Accurate Africa eServices Ltd.

Ten Tips for Outsourcing Projects Overseas

2011-08-26T03:47:00.000-07:00

Outsourcing work overseas is a challenge faced by many online retailers and e-commerce startups. These days, however, marketplace platforms such as Odesk, Guru and Elance have made it much easier to find overseas professionals with the skillset you require.

But managing a person or team overseas is definitely not a walk in the park, and there have been countless horror stories of overseas outsourcing gone wrong. Speaking from my own experience, I have created a list of important things to consider when outsourcing projects overseas.

Here are my top tips to consider when outsourcing work overseas:

1. Clearly scope out and schedule your project and define deliverables

Be very clear on the scope of your project; define your project requirements so that service providers know exactly what the deliverables are and when the deadlines are scheduled. For some service providers you have to literally spell it out, as they will do the absolute minimum based on the project scope.

2. Be very choosy when hiring

Be very picky when you are hiring, there are many service providers out there, so you don’t need to be in a rush. Also don’t choose a service provider based solely on price – examine at other aspects as well and choose based on a balance of good value and quality results.

3. Look for the right experience fit

Make sure the service provider specialises in what you need them to do, and make sure they have specific experience with the type of project you want them to complete. A lot of service providers will be able to do many tasks, but will specialise in none.

4. Review ratings, statistics and feedback

When choosing a service provider it is important to review all the statistical information that is available on their marketplace platform. Most of the platforms will show their work history, how many hours they have worked, what tests they have taken, and any feedback from previous clients.

5. Review portfolios and sample work

Ask the service provider to provide you with a portfolio of work they have done previously, or get them to do some sample work to show that they actually do have expertise in that area. This will ensure they have the right skills to compete the project tasks.

6. Arrange a call or SKYPE interview

It is always best to talk to someone face to face before you employ them, but it’s not so easy if they are in a different country. Thanks to SKYPE you can easily have a face to face discussion with them to make sure they are who they say they are, and gauge how effective they will be at communication and handling the project.

7. Base payment on clearly defined milestones

Define your scope into a plan with defined milestones and base payment on the completion of each milestone. Always pay by hour rather than by project – this will ensure that the project isn’t rushed and ensures quality.

8. Test a few providers before you make your selection

Don’t rush to hire a service provider and stick with them the whole way. Start interviewing a few candidates and give them small portions of work to test them out. This will allow you to pick the best out of the lot. Also do not sign a one year contract before testing out the relationship and their performance. Start small and commit gradually.

9. Have everything documented in writing

Make sure you have everything documented and in writing. Be clear on who owns the resulting work and make sure there is an understanding from both parties on the intended use of the deliverables. Also keep a written record of project goals, pay schedules and any changes made.

10. Make sure you sign an NDA

It is very important to have an NDA (non disclosure agreement) signed by both parties, especially if the provider has access to sensitive company information that could be used in an unethical way. Any refusal to sign an NDA should be a sign of bad things to come.

Freelancer Tools

2011-04-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

Timing
These are tools to help you time and track your work. Some of them plug into invoicing programs and some even come with them built in:

SlimTimer - Job timer
Tick - Budget timetracker
Time Assistant - Timesheet software
Harvest - Simple Timetracker
FourteenDayz - Online teams Timetracker
PunchyTime - A Timetracker
TimePost - Timer that plugs into Harvest
FunctionFox - Timing for creatives

Invoicing
When you don’t invoice, you don’t get paid, so it literally pays to stay on top of your billing. Here are some tools to help:

Billing Orchard - Electronic billing software
Billable - Service and invoice tracking
SimplyBill - Easy to use invoicing software
Blinksale - Easy to use invoicing software
Quickbooks - Small business financial software
InvoicePlace - Easy Invoicing and Quotes
LessAccounting - Do less accounting!
Side Job Track - Web-based job tracking
Freshbooks - Tracks time, makes invoicing easier.

Project Management and Organization
These resources will help you stay organised and manage those projects and clients

Proposal Kit - Proposal / contract management tools
Ta-Da Lists - a simple (free!) to-do list application
Backpack - Integrates lists with reminders
Writeboard - Sharable, web-based text documents
ConceptShare - Share designs and get feedback
Wridea - Free tool for writers focusing on ideas
GoPlan - Note-taking, calendaring, & real-time chat
Toodledo - Another web based to-do list
ActiveCollab - Open source collaboration tool
MonkeyOn - Your to-do list for other people to do
Remember The Milk - To-Do List manager

Stock Libraries
Templates, Photos, Flash files all to help make you look good

FlashDen - A resource selling stock Flash
Dreamstime - Royalty free stock photography
Getty Images - When quality is essential
Istockphoto - Royalty free stock photography
Veer - Rights managed & royalty free photography
Stock.xchng - Completely Free stock photography
Ice Templates - Website templates in Flash
Template Monster - Website template
MyFonts - All the fonts you could ever want
IconBuffet - Icons, more icons and even more icons
VectorVault - Vector illustration sets

Business Tools
Resources to help with the business of freelancing…

Campfire - Real-time group file sharing
Central Desktop - Workspaces and conferencing
Relenta - Manage your email, and activities
Google Apps - Communication tools
Zoho - Free office tools
Campaign Monitor - Email newsletter software
MailBuild - More newsletter software
Breeze - Email campaign and newsletter software
Business-Paper - Easy business cards
GoToMeeting - Easy online meetings
Wufoo - Make forms to survey your clients
CPA Directory - Find an accountant (in the US)
SBA - Small Business Administration and advice
Paypal - Online payment system
Moneybookers - Online payment system
Escrow - Online payment system
Work - How-to guides to running a small business
XE - Quick and easy currency converter
Trendwatching - Consumer trends and insights
FaxZero - US & Canada - Send Faxes for Free

Legal
Because you have to protect yourself and your work…

My New Company - Legal and start-up information
Designers Toolbox - Legal forms for graphic designers
Copyright - About US copyright
HelpMeWork - US - Helps you focus on what you know best
CreativeCommons - For licensing…just about anything

Job Boards
A whole bunch of places to find jobs, and don’t forget FreelanceSwitch will be adding its very own job board real soon!

37signals Job Board - Full-time design and programming jobs
Authentic Jobs - Full time and freelance job board
Coroflot Job Board - Designer job board
WebProJobs - Full-time jobs for designers, and marketers
Jobpile - Aggregates the best job boards on the web
Krop - Creative and tech jobs
FWjobs - Web jobs board
SlashDot - Jobs for IT professionals
CSS Beauty Job Board - Job board for web designers
MinistryCamp Job Board - Job board for Christian designers
Guru - Freelancer listing service with job board
Elance - List yourself for freelance jobs

Web Tools
Tools to get your Web Presence Up and running…

Squarespace - Nice publishing system for websites and blogs
Rackspace - Hosting & customer service that is second to none
Mosso - Advanced hosting at a reasonable price
MyDomain - Domains for $8.50 per year
Media Temple - Easy to set up and use hosting
Light - Content management for designers and ad agencies
SiteKreator - Instant websites - just add your content
StrongSpace - Back-up and store important files
psd2html - Builds websites in html from Photoshop files
xhtml iT - Website builds from design in 24 hours
ExpressionEngine - A neat little CMS app
Inblogit - A great free blogging tool for web designers
PublicSquare - Easy Web Publishing
WordPress - The best damn blogging tool around
AgencyFusion - Outsourcable programmers
XHTMLized - Supply the design & they do the XHTML/CSS

Advertising and Marketing
A few ways to market and advertise yourself online…

Text Link Ads - Text ads to sell your wares
Review Me - Your service or Web site reviewed by bloggers
Adbrite - Text and banner ads on over 20,000 sites
AdEngage - Text and Photext ads
Adwords - Text ads on Google searches
Professional On The Web - Get yourself Listed

Miscellaneous
All the many things we couldn’t fit anywhere else!

Creative Public - For anyone starting a freelance career.
You Send It - Send files up to 2GB online
Jewelboxing - superior packaging for short run CDs and DVDs
eFax - Send and receive faxes by email
PowerXChange - Extensions for a variety of creative software
Coroflot - A great resources for designers to share work
Cloudmark - Block spam on your PC
SpamSieve - Block spam on your Mac
Dropsend - Email up to 1GB of files
Media Fire - Send 100MB files online
Box - Store, share and access files online
Icebrrg - Simple web forms
Formsite - Web forms and surveys in minutes
Lorem Ipsum - Lorem Ipsum generator for dummy copy
Textmate - The essential programmers text editor for Macs
ETextEditor - Like Textmate but for Windows
Kuler - Colour scheme picker
Pixie - A useful little colour picker
ColourSchemer - A bunch of colour tools
Jungle Disk - Online storage for 15 cents a gigabyte
AskCharity - free online contacts for journalists
TechInline - Remote Desktop Software
Protolize - Web Resource Directory

Do you have a resource we missed? Leave a comment and let us know!

马克以法�

2011-04-10T14:50:00.003-07:00

12 Breeds of Client and How to Work with Them

2011-04-10T14:50:00.002-07:00

There are loads of different types of clients out there and chances are at some point you’ll get to meet all of them. So let’s take a look through some typical clients and see if you recognize a few of your own in there!

Client Breed #1

The Low-Tech Client

How to spot one:
Looks confused and disoriented when discussing anything high-tech, calls rather than emails, wants everything to be faxed. The Low-tech client needs to go through everything twice to get it, but will then happily take your advice.

The Highs:
The Low-tech client will rely solely on your sage wisdom for all things technology related. They will look to you as your technology savior and will stroke your ego with their reverence of your knowledge and advice.

The Lows:
The low-tech client will need to be handheld through everything from setting up their email to opening up PDFs. Charge accordingly. They can also be particularly frustrating if they decide to ‘work it out themselves’. A Low-tech client’s idea of how a website should work for example is often not pretty.

How To Work With One:
The low-tech client needs to be handheld. Make sure everything technical about a job is in writing for them to reread at their leisure. This will save you a lot of time explaining things repeatedly. It’s also best to just accept that you will not be using a lot of the technology that makes our lives easier these days (email, online project management etc) and should instead budget in time for phone calls, faxes and face to face meetings.

It is very easy to start to patronize your low-tech client unintentionally. As you can imagine, this can damage your relationship and even worse hurt their feelings. Make sure you balance the playing field by asking for their input in the areas they know about – their business. This will keep them happy stop them feeling the need to weigh in on your area of expertise – which can waste everybody’s time.

Finally if you work in technology, make sure that your Low-tech client knows how to use whatever product you give them!

Client Breed #2

The Uninterested Client

Thanks to one of our commenters for pointing out my negligence in writing ‘disinterested’ rather than ‘uninterested’ which would have been correct! It is now fixed.

How To Spot One:
The uninterested client is a strange beast – where most clients can’t wait to get involved in your work, the uninterested client just wants things done with as little effort from them as possible. You’ll spot an uninterested client on first meeting when you ask them questions about their business and are met with the minimal response. The uninterested client will rarely provide requested information or materials and will often ask you to complete tasks outside your area of expertise because they “don’t have time”.

The Highs:
An uninterested client will give you a lot of creative freedom, mostly because they have no interest in being involved. Their insistence that you “take care of it” may broaden your skill set and your ability to delegate to outside contractors. You may also gain experience making it work when you don’t have the information or materials you need.

The Lows:
The uninterested client will ask you to take care of everything from copywriting (when you’re a web designer) to flyer design (when you’re a copywriter). Sadly they will often not realize that this should incur extra cost. The uninterested client sometimes marries their lack of interest with wanting things done a certain way producing a very hard to deal with client.

How To Work With One:
It is best to get into good habits early with your uninterested client. A freelancer must be pushy with an uninterested client, so get used to calling and emailing repeatedly. A friendly and humorous tone is a great help when trying to push them along. An uninterested client generally isn’t trying to be rude and unpleasant, most of the time they’re very stressed and crying out for a little help. If you can be straight with them that extra work costs extra money, either take on that extra work if you can or use it as an opportunity to outsource.

A uninterested client is a tricky client, but if you manage to take care of them they often become very loyal, happy to have someone that ‘takes care of business’. Just make sure you are straight about costs, and be clear with yourself that nagging is unavoidable.

Client Breed #3

The Hands-On Client

How To Spot One:
The hands-On client is a frustrated artist, as soon as they walk in the door they will be telling you about their skill as an artist, illustrator, photographer or writer. The hands-on client already has a very specific idea about what they want and usually has very little interest in your thoughts on the matter.

The Highs:
If you’re happy to just do exactly as they ask no matter what you might think of it, a hands-on client can be a good little earner. Almost always there is little confusion as to what the client wants to see and this can make these jobs easy.

The Lows:
If you feel you have an ethical responsibility to point out the flaws in your hands-on client’s directions, you are headed for conflict. Hands-on client’s secretly believe that they could do their job much better than you and that there is little or no specialist knowledge you could possibly impart.

One oddity about working with a hands-on client sometimes occurs when you give in your creative ambitions and agree to do it their way. All of a sudden your hands-on client may accuse you of making them do all the work or not doing your job. This can go as far as baulking on payment. Naturally this is highly infuriating.

How To Work With One:
When you find a hands-on client, the best thing to do is go with the flow. If you try to fight it you usually lose and the job winds up a lot harder than it needed to be. If your hands-on client knows exactly what they want, then power to them, recognise that and give it to them.

Often its a good idea to explicitly tell them that they seem to have a very specific idea of what they want and that you will be following their direction, however make it clear that if they would prefer; you are more than capable of doing it without their input.

Client Breed #4

The Paranoid Client

How To Spot One:
The legal papers come out almost immediately and are elaborate to say the least. A paranoid client will often not want to even discuss their project without getting you to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and be prepared for drafted agreement to be heavily pitched in their favour.

The Highs:
If you work with a paranoid client, any legal agreement you sign should also be protecting you. So as long as you don’t breach any part the agreements you sign you should get paid.

The Lows:
You MUST get any major legal agreements looked at by a lawyer (and not the lawyer that works for them). As you would imagine, this can cost a lot of money that your client may not be willing to pay. Often within these documents are a whole list of grounds for the client dismissing you without payment. Grounds might be that you miss a deadline for whatever reason (even if the paranoid client is at fault).

From personal experience, I have always found the most paranoid clients are the ones who seem to have the most problems as well. This happens because they are always on the lookout for evidence that they are being ripped off or taken advantage of. Needless to say this means that you can easily wind up trying to straighten our points of legality with them rather than doing your job.

How To Work With One:
It is not worth working with a paranoid client for a small or low paying job. The risks far outweigh any possible gains. Besides, a personalized legal agreement is very expensive, so if they’re willing to spend a large sum on protecting their interests they should be paying you equally well.

For a large job with a big client you may wish to consider going for it, but even then factor lawyer’s fees into your quote. Most companies have legal agreements because they want to protect themselves or sensitive projects, but some paranoid clients use them in a predatory way. Remember that the paranoid client paid more to be protected, so you should quote more to make sure you get a fair deal.

Client Breed #5

The Appreciative Client

How To Spot One:
The appreciative client will shower you with praise and make you feel special – gosh I love an appreciative client!

The Highs:
The appreciative client will make your life very easy as they’ll often pick the first version of the first draft and declare it perfect. They’re very enthusiastic and generally a delight to work with.

Even when the appreciative client does not like something they often word things in ways that make you happy to continue work on the project to get it pitch perfect.

The Lows:
They’ll make the rest of your clients look bad.

How To Work With One:
Sit back and enjoy the glory. Make sure you get them a very nice Christmas gift and throw in a freebie every now and then. An appreciative client is like gold to a freelancer, so do your best work and make them feel like a VIP.

Client Breed #6

The Get-a-Good-Deal Client

How To Spot One:
The get-a-good-deal client is a wheeler-dealer and believes that the price you first give is just a starting point for negotiations. You’ll know you have a get-a-good-deal client on your hands because agreeing on a price and job description always involves a bit of to and fro. Often times get-a-good-deal clients are successful entrepreneurial types who have haggled their way to wealth.

The Highs:
Get-a-good-deal clients are often great for getting repeat and referral work having their fingers in lots of pies and you can sometimes make deals that payoff well for you as well as them.

The Lows:
If you aren’t a good negotiator or you don’t recognise a get-a-good-deal client soon enough you can wind up feeling taken advantage of as they take whatever there is to be had. Unethical get-a-good-deal client’s are usually up for ‘no harm trying’ mentality that can see them trying to get out of paying for certain things or at their worst bullying you for more work or discounts.

How To Work With One:
The best way to deal with a get-a-good-deal client is to fight fire with fire so to speak. Taking a get-a-good-deal approach back on them usually negates their strengths and ensures that you cut a fair deal. This means coming in high and then lowering your prices and being very assertive on points of payment and workload.

Client Breed #7

The I’ll-Know-It-When-I-See-It Client

How To Spot One:
The I’ll-Know-It-When-I-See-It client shares much in common with the uninterested client except in a more frustrating way. Their indecisiveness and inability to articulate what they are after makes them one of the few clients that it is generally best to steer clear of.

The Highs:
If you can produce the “It” for this type of client you can possibly win them over and turn the I’ll-Know-It-When-I-See-It client into a very appreciative and trusting client who rejoices in having found someone who has their same ‘vision’.

The Lows:
If you don’t produce the “It” this type of client can quickly become highly frustrating as you stab franticly in the dark while worrying about blowing your budget and timeframe.

To make matters worse the I’ll-Know-It-When-I-See-It client often becomes agitated or unhappy with you if you don’t magically produce “It” leading to strained relations and a project that rapidly goes south.

How To Work With One:
In order to work with a I’ll-Know-It-When-I-See-It Client you need to remember two things:

- First be VERY clear with how much revisions cost. If you don’t do this you WILL blow your budget
- Second unless you can produce “It” you could be in for a rough project, accept this fact.

Client Breed #8

The Always-Urgent Client

How To Spot One:
All their emails are ‘highest priority’ and their couriers are always red-hot. They work on weekends and late into the night and think that everyone else does too. Additionally the always-urgent client often seems to think they are your only client and that their job should therefore be your highest priority as well as theirs.

The Highs:
Since there is never any room for prolonging a job the always-urgent client will usually okay jobs relatively quickly. They often won’t have time to okay a quote so you end up charging by the hour.

The always-urgent client generally knows when they are being unreasonable and will do their best to pay you quickly, which is handy for cash flow.

The Lows:
The always-urgent client adds stress to your life, and if you want to keep them you may need to work late nights or over the weekend. You may also endure repeat late night phone calls and nonchalant requests that you build websites, organise photoshoots and produce detailed illustrations in oh… say a few hours!

How To Work With One:
The always-urgent client must be taken with a grain of salt. Everything will be desperate so you must decide when it is worth the inconvenience to yourself and your other clients. You must make it clear to the always-urgent client when their requests are unreasonable, right from the beginning. As always, keeping this light-hearted and jokey is the way to go, thereby defusing situations where you might otherwise come off as aggressive.

The always-urgent client is similar to the disinterested client in that they both require extra care. You may need to chase up the always-urgent client if you know a job is coming up in order to give yourself more time and as with the disinterested client, if you take care of them when it counts they will be loyal to you.

A word of warning though, having multiple always-urgent clients can lead to severely stressful situations as everything is needed now, now, now! So unless you thrive on pressure, you are advised to limit the number of this type of client you engage.

Client Breed #9

The Decision-By-Committee Client

How To Spot One:
Usually inhabiting the world of large corporate clients, the decision-by-committee client can still be found in smaller operations where they share their decision making with a spouse, neighbour or dog. The decision-by-committee client is one who lacks a single point of authority and for which every decision must be approved by many people.

The Highs:
Since decision-by-committee clients don’t have anyone making firm decisions it is sometimes possible to just do whatever you think and sneak it through under the radar. This can easily backfire though, so be careful.

The Lows:
The decision-by-committee client at its worst is achingly slow to work with and when many people have their pet peeves you can wind up with a highly inferior product to show for the work. Decision-by-committee client almost always reduce to the lowest common denominator and if there is one person who dominates they are usually the one person you wish *didn’t* dominate.

How To Work With One:
Unfortunately decision-by-committee clients are a fact of life when it comes to working with large corporate clients and this is one reason why it is important to charge high when dealing with the big guys.

It helps to be firm and quickly identify the stronger members of the committee and target them for responses while trying to win them over by conceding lesser points and sticking to your main guns.

Client Breed #10

The Doormat Client

How To Spot One:
The doormat client is the client who puts up with anything and just keeps coming back. They are usually very unassertive and seem to be content waiting for ages for you to get back to them or accepting less than perfect work.

The Highs:
The doormat client is often also very appreciative which is always nice. Its also relaxing to have a client who doesn’t mind waiting around.

The Lows:
Unfortunately doormat clients often bring out the worst in freelancers. Without the pressure of a potentially angry client a freelancer can easily become laissez-faire about their work and wind up taking advantage of the client’s passive nature.

How To Work With One:
The doormat client requires great discipline to make sure that you stick to your timeframes and deliver the goods. If your client doesn’t protect themselves then it is up to you to do so for them.

While you may wish to take advantage of their generous nature on occasions when you are stressed, you should try your best to treat them the same as every other client.

Client Breed #11

The Budget Client

How To Spot One:
Every client is on a budget, but some clients just seem that much tighter than the others. The budget client can be the result of doing a friend or relative a favour, or equally just a regular client who never has any cash.

The Highs:
Budget clients are sometimes appreciative of the work they are getting done so cheaply - though unfortunately this isn’t always the case.

The Lows:
Budget clients are cheap and at their worst still expect the same service and workload as their higher paying brethren. This makes them both annoying and bad for business.

Budget clients are at their worst when they exhibit traits from other clients such as ‘Always-Urgent’ or ‘Paranoid’, in which case its just not worth it.

How To Work With One:
Make sure your budget client realizes they are on a budget and that therefore their work may not always be first priority and that you probably can’t get those extra changes or revisions in because it simply doesn’t make good business sense. If your budget client gets aggressive or manifests other negative traits, accept that they aren’t worth it and let them go.

Client Breed #12

The You-Should-Be-So-Lucky Client

How To Spot One:
The you-should-be-so-lucky client is much cooler than you and they know it. They generally have a cool but low paying project for you and are in an industry everyone wants to work in… think music, film and fashion industries in particular.

The Highs:
The right you-should-be-so-lucky client looks great in your portfolio, and your friends will think you’re cool. You’ll make some handy contacts and your professional credibility will probably benefit. You’ll also be hanging out with the cool kids – TAKE THAT HIGH SCHOOL!

The Lows:
You won’t be paid much and the you-should-be-so-lucky client will act like they’re doing you the favour, not the other way around. If you do enough jobs for a you-should-be-so-lucky client you will start getting jaded about the industry and feel mistreated for your efforts.

How To Work With One:
The you-should-be-so-lucky client can be a great asset to your portfolio, but that will be the main reason to do the job. Because everybody wants this type of job (until they’ve actually got some) there are many talented but green freelancers more than happy to work for almost nothing. If you are a student this can be a great thing to do, but for a seasoned freelancer it can impact your cash flow. So pick your you-should-be-so-lucky clients carefully and use them sparingly to impact your portfolio or break up the monotony of corporate jobs. And of course, make sure you enjoy being that damn cool!
So that’s our list

Have we missed any clients? And which are you favorites …

13 Breeds Of Freelancer And How To Up Your Game

2011-04-10T14:50:00.001-07:00

Freelancer Breed #1

The Artiste Freelancer

Is This You?
You are a master of what you do, or at least you think so. Criticism from a client is often met with disbelief or anger and if a client asks for a small change you lament that the whole project is ‘ruined’.
Fulfilling your clients needs isn’t as nearly as important as making it ‘really cool’ and when you talk about your clients, somehow phrases like ‘stifling my creativity’, ‘pleb’, and ‘uneducated buffoon’ keep popping up.

The Highs:
If you’re fiery enough many clients will become too scared to critique you leading to very few revisions. Even if they do ask you for revisions you can always make up reasons why you don’t need to listen anyway. Your portfolio looks exactly the way you want it to.

The Lows:
Your adverse reactions to various client requests mean that often your clients don’t actually get the work they wanted. Plus thanks to your high maintenance you are beginning to develop a reputation - unfortunately it’s probably not the one you were after. If you push them far enough, your clients may refuse to pay you. And because you are unwilling to accept that you may be wrong on things you miss out on opportunities to improve your work.

All of this pales however compared to those horrible situations when after you have finally succumbed to your client’s wishes, the project actually turns out better than it would have if you were left to your own devices!

Picking Up Your Game:
Being an Artiste doesn’t usually mix well with the business of freelancing since most clients want the project to fulfil their needs not yours. When you put a lot of yourself into your work, it’s hard to separate criticism for the work and criticism of you. Unfortunately this is the day-to-day reality of freelancing and you need to grow a thick skin to protect your fragile ego. Try not to expect a first draft or concept to be greeted with congratulations and you won’t feel quite so devastated when you need to revise.

What often works is to think of client requests and revisions as constraints in an elaborate game that you are trying to conquer. Look at them in a positive light and do your best work within those constraints and your clients will be happier, your work will often wind up better and you’ll be a more successful freelancer.

Freelancer Breed #2

The Payin’-The-Bills Freelancer

Is This You?
Although there was a time when you loved what you do, recently it feels like nothing more than a way to support yourself. You don’t really feel any interest in improving your skills and ‘passionate’ or ‘committed’ aren’t adjectives your clients would use to describe you.

The Highs:

Thanks to your lack of idealism you don’t often get bogged down trying to get it ‘just right’ and you’re quite content for work to just be acceptable.
You don’t really get upset when you have to do revisions (so long as you’re getting paid for every single one) and if a client insists on directing your every step you are more than happy to let them.

The Lows:
You don’t have much fun working anymore and like someone working a 9-5 you live for the weekends and afterhours.
While others are happy to be freelancing, for you it’s much the same as any other job – except you don’t get holiday pay.

Because you don’t feel particularly interested or excited about work, chances are you’re not spending time pushing yourself to become better at what you do. This inevitably comes back to haunt you as other freelancers get better and better and you stay pretty much where you always were.

Picking Up Your Game:
Whether you are a freelancer or a 9-5er you are going to spend much of your adult life working, so you might as well enjoy it! Of course knowing this isn’t enough to change your attitude. To bring back the passion you used to have you need inspiration. Try subscribing to magazines, doing non-client projects, going to conferences and hanging out with others in your industry who just can’t help being excited.

If there is something that is making you miserable at work - too much of it, a horrible work environment, the wrong clients - then make some proactive changes! Drop back on some of the workload, get rid of the most soul-killing jobs and change up your work environment. Remember that by igniting your passion and getting excited again you’ll enjoy working more, produce better projects and in the long run make more money.

Freelancer Breed #3

The Pushover Freelancer

Is This You?
Even though you know your client is wrong, you still do exactly as they ask because you’re afraid of losing their business. You inevitably seem to find yourself up at 3am trying to finish off a client’s ‘sudden emergency’ and because you bend over backwards for them regularly, no-one really seems to appreciate it anymore.

When it comes to billing you could never call a client about an overdue invoice and you often give them discounts when they ask (or demand), even if it leaves you with a loss.

The Highs:
The biggest benefit to being a Pushover Freelancer is the amount of work you get because clients love working with you. Repeat clients and referrals flow through the door and you are usually booked up to the hilt. Your reputation for service and customer satisfaction is unequaled.

The Lows:
Unfortunately that reputation has come at a price. You often get the short end of the stick and some clients leave you feeling used and abused. Although you make big sacrifices for clients most of the time you aren’t receiving the appreciation or gratitude you deserve.

Picking Up Your Game:
While you have no problems getting or keeping clients, you’ll soon find yourself getting pretty annoyed and feeling hard done by. Before this happens, practice being firm with your clients. If you really feel that another revision isn’t the right way to go, tell your client. If an invoice is overdue, let them know. If the idea of doing this is downright terrifying, then you will need to either work on your confidence or find someone to partner with in handling your client liaison.

It’s not a bad thing to let clients have their way from time to time, but it should always be an even balance. Remember that if you don’t do it, no-one else will look out for you. It’s unfortunate but true that some clients, particularly larger companies will happily walk over you if you let them.

Freelancer Breed #4

The AWOL Freelancer

Is This You?
Work’s getting a little stressful so you switch off your phone, shut down your email and go to the movies.
You have 10 irate voicemail messages on your cell – but that’s not unusual for you. Avoiding problems is your version of dealing with them. You vastly prefer email as a communication medium because it’s so much easier to ignore.

The Highs:
You’ve found an effective albeit temporary way to avoid stress, pressure and confrontation.
Your clients always seemed immensely relieved to hear from you after one of your disappearing acts.

The Lows:
You live in a constant state of stress, doing everything possible to avoid irate or sometimes even just regular clients. Your phone is off the hook, your cell is switched off and your email usually unchecked.
When you see clients and even ex-clients on the street you hide.

Most clients only ever work with you once because they can’t handle the stress of not knowing what’s going on.

Picking Up Your Game:
The AWOL Freelancer wants to avoid confrontation or difficult conversations. This is particularly hard when a client needs your help or wants to give you a kick in the pants and you’re nowhere to be found. Unfortunately for you, the best solution is to take that first phone call/respond to that first email and get the pain over and done with - like ripping off a band aid. More often than not dealing with the problem isn’t actually that bad and when you face up to things you often find yourself saying ‘Gee, why didn’t I do this before and not go through all the worry’.

Depending on why you avoid contact, you may also need some practice in saying no to client requests and not making promises you can’t fulfill later.

Freelancer Breed #5

The I-Did-It-My-Way Freelancer

Is This You?

No matter what the brief is, what the client asks for and what the audience’s needs are, you do pretty much the same thing for every project. Whether it’s a house design style, the same tone of voice in every piece of writing or the same choice of development environment, you have one tool for every job.

If a client tries to explain why they’d like their work done a certain way you ignore them until they give up. If that doesn’t work you give the appearance of going along with them, but slowly, subtly turn the project around to become one of your usuals.

The Highs:
You often end up doing jobs exactly as you originally envisaged them. You’re very confident and some clients appreciate having it just taken care of for them. If your particular style happens to be in fashion or the project happens to be well suited to your ‘way’ then you can produce spectacular results.

By ignoring your client’s actual needs and doing whatever you feel like you are able to do things that people in the industry appreciate (and often wish they got to do). This can lead to industry awards and accolades even if the end results weren’t actually that effective.

The Lows:
Unfortunately your ‘way’ isn’t appropriate for every job, leading to sometimes poor results, overkill (or underkill) and frustrated clients. Additionally while your ‘way’ is in fashion you might get lots of kudos and recognition, once the boat has passed your work might be seen as passe and irrelevant.

Picking Up Your Game:
Every job is different and it’s unlikely that a one-size-fits-all solution is going to work every time. While you pursue your own agenda you will often wind up giving your client the wrong solution to their brief and no matter how cool or fantastic others in your field think it is, at the end of the day if it doesn’t serve the purpose it was intended for, then Houston we have a problem.

Unless your client has given you a license to do what you may, your responsibility is to produce the right solution for the job - that’s why you’re getting paid. Although you are the expert, and rightly should feel confident you know how to get results, you must take into account both your client’s needs and the audience’s. Although you may often wish to still stick to your guns, it is wise to at least listen and try to be flexible.

Freelancer Breed #6

The Hit’n'Miss Freelancer

Is This You?

While you have had times when you’ve managed to meet deadlines, most of the time you just go right off the tracks. Unless something is urgent you just can’t seem to get it started. Unfortunately too often when you play with fire you get burnt – letting jobs go way over their deadlines - leading to some very unhappy clients.

You suspect your repeat clients are giving you fake deadlines to counterbalance your hit’n'miss ways, but this only leads to you not taking the new supposed deadlines so seriously.

The Highs:
Rather than it just being what you were s’pposed to do, when you hit a deadline both you and your client are overjoyed. Because you thrive under pressure, living close to the edge means you produce some good work.

The Lows:
The irate phone calls and emails from clients when you’ve missed their deadlines are never much fun and sometimes you have to go without payment or you lose a client when you just can’t get a job finished in time. You’re often up at 5am desperately trying to finish a project and sometimes the stress just doesn’t seem worth it.

Picking Up Your Game:
Most of the issues for a Hit’n'Miss Freelancer are related to organization and productivity. You might want to look into a system like Getting Things Done or subscribe to a productivity blog like ZenHabits. Whatever you do it’s going to be annoying to start with and will take work, but you’ll hopefully get closer to meeting those deadlines. This means that overall it will have to be more pleasant than your client screaming down the phone.

It might also help to start considering your client’s perspective. As you begin to identify and consider the ramifications of their deadlines you’ll naturally feel more responsibility to get things done before the deadline has long passed.

Freelancer Breed #7

The Blame-Game Freelancer

Is This You?
It is never, ever your fault. Anytime a project goes wrong you find blame everywhere but on your own shoulders. Most often blame winds up at your client’s feet, often leading to bad relations. Whether it’s because the copy writer didn’t get you the text for the site soon enough, or because the legacy system was badly written or because the client’s brief was poor, somehow there is always some other cause to your woes.

The Highs:
You get to feel self-righteous. Because you are constantly searching for evidence of where others have dropped the ball, you always feel vindicated. You never need to improve because as far as you’re concerned, you’re already perfect.

The Lows:
Clients will get very upset when you tell them it’s their fault. By finding fault elsewhere you often can’t see a way to improve things yourself, leaving you feeling powerless.

Picking Up Your Game:
If the fault lies elsewhere you get the benefit of not having responsibility, but more importantly you also have no power in the situation. Being powerless to affect your work is a depressing place to be. But there is a simple fix, consider that you hold the power over everything. By adopting this mentality you will find that you can start to control the outcome of your projects. If you think a copy writer is going to be late with the text for a website then start contacting them, warn the client, write the text yourself, anything, just take back the power!

If you have to work with some legacy code that is rather poor, explain this to the client and tell them you either need to be paid to clean it up or you can’t take the job. If the brief is too vague, ask the client for more details. And so on.

Running a blame-game will sometimes help you sleep at night, but ultimately leave you feeling less fulfilled. Deciding you are responsible for everything is a hard road to tread, but will get you much further in life and in work.

Freelancer Breed #8

The Constant- Excuses Freelancer

Is This You?

Unlike the Blame-Game Freelancer, you are quite happy to take responsibility for something going wrong, the problem is things always go wrong, don’t get done or are really late.

Your client has lost count of every time you’ve been sick, detained or the victim of natural disasters. They are also becoming exasperated by how often their emails mysteriously disappear or you have computer problems that hold you back.

The Highs:
At first you get a lot of sympathy, slack and belief, and you milk it for all its worth! This means that you get to take days off, sleep in, do whatever you feel like and then produce one of your patented no-evidence excuses.

The Lows:
Before long telling your client you’ve had another stomach bug is just too embarrassing and you’re pretty certain they are beginning to see through your excuses. Like the boy who cried wolf, you now know that any real emergencies will not be tolerated by your long suffering clientele.

Picking Up Your Game:
This is a stressful habit to get into. It’s not that you’re lying to your clients, but rather you have some great excuses if you just exaggerate a little bit. The only problem is, you do it a bit too often, and your clients are now getting pretty annoyed. Gone are the sympathetic emails – now you get a curt reply with no reference to your latest misfortune.

When it comes down to it, your client probably doesn’t care what your problems are. They just want their work done well and to deadline. You could have a look at your organizational skills if you find you’re missing deadlines. Otherwise, just try to apologize when things don’t go well and get on with it. Not relying on an excuse will make missing that deadline for whatever reason far less appealing.

Freelancer Breed #9

The Hidden-Costs Freelancer

Is This You?
The Hidden-Costs Freelancer is a favourite of clients the world over. You always quote low to make sure you win the job. Then once you have the job and are mid-way through you begin to mention those extras that will be needed and what they’ll add to the bill.

Job bidding sites are perfect for you, because you can quote low initially, and besides you rarely work with the same client twice since they already know your game.

The Highs:
You often wind up getting paid quite well at the end of the day and your prices keep the clients coming. You never worry you’re going overtime on a job, because you know you’ll make them pay in the end.

The Lows:
Your client relations are strained to say the least as most people don’t appreciate the way you add extra charges the way a Nigerian email scammer adds bank fees. Because of this sometimes a client will simply not pay, hoping you’ll go away and hence you rarely get repeat clients. You have also been known to get little pangs of guilt occasionally!

Picking Up Your Game:
Sometimes as freelancers we need to add an extra cost at the tail end of a project if a brief expands. However, if you always find yourself adding unforeseen extra charges at the end of every project, you may need to work on your quoting and communication. Creating an in-depth brief with the client at the beginning of the project may help you to quote more accurately. If you do need to add an extra cost into a project, be sure to let the client know before you commence that portion of the project. A good explanation and some options will go a long way to keeping goodwill, and hopefully your client.

Freelancer Breed #10

The I-Can’t-Finish-This Freelancer

Is This You?
When the going gets tough, you will most often drop out of the project completely. While you share much in common with the AWOL freelancer, when you vanish you generally never return. You often feel guilty for leaving a client in the lurch and there are usually long email exchanges just before the end.

You will forgo pay to avoid having to work on a project any longer and feel immense relief when you finally ditch the job.

The Highs:
If a job is going badly, turns out to be very hard or much bigger than you’d anticipated when you wrote that fixed quote, it is much easier to drop it than stick it out.

The Lows:
You’re often left feeling guilty and generally like a bit of a quitter. You have a string of ex-clients who remain very angry or confused about the way the project ended.

Picking Up Your Game:
There will be a couple of incidents for every freelancer where they’ve decided a project was not working and the best thing to do was walk away. However, if you’re doing this often you may wish to rethink. It’s when things are really complicated and seemingly impossible to resolve that we often pull out our best work and learn new things. If you decide to stick with a project, even when it’s going really badly you will most likely earn a loyal client and some new skills to boot.

Freelancer Breed #11

The Too-Cool Freelancer

Is This You?
Many clients have trouble relating to you and for the most part you think you’re slummin’ it working with them. You feel like working for clients is equivalent to selling out and often drop in that latest art project or open source work you’ve been doing to establish your cred.

The Highs:
You have a lot of confidence and your clients are a bit intimidated by you (and in your opinion so they should be!)

The Lows:
Occasionally clients don’t realize how cool you are and try to tell you want to do or think that their projects are actually important. Other clients just feel bad about themselves and go on to work with someone else. And still other clients just think you’re a bit of a tosser.

Picking Up Your Game:
People like designers and photographers are considered trend-setters in marketing circles, so it’s no surprise if you’re uber cool (power to you). The problems arise when you’re too cool for school, and mere mortals feel horrible around you. Which you probably wouldn’t mind except your clients keep finding goofy but friendly freelancers to replace you. The solution? Broaden your perspective a little. Chances are your clients may not be as cool as you, but they’re probably damn good at what they do. See if you can learn from them a little, and hopefully they won’t get the impression you’re embarrassed to be seen with them.

Freelancer Breed #12

The Big Business Freelancer

Is This You?
Your website uses terms like “our team” and “our organization”. You’ve convinced your clients that you have a team of 10 minions behind you. Every time a client wants to come to your ‘office’ you almost have an aneurysm.

The Highs:
Your website and phone manner look and sound very professional, which can garner a level of respect and you can charge a bit more because clients think you have a mountain of staff to feed.

The Lows:
You live in constant fear your clients will discover you live and work in your uncle’s garage and all those ‘departments’ you keep talking about are really just you. Clients assuming you’re a team of 10 will sometimes give you ridiculous amounts of work for one person, and you’re up all night trying to get it done.
If a client does decide to drop in unexpectedly it is usually rather embarrassing.

Picking Up Your Game:
Some freelancers think there is something to be ashamed of in being a one man band. In fact, many people in business will admire you as being a solo freelancer affords a great deal of flexibility. If there’s just one of you, it’s best to be honest about it. It will make little or no difference to most clients, and you won’t need to lose any sleep over them finding out.

If you’re already embroiled in a big business deception and want to get out, you can transition slowly back to individual freelancer, and if you are subtle enough, hopefully your clients won’t notice the difference. Start referring to I instead of we, and next time a client asks if they can “come check out the office”, you can simply tell them you work from home and you’d rather come see them. Far less stressful and a lot more honest!

Freelancer Breed #13

The No Business Skills Freelancer

Is This You?
After quitting your job with a vision of pursuing your creative passion from home, you’ve woken up to the reality that the business of freelancing has a tendency of getting in the way even more than your boss did. Clients always have to give you pointers on how to run your business, some going as far as reminding you to invoice them. Every accountant you hire quits after seeing your accounts and when you need to quote you just pick a number that sounds about right and hope for the best.

The Highs:
You never get caught up in admin and let’s face it, you’re not in danger of becoming the Payin’ The Bills freelancer!

The Lows:
Your finances live in a constant state of disarray, you resent and avoid the realities of running a small business, have no insurance, haven’t paid your taxes and the truth is you could be making far more money but you just can’t seem to get organized.

Picking Up Your Game:
You love what you do and you’d be very happy, if only you didn’t need to run your own business. It is a very common problem for freelancers starting out to underestimate and avoid the administration work involved in running any business, even one as small as a solo one.

The best thing you can do is hire a good book-keeper and accountant, this will help make sure you don’t get into trouble with the tax department and some will handle your invoicing and payments for you too. You might also like to read this book which deals with all these issues. And finally of course, you should regularly read FreelanceSwitch for tips and advice!
Have we missed any?

So there’s our list, have we missed any?

The 7 Highly Effective Habits of Successful Freelancers

2011-04-10T14:49:00.003-07:00

Over the years, I’ve noticed that successful freelancers, e.g., those who make their living entirely from freelancing (writing, editing, copywriting, web design, etc.), have the following seven traits in common.

1. Write/design/Research every day: Many freelancers are drawn to their particular career because they love it. They love to write, research, design, draw – whatever it is; they would do it for free.

Once they decide to freelance full time, most work at it every day. They write articles, design sites, doodle illustrations, etc. In other words, they don’t stop working on their craft just because there is no paying client.

Benefit to their career: These professionals always have a body of work to sell, show, update their portfolio with, etc. Beyond that, it keeps their skills fresh and allows them to work that much faster once they are being paid for a project.

Side Note: I have run across more than a few freelancers who don’t exactly love what they do. BUT, because they like the life of freelancing, they discipline themselves to do what it takes, e.g., (work at it steadily) to make a living at it.

2. Don’t wait for markets to come to them: Building on this first habit, when you are constantly churning out new material, you don’t have to wait for clients to come to you, you can pitch to them.

If you’ve written a great article on the benefits of yoga, why wait for a national exercise magazine to take months to get back to you. Pitch your local newspaper journalist who covers health. You’ll usually know within a week or two if they can use your story.

Your neighborhood paper can’t use it? Pitch the neighboring county’s newspaper, a popular e-zine dedicated to women’s health, a new health website that needs fresh content, etc.
Successful freelancers are this proactive. When I was recruiting, I was constantly amazed at the type of assignments successful freelancers were able to ferret out for themselves.

When I’d ask, “How did you get that assignment, come up with that idea?”, the comments ranged from, “I couldn’t sleep last night so I start doing some digging online because I just wrote this great article and wanted to get it published,” to “I was just doodling and came upon this great design; I knew it would make a great logo for this niche, so I put it on a t-shirt and pitched a few boutiques in my neighborhood …”

Successful freelancers are not only creative in their work, they’re creative in how they locate markets to sell their work.

3. Have more than one stream of income: By this, I do not mean that they have second jobs. Most successful freelancers do more than one thing.

For example, a writer may design a line of themed t-shirts with their witticisms on them. Illustrators, in addition to creating logos, may sell paintings or drawings. Web designers may also create online games.

I don’t know how many more brain cells creative types use than the rest of the population, but editorial and creative professionals usually dibble and dabble in more than one sector – and quite successfully I might add.

4. Have a niche: While this may seem to contradict the previous habit, it doesn’t. Most successful freelancers do one thing – and do it very well. E.g., they are a medical writer, a direct mail copywriter, a web designer.

This is because successful freelancers usually have a professional background in the discipline in which they freelance. Usually, they have built up a reputation and client list based on their expertise/experience.

Benefit to their career: This works well because once clients are comfortable with you on one level, you can approach them about doing other types of projects. In some cases, they will even approach you.

For example, if you are a web designer, you can approach a client about doing some logo design work. Most web designers are familiar with other tools of the trade like logo design software that makes it easy for them to offer peripheral services to clients.
In the retail trade, this is known as up selling. BUT, you can only up sell if you have established a level of trust and professionalism in your base (niche) skill.

5. Have a website: Without fail, all successful freelancers have at least a basic website. They realize the need to present a professional image to clients and have invested in an online presence.

Every once in a while, I am still asked by those just starting out if they need a website. Invariably, I ask, “Would you do business without a telephone?” I think websites have progressed to this point.

Benefit to their career: Websites save freelancers time – which is at a premium if you are a successful freelancer. You can direct potential clients there to see samples of your work, get pricing info, your professional credentials, your client list, etc. Many times, this is how clients will find you to begin with.

So, is having a website a must to succeed as a freelancer? In my opinion, absolutely. And, it doesn’t have to be fancy and cost a fortune. Most web surfers are seeking information.
A basic site will serve your purposes just fine. Just make sure it is professional looking, is easy to navigate, is free from grammatical errors and has your contact info on every page (or a “Contact Us” button on every page).

6. Are savvy & consistent marketers: Revisiting habit three, successful freelancers are masters of marketing their services. They have to be.
When you are a freelancer, you have to remain hungry – for the next assignment, the next gig. By being proactive and consistent marketers, successful freelancers don’t wait for one project to be done before looking for the next one.

To this end, these professionals use many marketing tools (free and paid) to get the word out about their business, e.g., search engine optimization, article marketing, press releases, e-book giveaways, speaking engagements, seminars, workshops, etc.
In other words, successful freelancers treat their careers like a start-up business – which is what freelancing really is.

7. Put in much more than 40 hours/week: Face it, you may be able to go to the grocery store at 2pm when everyone else is stuck in an office, but you probably didn’t log off until 2am, finishing up a project for a client who needed it at the last minute.

Freelancing is not a static career. Sometimes you will have weeks with nothing to do and then you will get slammed with three or four projects at once. It’s some type of weird Murphy’s law at work.

Projects never come when you want or need them too. They invariable come at the most inopportune time (e.g., when your kid is sick, when YOU’RE sick, two days before vacation, on a Friday afternoon and needed by Monday).

So, while you may be able to work in your jammies – you may also not be able to go to the beach, hang out with your friends as much, take the afternoon off. Like anything in life, it’s a trade-off (a worthwhile one in my opinion).

Just know, while your time may be your own, it will be on an unconventional schedule.

The Killer Called BOSS

2011-04-10T14:49:00.001-07:00

Going against the human biological clock, essential for work in the BPO industry, has a direct impact on health.

The BPO industry even has a name for it: BOSS - Burn Out Stress Syndrome. BOSS syndrome is seen very commonly among young people working in call centers. The symptoms of this syndrome include chronic fatigue, insomnia and complete alteration of 24-hour biological rhythm of the body. Gastrointestinal problems are inevitable for those working at nights as the body is put under chronic stress. A potentially fatal increase in heart rhythm can result in severe chronic sleep disorders in both men and women.

Hormonal disturbances can result from imbalances in melatonin and cortisol, two hormones that govern sleep and stress. Sleep deprivation and exposure to light at night may interrupt melatonin production, thereby stimulating the body to produce more estrogen, which is a known hormonal promoter of breast cancer.

After working on overnight shift, many shift workers face a serious risk of falling asleep at the wheel. Studies have found that auto accidents increase during the early morning hours. In fact, several studies show that sleepiness and alcohol have very similar effects on the ability to drive. Similar to alcohol, drowsiness can slow your ability to react to unexpected situations, decrease overall awareness of one's surroundings, and impair judgment.

Additionally, the stress due to the impairment of conventional social and family life could also result in increased substance abuse and the breakdown of marital and other relationships. Difficulties are particularly acute for women with child-care responsibilities.

Psychologists fear that the impact of call center work will emerge in the months to come. Clinical psychologists delineate three primary issues like loss of identity, isolation and alienation and stress that may force employees to seek medication and boosters to cope with their work. Doctors who have interacted with employees from call centers at two levels - as clients who had approached them for counseling and in a workshops say that some call centers, worried at the stress and health problems faced by employees, have approached psychologists to counsel their staff - not in an official capacity, though.

They merely provided a list of psychologists the employee can go to 'if he/she faces any problem - the implication being that individual employees have problems due to their personal inability to adjust, not because of problems inherent in the nature of their work and working environment.

Some companies that are headed by managers who are not directly affected by this disorder, managers who work during normal working hours, have left this counseling role to the Human Resource managers and others even lowered it to the team leaders who have through team building kept BOSS in check. Or so they think. Very unprofessional. Don't you think?

Biologically, the human body is tuned to work in a 24-hour rhythmic clock cycle. The rhythmic cycle is however turned on its head by BPO's and call centers where most of the works happen in night shifts.

Solutions within reach

As the BOSS syndrome threatens to spread and assume greater proportions, employers and employees of the BPOs have to join hands to fight the threat and salvage the situation.

The Kenyan BPO industry must realize that to keep growing, it must keep not only its customers but also its employees happy'. Some measures include:

Provide de-stressing zones like in-house gymnasiums, fun areas, weekend parties, etc, to combat work-related stress.
Make arrangements to provide healthy food to employees
Offer support to the staff by organizing frequent breaks, mandatory vacations and medical assistance through on-call doctors.
Stress-management and personal counseling sessions to help employees.
Guidance about physical and mental coordination to synchronize the body clock and maximize brain-body potential to meet the demands of a call centre job is necessary.
Establish welfare committees as forums for employees to voice their concerns and to redress grievances.

The employees themselves should heed the writing on the wall before it is too late and should:

Exercise regularly to keep themselves fit and
Practice yoga or meditation to relax the mind
Eat healthy and take short but frequent breaks to recharge their batteries
Do not bite off more than they can chew when it comes to work. Do not take on more work when already overloaded
Take proper rest and also seek co-operation and support from family and friends
Maintain work-life balance by making time for socializing and hobbies
Never sacrifice educational goals for a job that looks apparently exciting
Remember that a call-centre job may provide only a short-term experience.

Medical Transcription in Kenya; A challenging career option!

2011-04-10T14:48:00.001-07:00

Medical Transcription is one of the fastest growing fields in health care business in Western countries, especially in the US where the entire healthcare industry is based on insurance, and detailed medical documents are needed for processing insurance claims. Therefore, the hospitals and doctors avail medical transcription services to cater with the demands of documental records, basically outsourcing the business. In the last few months, Kenya has shown an unprecedented success in this field of medical transcription cashing in on the outsourced business from US and other western countries.

Medical Transcription provides an exciting and challenging job option with an ever expanding knowledge based career. It is the process whereby a medical transcriptionist has to accurately and swiftly transcribe medical records dictated by doctors and their associates comprising of history and physical reports, clinical notes, office visit notes, operative reports, consultation notes, discharge summaries, official letters, psychiatric evaluations, laboratory reports, x-ray and MRI reports and pathology reports. A medical transcriptionist is a person who carries out the process of converting the voice format of medical data into text data.

The data is received in the form of digital data files and voice data files and converted into text format in the process of transcription. There are certain prerequisites to convert those voice files into text documents which basically involve transcription and editing. To ensure maximum accuracy, the editing part of the transcribed files include quality checking, visual proofreading, spelling checks, grammatical corrections, rephrasing to streamline the context, and removal of inconsistencies and illogical content so that the desired accuracy of at least 98% is met before being uploaded back to the clients.

Kenya provides an ideal locale for conducting medical transcription work with a large population of educated English speaking people, a large pool of IT professionals, the internet revolution, and the computer-savvy new generation aided by free market policy. Advancement in technology has tremendously metamorphosed the global economy and work place and the field of medical transcription has undergone tremendous progress because of constant advances in communication and Internet technology. Majority of the work is outsourced from US, but even British and Australian doctors are beginning to consider Kenya as a possible source of getting this work done-quickly and efficiently.

Outsourcing of medical transcription work to Kenya has the direct and immediate advantage of cost reduction, reliability in turnaround time, and total document security. The comparative low cost in Kenya to those of US or other developed countries serves as an encouragement for companies abroad to outsource their work to the Kenyan Medical Transcription field thereby making Kenya to be one of the top destinations of medical transcription industry. Turnaround time is critical in this industry, and Kenya, because of its advantageous time zone in comparison to America and Europe, holds the advantage of delivering the work the very next working day for them.

Kenya is witnessing a boom in medical transcription field with a plethora of companies and training institutes mushrooming all over the place, but due to lack of training, experience and planning, most of them may go into oblivion. Those who augur well with this new concept of business will persist and provide job opportunities to thousands. The success of these companies will be an indication that medical transcription, if handled appropriately, has the capability of creating opportunities and maneuvering the Kenyan job scenario to an extent.

Transcription services in Kenya range from small, one-person home-based businesses to sophisticated, high-tech IT enabled corporations which employ transcriptionist on well paid pay rolls. In the metros and major cities, many big business names have ventured into this field and are flourishing and expanding day in and day out. Most of the bigger companies prefer to have in-house training programs so as to cater with the demand and curb down the effects of growing attrition rate. Some medical transcription firms even get their work done by employing on-site as well as home-based medical transcription basis.

It is not a cake walk for Kenyan companies in this field to compete with the medical transcription professionals of the western nations who seem to enjoy all the advantages of language and backdoor environment. Every now and then there is an anti outsourcing voice raised for the work outsourced to other countries and trying to bring out faults in the work done here. At the same time, Kenyan industry is pitted against some new developing destinations like China, Philippines, Sri Lanka and others who are eager to fight out with Kenyan dominance. But still Kenya enjoys an upper hand with its efficient work force and competency which augurs well with the high demanding western world. Ultimately, what matters most is the honest work, truthfulness, and diligence which would win against all odds!

Don’t Rely on One Client: 5 Ways to Avoid Trouble

2011-04-10T14:46:00.002-07:00

During my first year of freelancing, I relied on one client for my bread and butter. When that client gave me a week’s notice that they no longer needed my services, I felt like I was up a certain creek. Over the years, I’ve had the problems with relying on just one or two clients hammered in. If there’s even a minimal problem with the one client taking up all of a freelancer’s time, that freelancer might not be making rent next month.

But there are ways to move from relying on one or two clients — just like there are ways to move from a full-time job — that can wind up making your freelance business more successful in the long run.

1. Spend some time on your personal projects

If all your bills are paid and your hours filled, it can be hard to find the motivation to go out and find even more work. But such a situation does provide with the opportunity to work on your own projects. If you don’t have to worry so much about finding income, you can take the time to work on those projects that you know can turn a profit if you can just sink some time into them.

Whether you want to run a website of your own, sell an ebook or pursue another passive income opportunity, pursuing your own projects can give you a little more security than relying just on one client at a time.

2. Keep marketing your services

Even if you have enough work that taking on even another hour’s worth will make you pop, you should be marketing yourself. You need to keep adding fresh information to your portfolio and keep your name out there.

And if you find your dream project, there’s nothing wrong with asking a current client to let you free up a couple of hours to work on something particularly awesome. Depending on how you phrase things, your big client may be more than happy to pay you for 35 hours a week rather than the full 40 you might be receiving now.

3. Outsource parts of the project

You’ll need your client’s okay before you start bringing in anyone else to work on a project — but it can pay off, if your client is willing to go along with it. On a lot of big projects, freelancers wind up working on parts of the project that aren’t really their specialty: a website designer may do a little search engine optimization on a client’s text, for instance.

If you can pass those project pieces off to the experts, you can free up a little time to pursue other projects. Sure, you’ll have to pay those specialists, but you’ll also be able to take on more work. It can pay off in more ways than allowing you to take on more than one client.

4. Look for small side projects

Remember the projects that fit best with your schedule when you were still working full-time? Some of the best were small gigs that required just a few hours to complete. Sliding even one small project into your schedule can ensure that you’re still in the game without disrupting your big client. You’ll get the added bonus of changing up your work, as well, in case you’re the type to get bored of working on the same project day after day.

5. Leave that big client behind

In general, I don’t recommend walking away from a gig that makes up a good chunk of your income. But the fact is that when a freelancer finds a steady gig, it’s far too easy to stick with that gig long past the point where it’s lucrative. A freelance writer may take on a blogging gig when he’s first starting out — and will keep blogging for that client long after he can land much better pay with another client.

To continue to build your freelance business, sometimes you just have to know when to walk away. You can combine leaving your big client with marketing your talents, of course: it’s worthwhile to see if you can line up at least a few smaller clients for immediately after you plan to give your main client notice.

20 Questions to Develop Your Business

2011-04-10T14:46:00.001-07:00

A few months ago a friend who owns a retail furniture store asked me to help him develop his business. My first step was to understand his business, where he had gaps...and also find out what he didn't know (but should). I came up with this list of 20 questions.

As important as the answers are to these, it's as important that you CAN answer them. These aren't all the questions that you could ask, but these were the ones that first lept to the top of the heap for me. There were key answers I was looking for under each of these to understand where his company was mis-prioritized, underutilized and ineffective. Also, with detailed information on some of these (by week or month) you can find interesting insights that lead you to understand the troubling trends.

For my friend's business, a lot of these were not known...which was the first step...to determine strategy and capture data. For many other answer, there wasn't a reason for the answer. Similar to many small business owners, decisions were made from the gut or habit, for years. This happens despite the fact that data and competition might lead them in a different direction.

Just asking the questions, digging in deep on some of these, and asking "why" after each answer will yield benefit in most businesses!

STRATEGIC

What are your short term and long term goals (what time period are these goals)?
How do you measure success?
What do you think are the top three things keeping you from achieving success?
What are your company's exclusives? What do you have that your competitors can’t or wouldn't copy?

MEASURES

What is the average order size and average order margin? How has this trended?
How many customers buy each month? What is the mix of new vs. previous customers?
What is a customer worth over a lifetime? Have you calculated the NPV profitability of customers?
What is the cost per acquiring a customer? i.e. Total marketing costs / new customers.

MARKETING

How do you communicate to existing customers after the purchase?
What is your monthly marketing spend, and what is the mix between the different vehicles? What is this marketing expense trend vs. revenue over the past 3 years?
How do you measure your marketing? What tests have you run? Results?
How do your competitors market differently than you?

CUSTOMER

What are the top 3 things customers are looking for when they come to the store / web site? And how do you know this?
Where are most customers coming from or going to when they visit your store / site? And how do you know this?
If I were a customer, what would my 20 second word of mouth 'sound byte' be if I were to tell a friend about you? What would I say?
Who is your primary competition and how do you differentiate your customer service, shopping experience, and products from competition?

EMPLOYEES

What are the roles/responsibilities of the top management in the company? How these are made clear to each of them?
What are your key performance indicators and how often do you review them as management, and with employees?
How are employees compensated? Are there performance-based incentives?
What are the career paths? Are they clearly communicated to employees?

How to Keep the Best of the Office Life as a Freelancer

2011-04-10T14:05:00.001-07:00

Nearly five years ago, I said goodbye to the day job and hello to the work at home lifestyle. I’ve never regretted it. I don’t miss commuting, office politics, kowtowing to the boss or the lack of control over my time.

However, there are some things about office life that are worth keeping. A sense of structure, interaction with other people and a feeling of security are a few perks of the day job that many freelancers feel like they’ve lost. Here’s how you can have the best of both worlds.

Structuring Your Workday

Although office workers chafe at a 9 to 5 workday, there’s something to be said for knowing when the workday starts and when it ends. When you work at home, your workday tends to creep outward to fill any free time. You may find yourself writing from 6am one morning to 2am the next. Long term, that’s not good for your health or your relationships.

Think about creating a structure for your workday that fits around your other priorities.

Think about creating a structure for your workday that fits around your other priorities. It doesn’t have to be traditional, but it gives you a start and end time and separates work life from home life. My work day starts about 6 am and ends at around 8pm, but I take time out to get my daughter ready for school, to have a lunch break with my work at home hubby and to spend some time with my daughter after school.

Critical Feedback

When you work in an office, there’s always someone there who can look at your latest project and be a critical friend. Everyone needs someone to bounce ideas off, and it’s easy to find those people in a large office. Don’t worry; you can find them online too.

There are lots of forums for writers, designers and other work at home professionals where you can show off your stuff and asked for an informed opinion. Though it may seem strange at first, you’ll soon be talking to these people as if you have known them all your life, which brings me to the next point …

The Water Cooler/Coffee Machine

The third important aspect of working in an office is bonding with your colleagues around the water cooler or coffee machine. It’s a chance to talk about things other than work in a relaxed and non-judgmental setting. When you are working on your own, that can be the hardest thing to replicate, but it can be done.

When you make contact with people on blogs and forums, you’ll soon find them cropping up all over the place. I connect with a lot of writers on Plurk and sometimes Twitter, and the conversation ranges from stuff about kids, to hair, to movies. This is an essential part of human interaction and you don’t have to miss out just because you work at home.

The Lunch Hour

Check around to see if any of the people you connect with online live near you.

Remember those times at the office when you would plan to have lunch with colleagues at a fab new place round the corner? Or take your lunch to the park so you could bask in the sunshine? Well, those are two things that you don’t have to give up when you work at home. Check around to see if any of the people you connect with online live near you. If they do and you’re feeling social, arrange to meet them for lunch. It will be just like taking a lunch break with one of your office colleagues. And it’s even easier for you to plan lunch with your friends and loved ones.

Since you can work anywhere, you can take your laptop to a beautiful location, pack a picnic lunch and enjoy the beautiful weather. Or simply decide that once every so often, you’ll reward yourself with a long lunch hour with people who are important to you.

Pay And Bonuses

One of the things that friends say they miss is a steady paycheck and bonuses. Even as a freelancer you can have the best of both worlds. Steady pay for freelancers means repeat business from regular clients. Although I am never quite sure of the volume of work I will get, I write for three sites that provide steady work throughout the year. If other work is in short supply, I can increase the amount of work I take from these agencies, so that I’m sure of having a minimum amount coming in.

As a freelancer you do have an expense account - the only trouble is that you are the one paying it off, so that’s no fun at all. But you can really score with bonuses and you can get them more than once a year. Just as office workers get performance related pay, you can reward yourself when you land a new contract or complete a new project, especially if you manage to get paid a bit more than you thought. (It does happen sometimes). Take some money and spend it on something you really want. You won’t miss the office at all.

The Essential Outsourcing Decision Guide

2011-04-10T14:04:00.003-07:00

If you are considering outsourcing part of your business' operations, then you need to decide if outsourcing will be right for your business over the long term and if it fits into your company's strategic plan. This outsourcing guide is designed to help you decide by framing your decision around a definition of outsourcing, presenting advantages, disadvantages and dispelling myths.

Introduction to Outsourcing

Many businesses use outsourcing everyday, but they do not consider it outsourcing. Today's popular media has given the term "outsourcing" the connation of jobs being shipped overseas to low wage markets (a.k.a. offshoring). Here is a new way to look at outsourcing that can save you money.

Outsourcing Advantages

First you must consider the advantages to outsourcing in order to determine if there will be any benefit to your business. Evaluate each area that you are considering against each item in the list. Estimate in relative terms, if outsourcing that area would provide that particular advantage to your business. If there are significant numbers to justify outsourcing that process, proceed to the next step and investigate the disadvantages.

Outsourcing Disadvantages

Once you have decided that the advantages to outsourcing an area of your business make it worth pursuing, you must consider the disadvantages of outsourcing. Perform the same exercise of applying each item in the list to your business and specifically relating it to the area that you are considering for outsourcing.

Outsourcing Success Tips

Top 6 Outsourcing Disadvantages

2011-04-10T14:04:00.001-07:00

As you evaluate your outsourcing choices, keep in mind that there are advantages to outsourcing and disadvantages of outsourcing. Look at each one of the outsourcing disadvantages listed below and decide what impact that item would have on your business. If the outsourcing disadvantages outweigh the advantages of outsourcing, then you should avoid outsourcing those operations.

1. Loss Of Managerial Control

Whether you sign a contract to have another company perform the function of an entire department or single task, you are turning the management and control of that function over to another company. True, you will have a contract, but the managerial control will belong to another company. Your outsourcing company will not be driven by the same standards and mission that drives your company. They will be driven to make a profit from the services that they are providing to you and other businesses like yours.

2. Hidden Costs

You will sign a contract with the outsourcing company that will cover the details of the service that they will be providing. Any thing not covered in the contract will be the basis for you to pay additional charges. Additionally, you will experience legal fees to retain a lawyer to review the contacts you will sign. Remember, this is the outsourcing company's business. They have done this before and they are the ones that write the contract. Therefore, you will be at a disadvantage when negotiations start.

3. Threat to Security and Confidentiality

The life-blood of any business is the information that keeps it running. If you have payroll, medical records or any other confidential information that will be transmitted to the outsourcing company, there is a risk that the confidentiality may be compromised. If the outsourced function involves sharing proprietary company data or knowledge (e.g. product drawings, formulas, etc.), this must be taken into account. Evaluate the outsourcing company carefully to make sure your data is protected and the contract has a penalty clause if an incident occurs.

4. Quality Problems

The outsourcing company will be motivated by profit. Since the contract will fix the price, the only way for them to increase profit will be to decrease expenses. As long as they meet the conditions of the contract, you will pay. In addition, you will lose the ability to rapidly respond to changes in the business environment. The contract will be very specific and you will pay extra for changes.

5. Tied to the Financial Well-Being of Another Company

Since you will be turning over part of the operations of your business to another company, you will now be tied to the financial well-being of that company. It wouldn't be the first time that an outsourcing company could go bankrupt and leave you holding-the-bag.

6. Bad Publicity and Ill-Will

The word "outsourcing" brings to mind different things to different people. If you live in a community that has an outsourcing company and they employ your friends and neighbors, outsourcing is good. If your friends and neighbors lost their jobs because they were shipped across the state, across the country or across the world, outsourcing will bring bad publicity. If you outsource part of your operations, morale may suffer in the remaining work force.

Analyze Business Requirements

2011-04-10T14:03:00.002-07:00

This is the toughest part of the vendor selection process. Success here will put you on the right track in selecting the right vendor at the right price. Lack of effort, poor planning or taking shortcuts will seriously jeopardize the success of the vendor selection process. This part of the process will be shorter and less complex for basic part and commodity vendors (eg. basic raw materials, office supplies, gas/electric, etc.) and fundamental services (eg. janitorial, heating/cooling system maintenance, office machine service contracts, etc.). It will take longer for more complex parts and multifaceted services (eg. Software outsourcing, call center services, etc.). Regardless of the size and scope of the material or service that you will be selecting a vendor for, following these steps will help insure the success of rest of the vendor selection process.

1. Assemble an Evaluation Team

The evaluation team must be composed of decision makers and knowledgeable employees from every area that has a stake in the successful outcome of selecting a vendor for the product, material or service that is going to be sourced outside of your company. For parts and services that only affect a few areas, a small team of three to five people will be sufficient. For larger products and services that affect several areas (or maybe the entire company) five to ten people may be required. More than ten people may become unmanageable. Examples of large projects include complex subassemblies, computer information services and large customer service call centers.

2. Define the Product, Material or Service

Writing a definition of the product, material or service that you are selecting a vendor for will be the easiest task that you have to accomplish and the most important. For smaller and simpler projects this may only be one paragraph or a reference to a bill of materials entry. For larger projects this may be several paragraphs. By writing and publishing the definition, all of the stakeholders will be aware of what the team is trying to accomplish. Secondly, as the project progresses, people may try to add specifications or additional features. This definition can be referred to throughout the project to help keep the team on track and on target.

3. Define the Technical and Business Requirements

If the vendor selection process is for a part or subassembly, the specifications can be obtained from the bill of materials, engineering drawings or manufacturing procedures. If it is a service or software, then specific business requirements must be defined. The bigger the scope of the project, the more requirements you should have.

Top 7 Outsourcing Advantages

2011-04-10T14:03:00.001-07:00

As you evaluate your choices and decisions in outsourcing different components of your operations, you will need to consider the advantages of outsourcing. When done for the right reasons, outsourcing will actually help your company grow and save money. There are other advantages of outsourcing that go beyond money. Here are the top seven advantages of outsourcing.

1. Focus On Core Activities

In rapid growth periods, the back-office operations of a company will expand also. This expansion may start to consume resources (human and financial) at the expense of the core activities that have made your company successful. Outsourcing those activities will allow refocusing on those business activities that are important without sacrificing quality or service in the back-office.
Example: A company lands a large contract that will significantly increase the volume of purchasing in a very short period of time; Outsource purchasing.

2. Cost And Efficiency Savings

Back-office functions that are complicated in nature, but the size of your company is preventing you from performing it at a consistent and reasonable cost, is another advantage of outsourcing.
Example: A small doctor's office that wants to accept a variety of insurance plans. One part-time person could not keep up with all the different providers and rules. Outsource to a firm specializing in medical billing.

3. Reduced Overhead

Overhead costs of performing a particular back-office function are extremely high. Consider outsourcing those functions which can be moved easily.
Example: Growth has resulted in an increased need for office space. The current location is very expensive and there is no room to expand. Outsource some simple operations in order to reduce the need for office space. For example, outbound telemarketing or data entry.

4. Operational Control

Operations whose costs are running out of control must be considered for outsourcing. Departments that may have evolved over time into uncontrolled and poorly managed areas are prime motivators for outsourcing. In addition, an outsourcing company can bring better management skills to your company than what would otherwise be available.
Example: An information technology department that has too many projects, not enough people and a budget that far exceeds their contribution to the organization. A contracted outsourcing agreement will force management to prioritize their requests and bring control back to that area.

5. Staffing Flexibility

Outsourcing will allow operations that have seasonal or cyclical demands to bring in additional resources when you need them and release them when you're done.
Example: An accounting department that is short-handed during tax season and auditing periods. Outsourcing these functions can provide the additional resources for a fixed period of time at a consistent cost.

6. Continuity & Risk Management

Periods of high employee turnover will add uncertainty and inconsistency to the operations. Outsourcing will provided a level of continuity to the company while reducing the risk that a substandard level of operation would bring to the company.
Example: The human resource manager is on an extended medical leave and the two administrative assistants leave for new jobs in a very short period of time. Outsourcing the human resource function would reduce the risk and allow the company to keep operating.

7. Develop Internal Staff

A large project needs to be undertaken that requires skills that your staff does not possess. On-site outsourcing of the project will bring people with the skills you need into your company. Your people can work alongside of them to acquire the new skill set.
Example: A company needs to embark on a replacement/upgrade project on a variety of custom built equipment. Your engineers do not have the skills required to design new and upgraded equipment. Outsourcing this project and requiring the outsourced engineers to work on-site will allow your engineers to acquire a new skill set.

Outsourcing Office Functions

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Outsourcing office functions can benefit the company, but before you jump into the "outsourcing boat," you need to determine which areas, if any, could benefit from outsourcing. Think about the reasons why companies outsource as you consider the following areas that are outsourced on a regular basis.

Secretarial Outsourcing

If you are a small or one-person office, secretarial duties such as scheduling, confirming appointments and making travel arrangements can be outsourced on-site or to a person sitting at another location. Remember, with today’s technology, employees can be any where in the world. There is also opportunity to share an outsourced secretary across two or three offices if they are located in close proximity to each other.

Every type of business has unique functions, most of which can be outsourced. For example, there is a company in California that can do your Real Estate back office operations for your business. In addition to secretarial duties, they will perform preparation of listing presentations, Comparable Market Analysis (CMA) and listing packages, closing transaction management and Multiple Listing Service (MLS) Management (just to name a few!).

Typing / Transcription Outsourcing

Clerical work that must be converted to written words in a specific format can be dictated and sent via e-mail or regular mail to an outside service specializing in that type of service. For example, medical or legal notes that need to converted to written words.

Accounting / Financial Outsourcing

Opportunities are endless in this area. A quick glance in your local Yellow Pages® and you will find a list of accountants ready to help you prepare financial statements, general billing functions, special services for medical and legal billing, and payroll processing.

Human Resources Outsourcing

With all the paperwork and forms that it takes to hire (and fire) an employee, outsourcing this area could benefit a small company that has a low hire or turnover rate. In addition, the administration of employee benefits can be outsourced.

Customer Support Outsourcing

If your business manufactures or distributes a product that is technical in nature, customer support can become a major issue. Routine customer support calls can be answered by a call center to free up your employees to focus on pressing business issues. There are a variety of sizes to fit all needs, from small local companies to large centers located across the ocean.

Sales and Marketing Outsourcing

Unless you have a degree and training in marketing, this area is best left to the professionals. Advertising campaigns, telemarketing and public relation tasks are just a few of the services that can be outsourced.

I.T. Support Functions Outsourcing

Information Technologies (IT) is one of the largest areas of outsourcing. There are endless opportunities to outsource any range of services. In addition, this does not have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Some companies only outsource the areas that they do not have internal expertise for. These areas include:

• Help Desk Operations
• Desk Top Support
• Network management
• Telecommunications
• Software Development
• Hardware Support

Distribution Outsourcing

Product distribution can be outsourced to common carriers such UPS and FedEx. In order to make this cost effective, a certain volume of commerce must be made every month. Every need is different and you should contact you local sales representative.

Highly Specialized Functions

Finally, a multitude of high specialized functions can be outsourced, such as:

• Project Management Outsourcing
• Engineering Outsourcing
• Construction / Contracting Outsourcing

Outsourcing Myths

2011-04-10T14:02:00.001-07:00

There are a number of misleading notions that are being circulated regarding outsourcing. This article explains why each outsourcing myth is not true and the reason why it is a myth.

1. Myth: Outsourcing will solve all your problems.

The first outsourcing myth is the biggest. If you have problems in your business, outsourcing does not magically make them go away. For example, I had a client that was considering outsourcing customer service because their employees were not able to keep up with the call volume. Instead of hiring additional employees they were considering outsourcing. Upon analyzing the call logs, it was discovered that a majority of calls pertained to the software interface for the product (it was confusing and poorly designed). The problem was a poorly designed interface that was causing a large amount of support calls. Outsourcing would not have solved that problem. It would just move the problem from one place to another.

2. Myth: Outsourcing companies will do it better than you can.

There is a perception that any company that performs outsourcing will do it better than you because they specialize in it. True, they are motivated to deliver quality service. But, after the contract is signed (i.e. their price is fixed for the next 2 to 5 years) their motivation is to reduce costs in order to maximize profits. Their shareholders are not your shareholders. It is possible that the extra money you spend on that back-office service is what gives you the edge over your competitors.

3. Myth: Outsourcing will save you money.

The other perception is that any outsourcing company can also do it cheaper than you. A majority of this depends upon how well your company negotiated the contract. If the contract contains limitations or maximum levels, penalties may start to be assessed. Suddenly, that “fixed price” contract turns into an outrageous financial obligation of the company.

5 Tips for a Successful Outsourcing Project

2011-04-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

Outsourcing success is dependent upon how well you manage the process before and after the outsourcing contract is signed. Many companies award the outsourcing contract to the lowest bidder without understanding what it means to the business and without performing a complete vendor selection process. When things start to fall apart, like missed delivery dates, quality problems occur or bad customer service, the blame-game starts and everyone runs for cover. The following outsourcing success tips will help ensure that outsourcing will succeed in your organization and you will achieve the results you desire.

Outsourcing Success Tip #1: Outsource for the Right Reasons

Taking a bad business process and outsourcing it only makes the problem worse. Without a doubt, an outsourcing vendor should add value to your business, but should not be relied upon to fix the problems inherent in your business. For example, if your IT department consistently misses deadlines because users keep changing their minds, outsourcing this function will result in higher costs and higher levels of frustration.

Outsourcing Success Tip #2: Thorough Vendor Selection Process

In the Deloitte Consulting - 2008 Outsourcing Report 35% of executives responded that they wished they would have "Spent more time on vendor selection and vendor evaluation" before signing an outsourcing contract. The outsourcing decision can be distorted by emotions and manipulated by company politics. A successful vendor selection process will remove the emotions and control the company politics.

Outsourcing Success Tip #3: Make It Measurable

Also, in the Deloitte Consulting - 2008 Outsourcing Report 49% of executives responded that they should have "Defined realistic service levels that align with business goals". If you don't analyze and define quality measurements and/or service levels, how will you know if your outsourcing vendor is performing to your standards?

Outsourcing Success Tip #4: Follow Up

After the newness of the outsourcing relationship wears off, it is human nature to sit back and enjoy the ride for awhile. Unfortunately, this leads to complacency and attention to performance can be forgotten. In order to avoid these symptoms, set a timetable to review your outsourcing vendor's performance. Also, appoint a manager or executive that will be held responsible for the follow up. If needed, send your staff to be trained in vendor management skills and techniques (check with local colleges or universities). This strategy will also yield the ability to deal with unforeseen circumstances on a timelier basis and mitigate the risk associated with outsourcing.

Outsourcing Success Tip #5: Know When Your Going Over Your Head

Seek an experienced advisor or consultant if your outsourcing project involves any of the following circumstances:

• The project is big enough that it will expose the company to significant risks
• Company politics are jeopardizing the success of the project
• Management does not have the experience in vendor evaluation and vendor selection

Outsourcing Is Part Of Industrial Evolution; Can We Stop Inevitable?

2011-04-10T14:00:00.001-07:00

Protectionism may win short term popularity contests; it will not make long term problems go away.

In the last week's US midterm elections, the Republicans seized the House of Representatives mainly on the plank of the Administration's failure to tackle the rising unemployment in the country. Now lame duck Democrats control the Senate. For the Republicans, this victory is sweeter than the 1994 elections, when Democrats lost 54 House seats with Bill Clinton as the then-President. This change in dynamics is the biggest shift in power since 1948, when it was the Republicans who lost 75 House seats, according to psephologists.

These results have a huge bearing for Indian outsourcing sector as the focus has shifted on to the export of jobs to countries like India.

India’s outsourcing sector employs more than two million people. Revenues from this sector account for roughly five per cent of the country’s economic output. According to Gartner, the BPO market in India is estimated to grow 19 per cent through 2013. A shift in the strategy of US companies on outsourcing will hurt the Indian IT sector.

Roughly a 70 per cent of business come from US companies, and given the dismal economic scene in the United States and the results of the just concluded Midterms elections, hard times may lie ahead.

Blame it on Outsourcing

Lets take a look back. In 2004, Ipsos-Public Affairs conducted a poll for Associated Press. When respondents were asked if they thought outsourcing did more to help or hurt the US economy, 69 per cent said the latter. 64 per cent of respondents said outsourcing is mostly caused by the greed of corporate executives, while some 30 per cent said outsourcing is mostly caused by the need for companies to compete.

Lets take a look at public sentiment now. A poll conducted by WSJ/NBC News revealed outsourcing was being blamed for the country’s economic distress. Some 86 per cent of respondents said they believed outsourcing of jobs by US companies have led to economic sluggishness (corporate profit-seeking and healthcare costs were also cited as issues). The poll also highlighted a belief that free-trade agreements have been damaging for US.

Here is some more data. 83 per cent of blue-collar workers say outsourcing of manufacturing functions to foreign countries. 95 per cent of professionals and manager-level employees blamed outsourcing. Respondents across party lines, and rural, urban, and suburban lines are blaming outsourcing according to various polls and reports.

Political Theatre

US President Barack Obama signed into law a new Border Security Bill proposing a steep hike in some categories of H-1B and L-1 visa fees. The state of Ohio proposed banning outsourcing government IT projects to offshore destinations. The ban can only be viewed as counterproductive to the US government thrust on reducing public deficit and possibly lead to an increased tax burden on its citizens," said Nasscom. Nasscom also pointed out that both the moves came before the Midterms elections, and blatantly called it ‘electoral rhetoric'.

Outsourcing has indeed been a key issue in this election. A Democratic bill intended to penalise companies that ships jobs overseas was blocked by the Republicans from becoming a law, mere days before the Midterms. The bill proposed ending tax deductions for expenses when companies cut down US operations, and shift jobs abroad. It also suggested imposing tax on products once made in US but manufactured elsewhere now; besides offering employers a two-year payroll tax holiday on jobs repatriated from overseas.

In other incidents, in California, Democratic representative Barbara Boxer ran television advertisements highlighting her Republican opponent Carly Fiorina’s decision to lay off HP employees in US and shift thousands of jobs abroad, when she was CEO of Hewlett Packard. She won. Fiorina did attempt a comeback asking Boxer to return any money she may have obtained from companies that outsourced, since she was principally opposed to the idea, but that did not seem to cut any ice with the voters.

"While Illinois is hurting, Bobby Schilling is focused on jobs—in places like India and China." says an ad run by the Democratic representative Phil Hare in Ohio. He lost to Republican Bobby Schilling.

Democratic attacks on outsourcing alienated many Indian Americans in America, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal. For the first time USINPAC the chief Indian American lobbying group notably switched allegience.

NBC has come up with a sitcom called ‘Outsourcing’ to cash in on all the fervour. It shows the inevitable cultural clashes that happen when a US manager is transferred to head a call center in India. Both the Indian and American sensibilities are exaggerated for comedy, but in the end East and West not only meet, but get along famously together. Now if only, life were to imitate art.

If the majority of people, across party lines, across demographics and geography, blame outsourcing as the root cause of all American economic evils, whether outsourcing helps or hinders ceases to matter in the short term. What matters is that both the Democrats and the Republicans have to do something about outsourcing to appease the masses, and not only that, they need to be seen by the electorates as doing something.

Neither of them have much of a choice. It did not really matter who got the most votes at least as far as outsourcing is concerned. Now that the Republicans have won the House of Representatives, they will be forced to propose measures that keeps jobs in the country. Bills have been blocked, Obama and the Democrats have been proved mostly incompetent, and there is the 2012 presidential elections coming up.

Some not All

The ‘Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Outsourcing and Privatization,’ was published by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology in United States in August 1996 (a copy of the report is available in Google Books). “The Task Force is convinced that an aggressive DoD outsourcing initiative will improve the quality of support services at significantly reduced costs,” says Chairman Philip A. Odeen.

The report also clarifies, “It is important to note outsourcing savings are significantly higher in government organizations than the private sector. This difference reflects the relative efficiency of in-house support organizations in the private sector, as opposed to their government counterparts.”

As the report points out, Information Technology was among the first business functions to be outsourced. The trend began roughly in the mid-1980s. If the US companies are competing to drive economic efficiences, and outsource a part of their non-core activities to low cost centers, it is ultimately the stakeholders of the company in US who reap the benefits.

China-based Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd) may assemble and manufacture computer, communications, and consumer electronics devices for companies based in US, but the developers and designers are based out of US. Capital expenditure abroad usually translates to capital expenditure in US as well.

New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman has been among the advocates of outsourcing in US. He touched upon the phenomenon in ‘The Lexus and the Olive Tree'. Friedman expands the trends of outsourcing, and talks about the four broad categories of people in his book ‘The World is Flat,’ who can have job security. Workers who are ‘special’ (Bill Gates, Michael Jordon), workers who are ‘specialised’ (specialized lawyers, accountants, brain surgeons), anchored (electricians and plumbers who have to be at a specific location) and workers who are ‘really adaptable’. For the rest of us, we have to ‘learn to learn’ - upgrade our skillsets, learn new skills or specialise in very specific niche areas.

All for One

There is no way one can underestimate individual trauma and suffering in the event of a job loss. In Silicon Valley, for example, some high tech engineers were forced to take up jobs as grocery clerks to prevent banks from foreclosing their homes. It is true, that increasingly not just back-office work, but functions like engineering and product development are getting outsourced. These are economic realities we have to deal with. Unfortunately, using artificial means to stop the invisible hand of global market phenomenon just do not work.

Think of the Industrial Age. It happened; whether or not people who lost their jobs to machines could adapt to change or not. When processes started getting automated, a whole bunch of us found out computers did what we do, cheaper and better. Again, computers could not be stopped. When the railroads were first being built, it killed a whole bunch of local industries as raw materials could travel further and finished goods started getting transported in bulk. Not building railroads was not an option.

The answer lies in governments creating environments where new skills can be learned and nurtured, and employees are flexible, adaptable, and get handsomely compensated for being so. Protectionism may win short term popularity contests; it will not make long term problems go away.

Another option may be to create new jobs. Energy is one sector, where the government can pump in funding. It is estimated that some $190 million is spent a day to fight the war on terror. A fraction of that amount can be diverted towards R&D for cleaner fuel perhaps. The country’s education system could use a boost. Maybe the government can start hiring more teachers, especially at the primary levels, where the student-teacher ratio needs much to be desired.

Tips for BPO or ITES Job Applicants

2011-04-10T13:59:00.003-07:00

This sector consists of two different streams - BPO & ITES. All kinds of data processing or Back office functions can be classified under BPO. And all contact centers (also called Call Centers) involve with customers directly – either outbound calls or Inbound calls.

BPOs are mainly for Accounts processing, Medical transactions, legal transaction processing etc. Contact centers can be further classified as Voice based & Non voice based contact centers and/or Email processing. Before joining the band wagon on BPO/ITES, study the industry and requirements. Think of future growth opportunities. Draw growth charts for various lines of professions you may enter. Choose the one that suits you more and the one that you are going to enjoy the most.

What are the requirements?

1) Call Center
Communication, Language skills, accent, Basic computing skills, working in team /leadership

2) Date search And Integration
Computing Skills, Language, Analytical skills

3) Human Resource Services
Country specific HR policies, rules and regulations

4) Transcription, Translation, medical transcription etc
Language understanding, Basic computing (word processing knowledge), Understanding of various medical terminologies for Medical transcription or legal terms for Legal transcriptions etc

5) Finance and accounting
International/ country specific accounting rules, Exposure to various Accounting Software packages

What is evaluated?

If you are applying for a BPO placement, you should be aware of the process involved in that particular area. If you are applying for Accounting BPO, you are likely to be evaluated in Accounting entries and financial statements. In Accounting Entries, be thorough with debit, credit and Trial balances. In Financial statements, be thorough with profit & loss statements, Balance sheets, depreciation etc.

In Medical Transaction processing, it helps to know about clinical trial data dealing with Pulse, Heartbeat, BP, Diseases etc.

Evaluation in Contact center is much more elaborate as you may be handling outbound calls to sell products/services or attending inbound calls for customer support etc. As the candidate numbers for contact center aspirants are high, every company has a test/Assessment. This test is likely to cover the following sections: Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability, Attention to Detail / Mental application, Paragraph Typing, Form Field Entry, Listening Comprehension, Speaking Skills / Extempore Speech, Listen & Repeat Sounds and Email Writing.

This being the case, you need to prepare yourself in the following: Numerical & Analytical ability, Percentage, Profit & Loss, Proportions, Grammar and Reading Comprehension, Attention to Details, Rule based processing, Typing test – see & Type or Listen & Type, Enter data in a scanned paper form onto fields on the PC, Listen to a native English Speaker and answer questions based on the conversation, Accent and Voice Clarity, Fluency and Grammar, Ability to hear and produce sounds, and Composing an email for a given business scenario

Be prepared for the paper & pencil test or an online test covering some or all the above. Some companies have a telephone kiosk, where you are supposed to go in and dial a given number. The person on the other side talks to you and decides whether, you have the required voice skills or you are trainable.

If you are applying for Voice based job, do not forget to watch the relevant TV channels or listen to various tapes & CDs. The faster you make the necessary tweaks the, better and sooner you get a job.

What about your Resume?

Yeah, what about? Actually resume does not play major role for entry level. Every company will test you and train you in the areas they are into. Hence put in your details and indicate if you are good in extra curricular activities.

If you are applying for team lead, you will be checked for leadership skills and aptitude to manage teams, and your sensitivity to individuals.

Got to the interview?

You are fresh from college and entering a corporate world. Most often you need to follow certain dress code as indicated by company. It may be useful to check with the current employees about the type of dress code. In the contact center line, casual clothing may not be an objection!

If you are applying for inbound calls/customer support, you will be tested in your telephone etiquette, attending to hostile customers etc.
If you are applying for out-bound sales, you will be checked for good communication, convincing marketing skills, Accent etc.
If you are referred by HR consultants, they will brief you about your test and Interview.

You can prepare by just listening and practicing talking in accent with American or British emphasis (What!). You can try to improve your accent, but, as the test is generally not automated, it is of subjecting nature, depending on the person who is listening to you.

If Company A doesn't select you, try another. The industry is still young.

BPO Industry Killers

2011-04-10T13:59:00.001-07:00

The problems and the challenges which made Pakistan unable to appear anywhere on the map as a preferred destination for the BPO sector, whilst people with similar abilities across the border made a great impact by intelligently taking the lead and investing in this lucrative sector should not be given the slightest chance to mirror themselves onto the Kenyan BPO foundation. Some of these problems are;

1. Lack of Leadership:

Organizations must not jump on the band wagon of technological revolution before they have had a chance to do any serious thinking on developing a vision or come up with the metrics to identify if they are on the right track. This lack of vision or leadership is a major challenge for the outsourcing centers being set up in Kenya.
Most call centers in this country are not the prime business priority for their owners, a recent survey shows. Despite this we have some ‘success stories’, if one can use that term in Kenya! Companies like Kencall, Oriak Digital, Skyweb Tech and Precise. People get into this business not to establish a brand name like we have seen in countries like South Africa and Egypt, but to make a quick buck, and if the going gets tough, they simply move out. You may understand this better if I called them 'Jua-Kali BPOs'. The entrepreneurs investing in the BPO industry are in it for short-term returns. They lack any long term strategy, exposure or experience to deliver.

2. Lack of Human Resource

Its time we take our heads out of the sands, and admit to the fact that we don’t have the talent required to work in the Information Technology enabled Services (ITeS) companies. Entrepreneurs and staff working in the ITeS sector need a significant investment in training in order to be able to succeed. We have heard the slogan ’We have the best talent’ so many times, that one wants to almost believe it. But ask any CEO of the BPO or International Call Center, and he will tell you his biggest fear is not losing customer (ok, that fear is there), but the availability of human resource if he gets any project. Every estimate made by any survey on English speakers has turned out to be inaccurate. The efforts made towards the training and developing the resource for call center but obviously this needs the help and resources from the state. There is simply not enough number of people equipped with the skills to/possessing the skills to work in call center industry.

3. Training and Development

When there is shortage of skilled people in the market, the training and development costs go up. Ideally, someone with a graduate degree, or masters in business administration should be able to identify his / her role as a customer service person. But this is not the case. For something as basic as politeness needs to be taught to the new hires and it takes 2-4 weeks for basic customer service training. Universities can surely help in this by adding one more module on their programs. The lack of training and development has made another kind of business mushroom, which is training for call centers. The trend has gone unchecked with lot of people paying huge amount of money for courses aimed at preparing them for call center related skills training with a promises of lucrative jobs, and not getting anything in return. All these trained and skilled individuals still have to go through the training module prepared by their employers, meaning their money and time was wasted. There is a need for a design and quality checks of training need to be provided to make sure people don’t waste time and money.

A situation is even grim when it comes to training for Team Leaders / Supervisors in the call centers. There is not a single institute in the country which offers such trainings. Team leaders are the difference between a well-managed, successful team and poorly managed, unsuccessful one. They are the difference between a good company and a mediocre one. Due to lack of training facilities for these key positions, most of the call center employees lack that motivation and the result is mediocre service.

Training is also required for those who want to get into the BPO sector. There is a strong need to train the entrepreneurs on the challenges like Data Security, redundancy in Technology and most importantly the quality service delivery. There is a need for institutions to focus trainings on these areas.

4. Career Planning

Most people, at some point in their careers, experience dissatisfaction at the job. Some call it job burnout. This is specifically serious issue with BPO related jobs. Most learning institutions don’t have career planning departments. It means most of the students, when they graduate lack a sense of direction. They simply enter the market with the purpose of getting a job. Any job! In the absence of any direction, they also keep changing jobs, losing total track of what fits their abilities.

Universities need to take up the issue of career counseling or Career Planning more seriously, guiding the graduates on what is available in the market. The BPO companies need to make more job available to the employees in various support functions instead of hiring from outside. Job rotation increases the employee retention in BPO companies.

In the BPO sector, this trend has as very negative impact. People join this industry as a part-time or temporary employment. And without putting any serious thought into the possibilities of growth in this sector, they end up moving to other sectors or even from one call center to another, for small increments, and call center loses a good trained resource. Some even go as far as opening their own small 3-5 seat 'call center Jua-Kalis' which die down in 1-2 years as the young restless entrepreneurs find it hard to sustain these business ventures. This takes us to the next problem which could paralyze the industry if not checked.

5. Unsustainable business ventures

Mostly people who go into call centre industry are not familiar at all, or have some experience of working in the call centers. They are not aware of the problems, technicalities or client expectations. This makes their business ventures unlikely to be successful for a long period of time. BPOs are capital intensive. Starting from a small one room call center, it is hard to sustain the growing financial needs of the business.

Lot of call centers can became unsuccessful when the people working for the company decide they can do that too! The leave the companies start their own small business but with their lack of any in-depth knowledge of BPO market and growing focus on quality they would get out of the business in a year. They would also make their previous fellow employees go out of the market too.

6. Coordination between Academia and Business

A lot will be written on the lack of interest shown by the academia and business forums to join hands and come up with the focused and organized initiatives to take advantage of the new business trends. The newly formed Kenya BPO and Contact Centre Society (KBPCCS) has too much on its plate, so it would be fair to expect the public and private universities to take the initiative and sit with the leading business forums in the country to formalize the plan to root out the joblessness by investing into these ventures. This will help both institutions and students/businessmen.

Avoiding Blunders in Outsourcing Associations

2011-04-10T13:58:00.004-07:00

All outsourcing associations are expected to be of symbiotic nature. But even the best of these have been tainted with gray areas that have diverse interpretations. The contracts are intended to work for both parties, so mutual benefit is the goal.

Unfortunately for most companies and individuals there have been so few of these deals that have gotten to a point of fruition. Most of these folks are realizing that in as much as there are significant savings that could come from such deals, there is a major downside to such deals borne of the failure of their associates to honor the agreements; a breach in itself.

Everyone knows of a horror story related to top-level outsourcing associations. As a result, many people seem to think of outsourcers as an axis of evil that should be eliminated or at least squeezed for every penny. However, outsourcing, like any business relationship, is more nuanced than that.

Companies engaging in outsourcing relationships frequently make mistakes. They document processes poorly, ignore training, rush to implementation or focus only on savings. These errors result in a "your mess for less" approach in which the outsourcer moves your people, process and systems in whole or in part across to its company while figuring out a way to cut staff and provide the same service.

A Better Approach

However, there's a better way.

The first thing to understand is that an outsourcer, just like your company, is in business to make money. Therefore, its priority is the same as yours. This isn't a bad thing; on the contrary, it's good. A profitable outsourcer is a healthy partner, and as a customer, you want a solid company to work with. Second, outsourcing can work out well or badly, depending on how well you manage it.

The five steps below are designed to guide you to a successful outsourcing experience.

1. Maintain your control. Don't make the mistake of ceding complete control of your infrastructure, applications or both to an outsourcer. Companies that do this mistakenly assume that the outsourcer knows more than they do and therefore should be able to serve all of their needs better, faster and cheaper. Instead, keep or hire key people in each area to maintain control and guide and govern the outsourcer.

2. Measure, measure, measure. Implement metrics that are important to your business, such as performance level, number of incidents, development cycle times or speed to market. Assign staffers who understand the metrics to collect and benchmark them and then combine them to create context.

Take, for example, number of incidents: The raw data doesn't tell you how those incidents affected production or whether a project was slowed because people who were needed to code an application were redirected to solve problems resulting from the incident.

3. Marry the partner. An outsourcing relationship requires give and take. Even the best contracts include gray areas that can be interpreted in various ways. The deal must work for both companies, so mutual benefit is the goal. For example, look for ways to increase the outsourcer's revenue within its core competencies. If you can reasonably redirect dollars you're already spending toward the outsourcer, you'll likely get a better deal while helping to grow its business -- a win for both sides.

4. Take responsibility for requirements. Incomplete or misunderstood requirements can send outsourcing over budget or completely over the edge. You know your business better than the outsourcer ever will, so it's up to you to gather requirements from your business perspective and explain them to the outsourcer. This will help ensure that your needs are well understood and documented, and it will help to educate the outsourcer about your business.

5. Review regularly. As you would with any internal department, review the status of both the operational infrastructure and the application development on a regular basis. Combine a monthly review - with clear measures to indicate progress or problems - with a quarterly review of the relationship. Some key measures are labor usage (capital vs. expense), project and budget status, ticket statistics, incidents with business impact and customer satisfaction.

Remember, an outsourcing deal, if managed correctly, can be good for all parties.

Choosing Your Transcription Clients

2011-04-10T13:58:00.003-07:00

13 Things you should know when applying for work from a transcription company to avoid regrets and disappointment later on. Hope companies can benefit from this checklist too.
There are a lot of companies out there to choose from, and unfortunately, there are some who are looking for the opportunity to take advantage of a sub-vending transcriptionists’ naïveté; so as one Transcription Company to another, here’s a check list to assist you in making an informed decision:

1. Know exactly the formula for pay; whether gross lines, character lines (if character lines - know exactly how many); do they include headers, footers, spaces, forms, etc? Are you going to have access to this line count utility? Get it in writing.

Do not get involved with anyone who has some convoluted formula for counting lines (i.e., the distance to the sun times pi divided by the hypotenuse of a triangle), will not provide you with access to the line count utility, and will not put any of the above in writing.

2. Does the service provide appropriate support personnel? Will you be provided with toll-free number to staff?

3. How productive are the service’s methods? On-line programs vs “raw document”; forms vs “raw document”? Typing directly into an on-line mainframe software program is not usually a very productive method. The most efficient method is the “raw document” where the transcriber types basically in a block, one report under the other, no page breaks, then modems the “raw document” to the network server and the service takes it from there.

4. Beware of services that require you to do anything but transcribe. That includes rerecording, looking through reams of census sheets for patient demographics, scanning provider lists for doctor names, formatting documents, and looking up obscure terms and drugs. Making the transcriber responsible for these duties is very profitable for the service.

5. Is the service willing to guarantee your work contractually, even if you are a statutory or common-law employee? Get it in writing!

7. How flexible is the service regarding hours and days worked? Does the service require the transcribers to work any evenings (mornings) or weekends?

8. Does the service pay generous incentive bonuses?

9. How long has the service been in business?

10. Is the service owned and operated by transcribers? Or, is the service owned by a conglomerate only interested in profits (this is the worst case scenario)? What is the likelihood the service will be around tomorrow or change ownership?

11. Does the company provide services by contract to its clients on a long-term basis (3-5 years)? How contractually guaranteed is the service’s work from their client(s)?
You may want to avoid services that provide a lot of prn/overflow services as this translates to higher profits for the service, but can mean sporadic workflow for the transcribers; and unfortunately, most of the time, this higher rate paid by the client to the service is not usually passed along to the transcriber.

12. Is the service financially solvent? Are you going to be paid on time, every time? Look for a service offering an electronic payday.

13. Does the service provide toll-free numbers for support and corporate principals? Can you call the company owner any time?

Do not be fooled by services offering high-end line rates. Be sure you are comparing apples to apples. Most of all get it in writing. Ask them to provide you with references from their personnel. Look for a service that provides their sub-vendors with a private message board.

Do your homework.

The obvious isn't obvious

2011-04-10T13:58:00.001-07:00

The obvious isn't obvious
We are still receiving lots of calls by folks who have great interest in this industry but a rough idea of what outsourcing really is.
This means there is a great opportunity in training that no one has put their money on. Let’s make some bucks and help the industry grow!
There are two key things that anyone needs to know; the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of outsourcing.

What Outsourcing is: Outsourcing is acquiring a product or services rather than producing it yours.

Why Outsourcing is: There are many reasons why organizations choose to outsource functions and services. The following is a list of common reasons why outsourcing is undertaken:

• Lower costs
• Specific supplier benefits. For example, better security, continuity, etc
• Higher quality service due to focus of the supplier
• Less dependency upon internal resources
• Control of budget
• Faster setup of the function or service
• Lower ongoing investment required in internal infrastructure
• Lack of internal expertise
• Increase flexibility to meet changing business conditions
• Improve Risk Management.
• Acquire Innovative Ideas.
• Turn fixed costs into variable cost.
• And lots more...

Hope that helps get you out of the fog. Guess what you need to know is what google is?

Higher-education looks into outsourcing

2011-04-10T13:57:00.003-07:00

A recent study has revealed that more and more higher-education centers are looking into the possibilities made available by outsourcing.

IT support staff who work at universities and colleges found that certain initiatives, such as disaster recovery, quality assurance and testing, application development and security threats were becoming increasingly challenging for the small teams to handle, according to the study by CDI IT Solutions.

Benefits offered by modern outsourcing and visualization technologies were being looked into more and more by these staff in an effort to cope with new innovations and threats, the report also found.

Andy Cvitanov, president of the company, said: "The results of our survey clearly show that IT outsourcing is perceived as favorable within the higher education community and the participants agree interest will continue to grow over the next few years."

"As their chief information officer counterparts in the private sector learned in past business cycles, IT leaders at colleges and universities are beginning to recognize the value of outsourcing services to stretch tight budgets while maintaining quality service delivery to faculty, students and administration."

Half of those questioned in the study said that they were already outsourcing some of their IT services, such as project management and student email.

What can be done? (It's still early!)

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1. Awareness events for business owners

The Government needs to start doing what it hasn't been doing in the past. They need to provided great opportunities and even offer subsidized training programs. The resources that the state has can be better utilized by providing quality training and awareness seminars which will be focused on bringing the BPO business to Kenya. BPO training needs to be offered, delivered and then call centers short listed for the certification. People who are in charge need to push for performance management standards for the local players.

There also need to be middle level management training for Call Center Operations.
We have absolutely no training facility for middle level management in the BPO sector. This includes Team Leads / Supervisors and Managers. In any a business these middle level managers drive growth and customer satisfaction.

Existing companies will definitely benefit from implementing these standards and it will also help them attract good business from Fortune 100 companies.

2. Encouraging Export Houses to take up Kenya's case for BPO

In other countries that previously had less BPO potential than Kenya, the success of BPO sector is primarily the result of great IT revolution. In Kenya there is a need for a top software house to make effort to get into this field. The established business houses that are into export business must be invited and encouraged to look into the amazing potential of this industry. It will have enormous impact, and eventually the people will benefit with increased job opportunities.

3. Forget Call Centers, Focus on BPO!

To many people, BPO means Call Centers. We need to have more seminars on the whole BPO work. BPO does not only mean Call Center. It includes so much more! Companies are outsourcing Financial Functions, Legal and Medical Transcription, Content Development, Data conversion, Network Support, Data Processing, Data mining and Quality Auditing. And that’s not all of it.

Judging from the job types that existing BPO firms are handling, we will have to change our strategy. We need to focus more on high-volume, Low Value Data work. We have the right Human Resource for this kind of work. We need to come out of the Call Center mindset.

4. Nothing has been lost!

In the last 3 years, we have seen some progress; the maturity of call center industry. This can be noticed by the fact that local cellular service carriers like Airtel and Safaricom are outsourcing their call centers to the companies who are serving international clients. The results are likely to be impressive. This will make more companies follow the footsteps. So we have the processes right, the service delivery is great but for international business the talent is scarce.

There is therefore a need to create a skilled human resource, to open up IT parks around the country and to work more closely going beyond our self-interests to fill out these big glass buildings.

Home Based Business Ideas

2011-04-10T13:57:00.001-07:00

Now that the IPOs are on the low, a lot of guys who are still stuck in the employment maze are wondering where to invest their little, but not too little cash. Running a home based business is a wonderful experience. No boss to impress or please, you can set your own hours, choose your products and services, and set your own pay. There are a lot of businesses that you can start from home, but here is a simple list of small business ideas that are easy to start.

1) Drycleaning ATM.

Picking up dry cleaning during regular business hours is a pain, and very frustrating when you need certain clothes. Wouldn't it be nice to have a dry cleaning ATM? Drycleaners would LOVE this since it would eliminate the need for a person to attend the store for long hours. You could pick-up and drop off clothes at this ATM which would hold your account information on a current credit card or something of the sort. You could even type special cleaning instructions. The drawbacks to this system are: it would initially be expensive to install, the building where the dry cleaner is located would have to be specially outfitted with this system. If you could find a way to make an affordable and easy to use system like this, it would change the face of dry cleaning!

2) Portable Oil Recycler

After an oil change, oil is generally discarded. Now there is a portable machine that can separate good oil from its impurities. With tons of oil being wasted everyday, this seems like a golden opportunity for anyone who can pull it off. Take the dirty oil from oil change stations, run it through the machine, re-sell. You could even get people to bring you their old oil for free if you dispose or reuse it in an environmentally safe manner. Ref: http://www.gizmag.com/go/2793/

3) Start a Pooper Scooper Service

I bet you didn’t see that one coming! A pooper scooper business is an easy to start and highly profitable business. With this business, you send employees out to pick up dog poo from customer's yards. You would make money by charging the customer a monthly fee, between Ksh 2,011 and Ksh 3,352, and in return you will have employees clear their yards of dog poo once a week or once every two weeks. This business can be started for less than Ksh 33,520, and it requires no special skills, no special equipment, and no business experience! You could advertise your service in veterinarian's offices, pet Stores, direct mail, and word of mouth. It wouldn't be hard to find 150 customers or more in your area who would purchase a Pooper Scooper Service.

There you have it, three easy-to-start business ideas. Of course, these business ideas aren’t any good unless they are put into action. Just remember this: An idea without action is like a bird without wings. No flight. And if you are able to get clients for these business ideas then you are able to get clients for a BPO firm. That should be your next step.

Internet Home Business

2011-04-10T13:55:00.001-07:00

With over 300,000 “Internet Home Business” related searches on the internet every month, it’s safe to say that there is a lot of demand for information on how to make money on the internet. Sadly, this also means that there are a lot of shady characters preying on this group of people.

I knew someone who fell for one of these once - they taught him how to make money online, and then all he did was sell seminars - on how to make money online. The fact that he had never actually made any money online was beside the point… I guess. Not surprisingly, I’m not a big supporter of his business.

Can anyone make money online? I do believe so. But not everyone WILL make money online, because, making money on the internet takes a long time to learn, and most people give up because it can be extremely frustrating.

My one piece of advice for starting an internet home business is this: Don’t expect to make any real money for 365 days (or so!) . Although I will add that service-based businesses tend to bring in revenue faster, I would still allow for a full year to replace your outside-the-home salary.

The good news about this industry is that as long as you are willing to put in the hours (days… weeks…. months….. ) to learn the ropes, you can bootstrap your business with extremely little money, generally speaking. Some businesses take more to start than others.

So, where do you start from here? Some general rules of thumb:
Pre-packaged programs only work as much as you can customize it and make it unique and your own. Even then, techniques that work for one niche won’t work in all niches.
Be wary of any “system” that promises instant results (especially anything that sounds like a get-rich-quick scheme!)
Knowing the basics of html, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social media, and traditional marketing and sales are a must.
Every business is made stronger by specializing in a tight niche. Know your audience and stick to it.

Unless you have a brilliant tech idea that makes venture capitalists drool, you need to determine where your strengths are and which business model you plan on following (and you don’t need this list)

Shift jobs out to create more jobs!

2011-04-10T13:54:00.001-07:00

In this day and age of globalization any sense of nationalism especially in matters business is always misguided and counter-productive. A recent survey of consumers in the US have come up with the finding that 65% of the respondents said that if they knew that a particular company was using call centers based anywhere else outside the US, they would buy less or even totally stop buying from that company.

It does not take an Einstein or the ability to master rocket science to realize what would happen if people really began to do that. US companies would lose their competitiveness and go bust, lay-offs will rise, corporate sector savings will fall, domestic investment would fall - on the whole there will be more unemployment in the US. It seems to go against intuitive logic but the truth is that the more jobs shift out of the US, the more jobs can be created within the US.

Just try to figure that out!

BPO increasingly vertical in end-to-end solutions

2011-04-10T13:53:00.001-07:00

In an effort to avoid compliance difficulties and cut their bottom line, increasingly financial services firms are looking to enter into end-to-end outsourcing solutions. While financial services companies have in recent years made an effort to outsource more and more horizontal business processes, such as human resources, finance, accounting, and procurement, they have not yet embraced vertical outsourcing.

The shift towards more vertical outsourcing ventures comes in response to increasingly complex accounting and procurement regulations in the US. In part, some of these laws and regulations are due to Sarbanes-Oxley. Because new laws and regulations require constant vigilance and investment, some companies are choosing to simply move all the work out of house. This is creating a need for specialized outsourcing companies which are able to provide increasingly vertical services.

The direct implication of these is a need for the self proclaimed pioneer companies based in the third world to specialize in a line of service rather than deal with all sorts of service lines. This creates a larger capacity to handle the volumes of work from one source and allows for a long term healthy relationship with outsourcers. Companies that are dealing in voice and data processing services will have to leave such gambles to the lesser jua-kali, lower level companies and take advantage of the market that the laws and regulations have created.

There is a downside to this kind of restructuring too; the seasonality of financial work, rates and availability of trained personnel.

Who said it was going to be easy?

BPO Interview Answers

2011-04-10T13:52:00.002-07:00

Here’s our pick on the likely top ten job interview questions:

1. Tell us about your career to date, what you’ve done and what you are currently doing?

You shouldn’t have too much trouble with this one, focusing on the relevant elements of your education & career. Avoid going too far back, although don’t overlook areas of leadership (e.g. school captain) or sporting achievements.

2. What do you know about our organization (the employer)?

As mentioned earlier, do your homework before the interview. If you can’t demonstrate that you have undertaken some research, you might appear uninterested in the role.

3. What is your understanding of the position you have applied for?

By the time you get to the interview, you should be familiar with the position description or have been briefed by an employment consultant. If there are aspects of the job you're unsure about, don’t be afraid to ask questions.

4. What will you bring to the organization?

One of the critical things in answering questions about strengths, or what you will bring to the role, is to demonstrate what you have brought to previous roles or achievements in your personal life. Responding by using examples is often easier than simply running off a list of qualities.

5. What are your career goals?

Keep your answer positive, but avoid going into too much detail. Have your career goals determined before you go into the interview and make sure they are appropriate for the position you are applying. If the person interviewing you is the supervisor for the role, take care you don’t intimidate him/her by indicating you’d like his/her job!

6. Why did you leave your last job/Why are you looking to leave your current job?

Avoid paying out on your last/current employer or colleagues. Instead, stress that it was/is your decision to leave and you did so/doing so, to move on.

7. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Definitely a tough question and more than likely to be asked at an interview, so be prepared. This question gives you a great opportunity to sell your strengths and show you are mindful of your shortcomings. You’re human after all aren’t you? It is best to indicate how you have also developed strategies to overcome any weaknesses (e.g. “I felt I needed to update my computer knowledge, so I enrolled in an IT course.”).

8. How do you keep updated with new developments in the industry?

Membership of professional associations, reading reports in the newspaper of specialist publications and networking, are a few of the obvious responses. If you want to impress, back up your response with a comment on a recent industry development that might be considered relevant to the role.

9. How do you handle or resolve a difficult situation in a previous role?

The interviewer is looking for an idea of how you might usually respond to either a conflict situation or simply how you act under pressure. Prepare some examples of a tough situation at work or even in your personal life, stating the problem, the solution and what you gained from the experience. Focus on positive outcomes that give an indication of your ability to listen and communicate with people.

10. Do you have any questions?

As mentioned earlier, it’s OK to have a few prepared questions written down. Refer to them, although avoid questions that may have been covered throughout the interview. Keep the list short, but use the opportunity to ask questions which you would like answered.

How-To Price Outsourced Projects Successfully

2011-04-10T13:52:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest challenges for new Outsourcing firms is pricing.

Pricing projects isn’t easy. There are plenty of factors that come into play:

1. How long will the project take?
2. How clear are the client’s requirements?
3. How well do you know the client?
4. How likely are they to stay on course?
5. How likely are you to get future work from them?
6. How experienced are you on these types of projects?
7. How valuable is the project to you?
8. How valuable is the client to you?
9. How busy are you with other work?

And then you also have to decide how to charge: hourly, fixed price or on retainer? Or a combination?
Estimate Project Lengths as Accurately as Possible

Estimating how long a project will take is the key to pricing it well. If you can’t estimate the length of a project you’ll never come up with a fair price, and more than likely you’ll end up losing.

You can consider an endless number of factors when estimating a project, including some of the questions I’ve listed above. For example, if you’ve done many similar types of projects, you’ll have a better idea of how long the new one will take. If you’ve worked with the client in the past, you know their tendencies and can anticipate pitfalls.

No matter what you do, always add a buffer.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve worked with the client before, know exactly what the client wants, and have done the same thing a thousand times before. Buffer it.

The size of the buffer you use is up for debate, but I’d generally increase your time estimate by 15-30%.

If you have to increase it much more than that because of concerns you have over the project (i.e. fuzzy guidelines, sketchy client, etc.) then reconsider the project completely because it could end up biting you in the rear.

Projects almost always take longer than you expect, so buffer your estimates each and every time.

Whether you choose to charge for that buffered time estimate is a different story, but generally, I would recommend that you do so. And clients should expect that to be the case.
Bad Clients

Such a thing exists. I’d wager that every new outsourcing firm has experienced a bad client or two. And the first warning signs will appear when you’re pricing projects for them.

The warning signs of a potentially bad client include:

• Wishy washy requirements.
• Poor communication skills.
• Unwillingness to follow early recommendations you have.
• Unwillingness to answer questions about the project’s budget.
• Always trying to undercut.
• Unwillingness to pay something upfront.
• Constantly promising bigger and better.

These indicators aren’t absolutes. But keep an eye out for them anyway. On the last two points, I’d add the following:

1. Always get money upfront. Especially from new clients. Stick with a simple structure: 50% upfront, 50% upon completion of the project, or 33% upfront, 33% midway (agree on this point in the project before), and 33% at the end.
2. Be wary when clients promise lots and lots of future work. I realize this sounds very pessimistic on my part. I am a huge fan of building long-term relationships with clients (one off clients aren’t the most rewarding or profitable!) But, if a client is “bribing” you to lower your price because they’ve got “tons of work in the pipeline” be very, very careful. Even if they do have a lot of upcoming work, once you’ve set a price for the first project it’s going to be hard to raise that price later on.

How Should You Charge: Hourly, Fixed Price or Other?

I’ve always been flexible on this, adjusting my pricing approach on a project-by-project basis. Generally, I prefer fixed price projects, and so do clients, because they have the clearest sense of what the cost will be. You can also buffer fixed price projects better, because you’re not asked to justify every hour in your estimate (nor should you have to.)

Fixed price projects also help you manage your own finances - you’ll have a clearer sense of what revenue is coming in and when.

Even with a fixed price project, you’ll need to base it off an hourly rate (even if you don’t reveal the hourly rate to the client.) So it helps to have a sense of what the going rate is in your industry.

I’m a big fan of retainer projects. Most retainer projects are monthly. They’re great because of the consistent revenue and the ability to build long-term, positive relationships with clients.
When Should You Negotiate Price?

Everything is negotiable. But you should know your own parameters and conditions for negotiation. When are you comfortable negotiating price, and why? Some things to consider:

• Your current and upcoming workload. The busier you are, the higher your prices should go. It’s really as simple as that. Having said that, even if you’re desperate for work, be wary of dropping your prices too far. You don’t want to look cheap, and you’ll have a hard time bringing those prices up, later on.
• Name recognition of the client. You may consider lowering your price because having the client on your client list is a real win. And truth be told, big companies negotiate just as hard as small companies on price, even if they have the budget — they also have the power. There is something to be said for name recognition, but don’t put too much weight on it.
• Profile of the project. A high profile project that will generate a lot of buzz could be valuable, but make sure the project will be high profile amongst your targeted prospects. Otherwise, your return on investment (i.e. taking a lower price) will be minimal.
• The “fun” factor. No one wants to work on boring projects, but outsourcing firms do it all the time to pay the bills. Some outsourcing firms even call that work their “bread and butter.” Then a fun project comes along and they’re willing to slash their prices to do it. I must admit, out of all the reasons you might lower your price, this is one of the better ones.
• The “cause” factor. When a project has real meaning - a “higher cause” or purpose - you might decide to reduce your rates. After all, a little good karma never hurt anyone…

Ultimately, you have to decide how flexible you want to be with your pricing. Be careful about negotiating too much — if you drop your price 30% or more from the original estimate (without the project scope changing in parallel) it might look like you were trying to price gouge before, or you could end up losing money. You lose money on outsourcing projects when you book yourself too cheaply and can’t make more money on other projects and opportunities that come your way. If you do a project for 6 months and earn $5 you’re losing money, because you could have and should have been earning much more.

BPO Interview Prep

2011-04-10T13:51:00.001-07:00

We have received a number of requests for a list of questions that a job seeker with interests in the BPO industry is likely to face at an interview. Here are some commonly asked questions -

• Why are you here?! (never say ’’to attend this interview!’’. Say something like ’’I’m here to seek the position of.....in......’’)
• Tell me something about yourself (always asked. Never say what’s already mentioned in your CV. You may talk about your birthplace, your family and your personal intrests. Keep the entire answer to 5 or 6 lines maximum).
• What are your strength and weaknesses?
• What is your work objective?
• In one sentence, tell me something about your personality.
• When do you get angry?
• How quickly do you react to a decision?
• Tell me something about your earlier company and your role in it.
• Are you willing to work night-shifts?
• What is a BPO?
• Distinguish between inbound and outbound calls
• What does ’’customer-satisfaction’’ mean to you?
• Give me a instance when a customer appreciated your service.
• Why do you want to work in a BPO?
• What is the biggest challenge facing the BPO industry today?
• What, according to you, is the most important requisite of a call-centre executive?
• Why do you want to work in our company?
• Why should we employ you?
• What do you know about our company?
• What will you do if you’re not selected for this job?

Phew! Long, wasn’t it? But, it’s always better to be prepared. Regularly practise mock-interviews before the mirror. You’ll be able to notice your flaws and correct’em instantly

Outsourcing to Kenya (BPO and ITES List)

2011-04-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

1. Accurate Africa eServices
Accurate Africa are a leading outsourcing advisory specialists in Kenya. They have specialist expertise and dedicated resources to enable clients to successfully establish and operate world back office operations anywhere in the Eastern-African region (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania).

In an integrated global business environment, where borders pose less of a barrier, Accurate Africa utilizes the interdependent roles of strategy, leadership and governance as a powerful basis for clients to gain competitive advantage by investing in the outsourcing industry in Kenya.

2. Oriak Digital
Oriak Digital is an innovative, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Center offering a range of services to corporate clients.
Oriak Digital provides distinctive business solutions to help enhance its client’s profitability and competitive advantage. It provides trusted, reliable and cost effective outsourcing solutions.

Oriak Digital was founded by a family of entrepreneurs who jointly have extensive knowledge of business processes having worked in large, listed, multi-national companies across Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Oriak Digital team is led by two directors who jointly have over thirty years of expertise and experience in marketing communications, financial management and logistics.

3. KenCall EPZ
KenCall is Kenya’s first international contact center and serves clients in the US, UK and Kenya. It has built a world class facility within Nairobi and deploys state of the art technology to run its operations.

KenCall provides its clients with professional and affordable remote service and sales marketing which needs to get to the consumer market fast.

KenCall believes in raising the confidence level of its employee support and empowering them to provide world class client support through intensive training in understanding of your company as well as your products and services.

4. Skyweb-Evans
Skyweb-Evans is one of Kenya's top most offshore outsourcing solution providers. The combination of key ingredients like High Performance and StrongLeadership skills assures high quality service delivery with trust and confidence.

Skyweb-Evans is a joint venture operation between a Canadian company and a Kenyan company. Skyweb-Evans has grown immensely resulting in an increase in the client portfolio of 400%.

Skyweb-Evans provides both business-to-business and business-to-consumer call center services based in Nairobi, Kenya.

It brings together Kenyan drive and leadership with global services. It not only provides solutions coupled with innovations and efficiency, but also believes in continuous improvement.

5. Call Centre Africa EPZ
CCA EPZ (Call Centre Africa EPZ) is Kenya's premier Offshore Service Provider, with a medium capacity centre, and scaleable at simiiar units of the same amount. This gives them flexibility to expand as clients' needs.

CCA EPZ is providing cutting edge technology, in form of multi channel infrastructure to handle all your needs, they offer seamless integration of all points of contact that a client maybe wiling to contact you through.

CCA EPZ defines a "call" as simply a request for service and it can come in any of the following forms, phone, fax, E-mail, chat session, Voice over Web or a web call back request. They have ensured that you can meet your client's needs on whichever mode they prefer to communicate with you.

6. Preciss International
Preciss International is a specialized firm based in Nairobi, Kenya. The firm handles contact center services, data processing, transcription, captioning and subtitling projects.

Preciss International works as a “back office”, where routine data and voice-related tasks are performed efficiently on a daily basis, leaving clients to concentrate on more value-added tasks

7. Northwest Offshore
Northwest Offshore is about delivering long-term benefits & measurable value to our customers through:
Business process re-engineering
Integrating technology with BPO
Knowledge services

Northwest offshore is uniquely positioned to service customer requirements by leveraging its tenets of quality and innovation, the best people talent, self sustaining process framework and domain knowledge. They offer customized service offerings; translating into the most flexible and cost effective services of the highest quality for our customers.

8. Ace Solution Africa
Ace Solution Africa, a privately owned registered IT company established in June 2003, provides digital business solution that makes it unique in the industry.

Ace Solution Africa is focused on providing efficient and cost effective IT solutions to companies and organizations in realizing their business objectives. Focusing on the three most important business growth aspects, reaching clients' prospects, customer conversion and customer retention. Every project, large and small, is approached with these perspectives in mind.

I was given a 70+ figure. 62 to go. If you know any of the others drop a comments.

BPO increasingly vertical in end-to-end solutions

2011-04-10T12:55:00.000-07:00