Business owners are often skeptical of offshore outsourcing, and for good reason. You can end up sinking thousands of dollars and multiple months investing in employees that don’t understand your business processes, can’t blend into your team, and don’t have the skills required to help your business grow. After all, most outsourcing companies are in the business of staffing bodies: getting you the cheapest available assets as quickly as possible. This rarely works.
Before I owned an outsourcing company, I was an outsourcing client. I grew and sold multiple million-dollar businesses by relying heavily on offshore outsourcing as a means of not only lowering operating costs, but leveraging top talent to enhance business processes. I learned how to hire the right people, at the right cost, to build a revenue generation engine.
So, from one business owner to another, here is how organizations of all sizes can not only benefit from offshore outsourcing, but achieve the growth that has been elusive to them using traditional labor models.
1. The Cheapest Option Is Never The Best
This one may seem obvious, but most entrepreneurs view price as the primary benefit of offshore outsourcing, so the selection process turns into a bidding war. Unfortunately, the cheapest option almost always leads to a slew of issues: language barriers and time zone challenges, low quality work, tardiness, delays, and more. Saving a buck almost always means incurring unnecessary costs and headaches in the long run.
Extend Your Team isn’t the cheapest option on the market, and we’ve often turned away prospects after the first call if $7/hour is what they’re looking for. We simply won’t be a good fit, because I know cheap talent won’t help businesses grow. And, as a business owner myself, I know that I’m interested in making money more than saving it.
2. Always Interview & Ask For References
Always interview your potential partner as well as the outsourced employees they plan on staffing to your team. Get to know their process, and how much say you’ll have in your new team members once you sign on the dotted line.
Best-in-class vendors will approach staffing your team in the same way that an HR team would approach the recruiting process. They’ll interview multiple candidates and only introduce you to the cream of the crop. And, most importantly, the decision to hire will ultimately be in your hands.
Even if you feel comfortable with your vendor of choice, make sure to always ask for references. Preferably references in your industry or line of business. Everyone can hire a good salesperson that knows how to pitch the outsourcing business model, but few companies have a roster of satisfied clients that would vouch for them.
3. When In Doubt, Test The Waters
If you’re really skeptical about offshore outsourcing, or about a particular vendor, I recommend testing the waters with easy, non-customer facing functions. Whether that’s data entry or document management, find a task that isn’t mission critical, but still holds value for your team. This way, you can take care of some time-consuming, manual tasks and test out your new partner in a low risk environment.
Once they’ve proven themselves, take another step and move onto a more important role, perhaps a virtual assistant or IT support team. The cautious way is slower and may delay some of your growth targets, but will leave you feeling comfortable and confident in your decision. After that, you can start considering outsourced employees for your business development, accounting, marketing, and other core needs.
Conclusion
If you’re considering offshore outsourcing, but still have a couple of questions or concerns, request a consultation with Extend Your Team to learn how we’ve worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs to introduce them to outsourcing for the first time. Together with my management team, a collection of top business leaders across various industries, I founded Extend Your Team to serve as a trusted partner for organizations looking to do outsourcing right.