BY CODY MCLAIN

10 Key Strategies to Prepare your Company for

Outsourcing

SHOULD I OUTSOURCE MY BUSINESS OPERATIONS

We all have our own idea on what outsourcing is.

It might mean a lost job to some, or a time giving haven to others. One thing is true though, it is one of the fastest growing markets worldwide.

Outsourcing is something many entrepreneurs may eventually gravitate to. When I was running my first few companies I did everything involved to create the infrastructure. 

10 EFFECTIVE TIPS IN OUTSOURCING YOUR BUSINESS

Then I outsourced my customer

support to India. It’s of no shock-

and-awe when I say the majority

of the outsourcing comes from

India and the Philippines.

With this, there are many things entrepreneurs fail to consider when hiring an outsourced company, or full-time freelancers. I’ve outlined 10 key strategies inside to ensure the stability of your business.

#1. DO NOT START OUTSOURCING FOR AT LEAST 1-2 MONTHS FROM YOUR LAUNCH DATE.

This is really the most important part that many entrepreneurs procrastinate over. You’re already doing a lot, why not outsource this, that and before you know it – you’re outsourcing your entire operation.

When you start a company, you need to be the mastermind. If it’s your own companythen it’s better to do as much as possiblefrom the beginning so that you can tweak the infrastructure, and fix any issues.

#1. DO NOT START OUTSOURCING FOR AT LEAST 1-2 MONTHS FROM YOUR LAUNCH DATE.

It’s important to optimize your business from the inside out, and get as many perspectives as possible in order to ensure your business runs as efficiently as possible.

However, at the same time it’s pretty inefficient to run your business this way. It’s hard (but not impossible!) to spread yourself over 12 hours, working day and night.

Which brings me to my next point…

#2. DETERMINE YOUR WEAKEST STRENGTH, AND OUTSOURCE THE REST.

We’re not all superman. So it’s understandable that we will always have a mammoth amount of things we need to do but don’t have the skills for.

It’s important to know what your weaknesses are, but I don’t recommend time growing them. You should however have a base understanding about how every aspect of your business functions.

Your skills, and your employees can’t function efficiently though without a…

#3. PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

Working with a virtual assistant online canbe quite disorganized if you don’t establish an organization system.

A more efficient method is by using a

project management system. The most

popular being Asana, Basecamp and TeamworkPM. Alternatives that I love are Azendoo and Redbooth.

Out of all of them though, I think my favorite is Redbooth. The application seems more centered around easy delegation.

#4. THE RUNDOWN ON SUPPORT SOFTWARE (ZENDESK VS FRESHDESK VS DESK.COM)

If you run a company, whether be software or service based, you will inevitably need to outsource the support depending on how involved you are.

Most importantly, you need to understand it’s features and what you will need for your business 3 years from now.

It may be cheaper to start with the built-insupport system but it’s easier to grow when you have all the right systems in place for your future growth.

#4. THE RUNDOWN ON SUPPORT SOFTWARE (ZENDESK VS FRESHDESK VS DESK.COM)

Keep in mind, the easier it is for you, the easier it will be for your employees – and likely customers. In terms of my recommendations would be to consider Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Desk.com.

I’m glad to see they just didn’t sit on it and let the money role in. They poured more money into the company and developed a tight-nit integration with their existing

product and others on the market.

I think they’re all great, but in terms of

feature/cost analysis, Desk.com wins.

#5. STOP CHOOSING THE ONE WITH THE CHEAPEST SUPPORT.

Many small and independent business owners shop based on price thinking that every support company is the same.

This is a fatal error that can have

Devastating impacts on customer

loyalty with your business.

The cheaper guy, or the cheaper company may not always be what’s best for your business. So keep that in mind before you pick simply based on price. It’s much harder to repair your reputation than it is to grow your company.

#6. DOCUMENT COLLABORATION (DROPBOX VS GOOGLE DRIVE)

Organization is super important in life, but is enormously important to the success of your business. It’s easiest to use a cloud syncing file system – like Dropbox or Google Drive.

I consider Google Drive the best thing in this case as they have a full office suite of editing tools. Not to mention the available extensions in the Google Apps market makes it compatible with just about everything, from powerpoints, mindmaps, and countless others.

#7. ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE (XERO VS QUICKBOOKS)

You need to have a system in place to record payments. Now for accounting I highly recommend Xero over any other accounting software.

Your accountant will also be able to

extra all the reports she needs to file

your taxes.

Furthermore with Xero you can easily setup automated rules for each merchant to ensure it is automatically categorized and all you have to do is approve the transaction.

8. KEEP A PAYMENT LOGWhile you can log payments via the accounting software. Nothing beats being able to look at a quick excel spreadsheet showing all the payments for each contractor/employee on what date and payment method.

I recommend doing the same even for an outsourcing company, as it allows you to be more conscious of your monthly support cost.

In fact, here’s a link to a payment sheet I

made you can use to keep track of payments

with your own team.

#9. SOLID NON-DISCLOSURE-AGREEMENT (NDA)

When outsourcing, you want to have a good document that covers everything. With hiring a virtual assistant it may mean putting in the date they start, expected job expectations, salary and pay date.

It’s easy to find example NDA’s you can find simply by searching “contractor nda template” but I highly advise you to get it reviewed by a lawyer.

One way you can get that is by…

#10. OUTSOURCING YOUR LEGAL DEPARTMENT

There are a few options when you’re just starting out. You could either have nobody, and just outsource the business registration to a service like LegalZoom’s Document Review service which will review documents for $10/month.

#10. OUTSOURCING YOUR LEGAL DEPARTMENT

Legalshield, Legalzoom, or any other pay-by-month lawyer service is of course not even close in terms of quality of a real law firm.

Legalshield lawyers often never more than glance at the documents you give them and do their bare minimum with any request or conversation to get you off the phone.

At only about $40/month it’s not a huge expense but has the potential to save you thousands, and your business.

FINAL THOUGHTSThe methods I proposed above were things I discovered through trial/error and personal experience.

The foundation on which you start your business is the most important one of all. This is why that initial dedication is extremely important as only you fully understand your business and what your customers needs are.

While by no means this is a conclusive list, I hope I provided some ideas on functional ways you can structure your company, and do outsourcing around it.

THANK YOUBy: Cody McLain

Blog site: www.mindhack.com

Follow me: @codymclain