The Blog For Entrepreneurs

Be careful of Internet BS

I would like to talk to you today about is ‘outsourcing’. As is the way of the world these days ‘old’ things get the web 2.0 makeover treatment. For example I heard a spammer talking about himself as a ‘volume email deployer’ or some other BS. When I was a kid we had ‘dustbin men’ (or ‘garbage men’ in the States), when did they become ‘Sanitation Agents’?

Which is why ‘outsourcing’ in the new Internet language is different from what outsourcing was a few years ago. When I outsourced it was project management, virtual offices etc. This is still applies to the Net, of course, through sites like rentacoder.com and getfreelance.com but more people are talking about ‘Virtual Assistants‘ who are ‘outsourced’ with work so they don’t have to….

In my book that is what is known as an ‘employee’…

I am not criticising the act of hiring virtual assistants etc but coating it in some mystery Internet language of ‘virtual assistant’ (now annoyingly being known by the in-crowd as ‘VA’s) who you ‘outsource your working hours to so you don’t have to work‘… is confusing the issue for many people and, frankly, very cheesy.

When I had a commodities business, I didn’t call clients and trade, my employees did that. I didn’t answer the phone, my secretary did that, and I never dealt with the market, my trading managers did that. In my hotel I didn’t clean the rooms, my housekeeping girls did that, I didn’t cook the food…. OK… I think you get it…

What I am trying to say here is be careful of Internet BS. As entrepreneurs we have enough on our plates getting our business together without some guru butchering a word like ‘outsourcing’ to make it sound like something else.

Whatever you call it, hiring is good

OK, that said, I agree with what the gurus talk about (I just don’t agree with them flowering up the language to make it sound like they invented it). Hiring people is good, and the reason that it is being made a big deal of at the moment, is because we are in a shifting business environment.

What I mean is that more and more of us will be able to work from home, via our computers, via the Internet. The entrepreneurial spirit that I am sure you share with me will always be there, 20 years ago the cost of getting into business, however, was too much for a lot of people. Now you can start on the Internet for virtually nothing, you have almost an unlimited clientele and the scalability of the model, launching related products, sites etc is endless.

As in the real world, however, you can’t do this on a large scale by yourself. The commodities business I was involved in would not have done $300mn in business if it had been just me, I needed employees to execute various jobs within the organisation.

This is why ‘outsourcing’ is being touted as a big thing, and why the benefits of globalisation are available to everyone via the Net.

Whatever your political or moral leanings are, if you are in business and you want to compete, it is a simple decision to take on 5 employees from another country for $2000 per month or 1 in your own country (in the US or Europe for example) for $3000 per month.

We have seen this in big business, from the car manufacturers building cars in Vietnam, to your bank’s call center being in India. Now, small business, and Internet business especially, can get in on the act.

Although I built this site myself (I just wanted to know if I could) other sites I have were built by a guy I used in the Philippines. I have had a number of sites built for about $2000 in total. In Switzerland I was quoted at least $4000 for EACH of these sites….

How can foreign employees be utilised and where do I find them?

I have used Filipino employees for 2 years and, when the Internet is up (they get loads of outage) they are great. I mainly utilised them for design, but now I am looking to hire a few people full time to take such tasks as marketing this blog, doing the research for my ebooks and Search Engine Optimisation work.

Finding employees can be a chore. I initially found my guy at Sitepoint.com when he bid on a design, but you will probably have to get more creative than that. If you are completely new to this and have never hired anyone before then the program from John Jonas (This is the link) can help you find where to go and how to do it all.

In all honesty, john is one of these guys who talks like he invented the whole concept, but I don’t hold it against him, sometimes in this day and age good business sense needs repackaging before people on the Internet will buy it. Take a look at John’s program and see what you think.

How is this relevant to my offline business?

If you haven’t got the hint by now about having a blog for your marketing then I will say it again “GET A BLOG FOR YOUR MARKETING!” Seriously, I do not care what you sell, even if it is niche parts to NASA, or firewood to remote mountain villages, get a blog.

As an entrepreneur you will, in any business you are in, find other opportunities and you need to be able to exploit them. By having a web presence, by becoming known as an expert in your field and by networking that blog you will get more business and more opportunities…

“But I don’t have time!” I hear you whine. OK hire a full time Filipino for $500 per month to build your site, market your site, put content on your site, do forum postings, write email copy, drive traffic to your list, write eBooks and put you on the map in your chosen profession.

I kid you not, you will not regret it.

If you have any questions I can help with just let me know in the forum. I have put up a section for ‘Outsourcing Questions’ in the section ‘Business Collaboration’. I called it that as a homage to Internet BS!!!

Regards
David
@OneLifeNoFear.com