. There are brokers, directories, websites, word of mouth, networking, and more. I like to ask around to see who is doing what.

One company claimed that they advertised on apps and using banner advertising on relevant websites. This is not a bad idea if you can measure the results from each advertising medium. You basically need tracking for each app, and a different page that each banner forwards clicks to. Then use Google Analytics to see how much page traffic each page got. Measuring results is easy if you use a sensible system as I described.

The hard part is deciding which apps to advertise on? How do you even source them? The solution is to scour the world market for apps, and see which ones might be relevant to your business or attract people who might want to use the type of services that you offer.

Trial and error and measuring ROI is a huge part of being a good advertise or marketer. So, learn to identify all options and research the best options and then compare. The secret to success is in your skill of comparing.

Is it time to Uber-size your outsourcing business?

May 10, 2016 by admin

Categories: Innovation, Semi-Popular | Tagged bpo, Outsourcing, Outsourcing Business, Smaller call center contracts, Uber | Leave a comment

Uber is always in the news
Every time I go online, I see news about Mark Cuban, Startups, Apple, Uber, Richard Branson, Innovations, and more. People either love Uber or they hate them. In the Notary industry which I am heavily involved with, there is a company called Snapdocs which used an Uber-type model to run their business. They have Notaries all throughout the United States who get text messages whenever there is a local job available. The Notaries can accept the job or barter for better terms. Snapdocs has somewhat transformed the Notary industry in the United States — and it will never be the same.

Can your BPO use Uber thinking?
But, how can your outsourcing or BPO company apply Uber-type principles to better running your operation? In some ways you can. Most outsourcing companies have between five and fifty people in a particular location. Or, some of them might work from home. Uber operates on a nationwide or worldwide level. If a job is inputted into the system by a customer, any service provider who is close can claim the job. Outsourcing is geo-specific, as you function in a particular area, but — you cater to the whole English speaking world.

Job Offers
Uber operates on the principle of having small jobs taken care of quickly at an affordable price and in a nice way. If you deal in huge programming contracts, the Uber model might not be appropriate for you. But, if you dissected your huge jobs into smaller parts, you might be in business. If you have ten people who answer inquiries all day and all night long on a commission basis, they could answer inquiries as fast as Uber drivers pick up customers. Your reps could answer questions, give quotes, and advice too, all in real time (within minutes.) Smart companies offer samples or smaller jobs at reasonable prices to gain the confidence of new clients. Small jobs could be dispatched, priced, and finished overnight using Uber modes of operation.

Call Centers
Smaller call center contracts could be sold the same way. If a smaller client wants service for one day per week, this small order could be fulfilled well using Uber type principles. Many small businesses have a horrible time finding good call centers who are responsive to small clients. Most do not take an interest in small clients and don’t return calls. If yours is the one that is responsive, you might dominate the small-client market and clean up!

Think Small
Uber type principles are good for small jobs. But, how can you make money doing small jobs? First of all, if you accumulate a lot of small jobs, you can make a lot of money. Secondly, small jobs might pay higher per hour than large jobs giving you a better margin. Third, small jobs can turn into regular clients if you take care of them well — which most companies do not as most companies are only interested in big jobs.

How Do You Do It?
Just have an online system where clients can put in their work requests. Make sure that a team of people is around to answer requests on a first come first provide service basis. Once the request is handled, work goes on just like any other job that you are taking the old fashioned way.

Should You Do It?
If you have a really cool modern system, and it catches on with good marketing, you could become a huge company overnight. Most other companies are very sluggish about offering quotes or getting back to people. If you are the one that is effective, polite, and does good work fast — you could conceivably take over!

You might also like:

Is Amazon too tough on their workers?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/06/10/is-amazon-too-tough-on-their-workers/

When you slow down, I slow down
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/05/04/when-you-slow-down-i-slow-down/

Good business karma or bad business karma?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/03/08/good-business-karma-or-bad-business-karma/

America invented & forgot about customer service
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/03/02/america-invented-forgot-about-customer-service/

What if you got your business advice from Yoda?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/11/30/what-if-you-got-your-business-advice-from-yoda/

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/

What would Bill Gates do?

February 6, 2014 by 123outsource

Categories: Management | Tagged God rewards those who produce, Outsourcing Business | Leave a comment

What would Bill Gates do?

Do you want to be really rich? Then learn how to think like the rich guys think! Look at one of the world’s richest men. Bill Gates. He must think about money all the time… wrong! He thinks about benefitting the world, and God rewards him with success.

Do you think about the world in your business?

How can you apply that to your outsourcing business? Do you think about the bigger picture? Do you think about benefitting your clients and the world? Maybe you should. In the long run, money comes from God. In my experience (I’ve known God for a while now) God rewards people who produce more and who give to charity. There are sometimes rewards for spiritual practice as well, although that is not consistent!

If you are efficient in your work and hire others to create a large organization which helps many, God rewards this type of operation. Bill Gates’ mind dwells on philanthropy much more heavily than almost anyone else I can think of. But, he has the intellectual and financial means to make his visions come true. Most people wish that self-benefitting things would happen, but don’t get very far. Gates has transformed the world of computers and cares tremendously about the world of philanthropy as well.

Basically, the secret is to come out of yourself and expand your perspective. You are not a separate individual. You are a part — perhaps a critical part — of the universe. Everything you do affects the entire universe in some subtle or not-so-subtle way! The minute you have the desire and competency to make a bigger difference, that is when the money will start rolling in.

So, forget about this week’s profits, and your other petty concerns. Turn your business into a lean, mean, world-helping machine!

Tweets:
(1) Wanna be rich? Then, learn to think like the rich guys think. Take Bill Gates for example.
(2) The secret to wealth is to come out of yourself and expand your perspective.

You might also like:

Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully — so should you!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/10/steve-jobs-watched-his-programmers-carefully-so-should-you/

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

Business Names Ending in “Solution” Sound Funny

December 28, 2013 by 123outsource

Categories: Humor | Tagged Business Name, Business Names, Outsourcing Business, Outsourcing Business Names, Outsourcing Solution | Leave a comment

India is filled with funny sounding outsourcing business names. TEX Solution, Indotech Solution, etc. Only one solution? Most companies who wish to hire you will need solution(s) to more than one problem. I suggest that you go to the consonant store and buy a consonant! Buy an “s”.

“May I purchase an s?”
“Sorry, we’re all out of s’s”
“No wonder Indian companies typically don’t have an ‘s’ at the end of the word solution”
“No, that’s not it. Many of them lack grammatical competency”

The next thing is your phone number
9199335235
That is very hard to read. It is much classier and harder to make a dialing mistake if you break the number up.
(91) 9335-5235 or 939-335-5235 would be a more American system of breaking the number up. Two sets of three numbers separated with hyphens with a final set of four digits.

What do you put in the language field?
english, hindi, gujrati

Why not put
English, Hindi, Gujarati
Spell everything as well as you can and capitalize proper nouns please! Remember, if American companies are looking over your profile, they will not like it if they see grammar errors!

Good luck renaming your outsourcing company names.
In the mean time.
I have to go.
I have an interview with Jake from J Solution.

You might also like:

Nursery rhyme music is not appropriate for when you are on hold
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/06/nursery-rhyme-music-is-not-appropriate-for-when-you-are-on-hold/

An American teaches Indian companies to be more American
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/23/an-american-teaches-indian-cos-to-be-more-american/

A 20 minute office visit reveals the character of a company!

December 12, 2013 by 123outsource

Categories: Hiring & Firing | Tagged Leasing a shared office by the hour, Office Visit, Outsourcing Business, Outsourcing Company, Shared Office | Leave a comment

A 20 minute office visit can reveal the character of an outsourcing company in a lot of detail!

I love to learn what great business people do. Maybe if I follow in their foot steps, I will achieve greatness myself. Being successful is hard. There are so many things you need to do, and reading books about what Donald Trump does will only give you a small (but valuable) piece of the puzzle.

Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger subscribe to the idea of visiting people’s offices or manufacturing plants to get a feeling of what the company is like. You look around; You see if the place is neatly maintained; You see how the workers look; Do they look happy and hard working or do they look downtrodden and resentful? Do they look intelligent? Do they have a healthy vibration? Do they look like they do drugs? You can learn a lot from a two minute walk-around. You can even ask quick questions to random people to see if they are communicative or smart!

Another very important fact that I have learned recently is that outsourcing companies worldwide tend to be deceitful about the actual size of their company. They will claim to have more employees than they really have. If you visit someone’s office, you see who is actually there. Many times when I want to visit someone’s office, they meet me in a shared office in a conference room. Then, they tell me that that is their second office, and that they are in their normal office on some other days of the week. This type of nonsense reveals that they lied to you and do not have a real office. I noticed that one “business owner’s” name was not even on the list of companies in suite 300 where his alleged office was.

During interviews, it is important to ask questions that do NOT lead to the interviewee telling you what you want to hear. You want to know what they are like, not what they think you want to hear. Ask questions where they can not “hide” their true nature. An office visit is yet another way to find out how people really are. In my experience, I have seen all types of office environments from all ends of the spectrum.

I visited one social media company where everyone was filled with energy and spark. They were very intelligent and fun to visit. I visited another company where people seemed very dull and unkept. I saw one environment where everyone was busy, but when you ask staff members simple questions, they are unable to answer. It took one girl three weeks to email me and tell me that she had no answer to my question. Other office visits revealed that the outsourcing business owner had no office, and that they were leasing a shared office by the hour, and that they had no actual staff. Their staff was subcontracted and picked and chose which jobs they would accept. My worst office visit revealed an employee who was clearly a DRUG ADDICT. I never would have found out if I hadn’t visited their office.

Another fact to remember is that even if you don’t visit a person’s office, you can tell them that you are going to. Their answers will get a lot more honest about what their office is like if they think you are actually going to come. Office visits reveal reality. You see through everyone’s lies when you are actually there in person. Forget about all of this working remotely nonsense. Yes, work remotely, but visit someone’s office BEFORE you work remotely. It is common sense.

You might also like:

5 reasons why you should have your company under one roof
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/04/5-reasons-why-you-should-have-your-company-under-one-roof/

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/

6 strategies for growing your outsourcing business fast

October 16, 2013 by 123outsource

Categories: Marketing, Semi-Popular | Tagged A little small talk goes a long way, Failed Growth Strategy, Having labor resources, Indian Software Companies, Outsourcing Business, Qualified Prospects | Leave a comment

In real life, growth is partly in your control and partly based on luck, and market conditions. What I learned from looking around is that most companies don’t grow because they have a failed growth strategy. Here are some simple ideas that can help your outsourcing business or offshoring business take off!

(1) Have labor resources
To attract new clients, you need to have some sort of exposure such as a well promoted web site, advertisements, or agents. But, if you don’t have the labor resources to get work done, then you will lose your new client as quickly as you got them. So many American companies are so stupid this way. They go to great efforts to gain new clients, and then don’t fulfill deadlines and lose the client within 30-90 days. Gaining new clients is hard, not to mention expensive. Make sure you retain them. Now, having labor resources is not the same as having quality labor resources. If your workers are all incompetent, that is even worse than not having resources at all. If not all of your staff is smart, make sure that the few who are smart, are regularly watching and inspecting the no-so-smart people’s work like clockwork. Otherwise you can not retain your clients. Having labor resources is key, but they need to be well managed too, otherwise you can not grow your business. Unfortunately, having more labor than you have clients means that you will be paying salaries for people who are not always busy. That is the cost you have to pay for growth.

(2) Give it away?
I just read a blog about a very successful African American. He was asked how he became successful. He responded that he had popular products and just gave them away in the beginning. He was not greedy for money. He gave lots of samples and free stuff to others, and gained the favorable opinion of many future clients. If you give something of quality away, people will get to know you and your company. Most people prefer to do business with someone they know. So, if they can get to know you for free, you will have a very fast way of acquiring clients — at a cost to you. But, how much is the cost to you if you give a little away to qualified prospects? I would screen them to see if they are worth giving a free lunch. If they seem like they have a good chance of being long term clients, then give them something for free, or at least give them some very flexible terms in the beginning. Most companies alienate prospective clients simply by being to rigid in their contracts and terms.

(3) Have a branch office in America
Many Indian software companies and companies from Belarus have an office somewhere in America. This means they are on the same time zone as prospective American clients. It also means that you have an American phone number, and people who speak good English. Americans will trust you more if you have one of your feet on American soil. Having an American office comes at a huge cost, but it can result in fast growth of your operation too. If you can’t afford an office, you can start out with an independent agent who gets a referral fee for introducing business to you.

(4) Have a well optimized website.
Many companies particularly in Gujarat show up all around the world. If you need a programmer in New York, Moscow, or Canada, companies in Gujarat will show up. If you want to get clients, you need to be visible wherever people are looking. If people find you everywhere, they will remember your company name.

(5) Do overflow work for American companies
Most companies in America have a labor shortage. It is hard to find good help in America these days. Many companies might be willing to use your services if you offer very reliable services at good prices. You can get large quantities of work fast this way. But, don’t screw up, otherwise you lose your relationship permanently. Watch your quality control, because you ruin their reputation if your staff makes any mistakes.

(6) Call people with websites
Have someone who is smooth talking call people with websites around the world who speak your language. Those website owners might need database programming or web design. If you get to know them without trying to push your service down their throat, they might not mind talking to you. A pushy salesman will get hung up on. But, if you just call to talk about what their needs are without being aggressive or trying to sell them anything on the first phone call, you might win their affection. Listening is more important than talking on these types of phone calls, and remember to avoid being desperate. You are there to casually chat and see if you can help them — don’t behave as if you are begging for a job. And remember, a little small talk goes a long way with Americans!

Good luck!

You might also like:

If someone doesn’t need your services today…
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/15/if-someone-doesnt-need-your-services-today/

Gaining market share or gaining the type of market share
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/07/18/gaining-market-share-or-gaining-the-type-of-market-share/

How to sell like a pro — what exactly do they do?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/06/25/how-to-sell-like-a-pro-what-do-the-pros-do/

The concept of lower-middle management
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/08/01/the-concept-of-lower-middle-management/

The Power of Knowing People for Outsourcing

September 10, 2010 by 123outsource

Categories: Sales | Tagged Outsourcing, Outsourcing Business, Outsourcing Companies, Outsourcing Services | Leave a comment

Companies are always asking me how to get more clients for their call center, data entry house, software agency, outsourcing outfit, etc. I have many years experience in marketing and have some sales background too. I read that roughly 50% of sales made in the United States were made between people who know each other. If you are always refusing to make small talk with prospective clients, then how will you ever get to know them? The point is that you make sales by having developed a reputation of being trustworthy, helpful, capable, and having people know you.

If people know you and know that you are not trustworthy, then knowing them will not help that much. But, if you have known people for years, and you are always one of the best people to come to for advice, and you are always helpful, they will WANT to spend money on you. They will feel like they owe you as well. They will feel it behooves them to buy from you because who else can they trust at the level that they trust you?

People who own outsourcing companies in India are typically very reserved. They don’t want to get to know NEW people. They don’t answer their phone. If you get them they are busy or don’t want to talk. If they do talk they don’t want to share much about their outsourcing work. They make me not want to know them and not want to use them. On the other hand I know two really nice guys in Web Design & PHP programming. They do e-Commerce set up, blog set up and stuff like that. They are the nicest people I know in India. I like working with them partly because their work is good, but they are very pleasant to be around.

If you want more outsourcing business, I suggest working on your personality and networking skills. If you make small talk with people who work at Western companies (US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc.), then people will get to know you. Instead of trying to sell them something, just chat. Get to know them, and what their needs are. People hate it when you try to sell them something, but love it when you help them solve a problem. In India small talk is not approved of in business, but in the West it is a must, and you need to master this art. Forget about mastering the art of selling. Master the art of chatting and getting to know what matters to people. Sales is about finding a need and fulfilling it. If you are too busy selling (cramming something down someone’s throat), you will be too busy to LISTEN to what the person actually wants and needs!

Network, Chat, Listen, and understand the power of knowing people so that you can effectively market your outsourcing services!!

It is not comfortable moving up the food chain

September 5, 2010 by 123outsource

Categories: Management | Tagged Master the art of delegation, Outsourcing, Outsourcing Business, Outsourcing Company, Will I ever make it up the food chain? | Leave a comment

My business is growing very slowly. I prefer it that way, so I can keep my frame of reference. I don’t like huge and sudden changes in any case. Life is full of surprises and unexpected turns. Growing a BPO outsourcing business also has issues that come up, and growing pains are a huge one.

When you go from being a worker to a manager, it is completely different. I actually like doing grunt work. It is easy. You just have to do a good job and get it done on time. Managing others is much harder. YOU are responsible when they screw up, and it is not always easy to deal with unpredictable people. My strategy is to try people out on outsourcing projects that don’t matter, that way you can get to know them without having consequences other than the money you spent having them do a fake project!

For many years I operated with the same sales lady, the same programmers, and everything remained the same for the most part. We grew a little, and developed our skills in many facets slowly over time — particularly my SEO skills which I started acquiring in 2008 which saved my life. But, now I am confronted with interviewing dozens of people. I have lots of phone calls with companies I wish to hire for outsourcing as well. I have to test out blog writers, programmers, and assistants as well. This really tires me out.

I remember a day when I had two interviews in my county. One was an hour from my house. After that I went to the other meeting which was twenty-five minutes from the first interview. I had a light dinner, and then went to have wine at a nice hotel not far from my house. I was exhausted. The actual time I spent interviewing was only 90 minutes total in the entire day. It completely drained me out. I began to think that I am not cut out for this higher level type of work. I prefer to do my tasks myself and not do much hiring and firing.

“Will I ever make it up the food chain?”
But, then I thought that if I am ever going to make it up the food chain to higher management, I need to be a pro at hiring and firing. On a more comforting thought, when I talk to others in business, I realize that they are not really any better than I am at hiring and firing even if their organization is much larger than mine. Hiring is a skill that requires mastery, and mastery takes a lot of hard work, thought and refinement. I’m having growing pains slowly moving up the food chain, but I think I’ll make it. I’m not sure how long it will take until I’m comfortable doing a higher percentage of management rather than grunt work. Maybe I will be a full fledged manager in a year. When you work for yourself there are no promotions. You do what is necessary for the company to run, so this promotion is one that evolves or doesn’t evolve. We’ll see what happens!

If you are having similar growing pains growing your outsourcing company, you are not alone. Learn to master the art of delegation to the point of it being a science!

You might also like:

Should you have slack in your schedule as a manager?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/07/should-you-have-slack-in-your-schedule-as-a-manager/

6 ways to be more in control of your business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/25/6-ways-to-be-more-in-control-of-your-business/

Tag Archives: Outsourcing Business

One outsourcing company advertised on apps & got big business

Is it time to Uber-size your outsourcing business?

What would Bill Gates do?

Business Names Ending in “Solution” Sound Funny

A 20 minute office visit reveals the character of a company!

6 strategies for growing your outsourcing business fast

The Power of Knowing People for Outsourcing

It is not comfortable moving up the food chain

Categories

Search Blog

Popular Pages

Archives

Meta