Month: February 2015

There are many recipes to success; what works for one business may or may not work for another, sometimes a little tweaking of someone else’s business strategy works for others too, just like with offshore staff leasing. By leasing employees offshore you get the general benefits that come with it, but by using different approaches and strategies you can gain a lot more than what you’ve expected.

Why Go Offshore Outsourcing?

Today’s global market place is becoming more and more integrated. Customers increase and so are their demands for better products and services. Big companies competes best for customers and market shares, but with offshore staff leasing, small companies are also able to compete with the big guys and gain a piece of market share which makes their business grow more and eventually become one of the big companies.

What Are Some of the Competitive Advantages of Offshore Staff Leasing?

Dramatically Reduced Costs
Oftentimes the main reason why many businesses today are opting for offshore staff leasing is the dramatically reduced operational and labor costs, especially for long term engagements. Business owners significantly save on infrastructure, employee salaries, training, software, utilities and more.

Global Knowledge and Talent Pool
Resource is also one of the biggest reasons for offshore staff leasing. Because some intellectual properties, staff experience and knowledge is not available or too costly to develop in-house, offshore staff leasing provide businesses all around the world with a wider pool of talents with various skill sets and business leverage.

Expanded Services, Increased Product Range and Access to New Markets
Entrepreneurs are able to expand and accelerate provision of a service and/or product through the additional capability of their offshore partner. In addition, new markets can be explored and test waters without having to spend a fortune or take higher risks.

Time Saving and Arbitrage
For entrepreneurs looking to gain competitive advantages, they partner with an offshore staff leasing company in a different time zone which helps them gain time benefits and arbitrage.

Business Model Innovation
A few tweaks and changes into the original plan is common to any type of business, but with offshore staff leasing it allows business model innovation to keep up with drastic consumer demands and develop better products and services with less costs.

If you are planning to outsource parts of your business, there are substantial benefits you can gain from offshore staff leasing. You can also discover additional benefits through various strategies that will be unique only to you. Look for an offshore partner will flexible solutions or willing to be flexible to your needs.

On the other hand, if you have already partnered with an offshore staff leasing firm but do not seem to gain the benefits you expected, do not rush things and fire your service provider. Talk to them, maybe you haven’t put more details into what you really want to have from them. But if the agreement you signed limits you into getting the full benefits of offshore staff leasing, maybe it’s time to look for another service provider.

Outsourcing your admin support can give your business the leverage it needs to compete in the market. Through it, you can reap rewards beyond your expectations, but in order to get that you will need a well thought out plan, a flexible and adaptable business model and the courage to take a few risks.

Some companies start out with small outsourcing ideas such us leasing employees for data entry support, help desk and virtual assistants, while others jump right into outsourcing their whole HR or payroll department. There is no clear concoction as to what is the perfect recipe for a successful outsourcing, that’s why entrepreneurs have to take a few risks to get to their goal. Here are five (5) key reasons to outsource your administrative support.

Efficiency and Cost Saving

Admin support or any type of back-office function is complicated by nature. It can spiral out of control in terms of overhead costs and staff performance if not managed well. The good thing about outsourcing is that you can find a service provider that specifically specializes in the area where you need help the most. You can outsource your back-office functions to a firm that specializes in admin support so you will never have to worry about the skills and capabilities of your data entry clerks, help desk agents and virtual assistants.

Staffing Flexibility

One of the main reasons why many businesses are outsourcing their admin support is to reduce the workload of their in-house staff. With a leased employee from a third party service provider, you can easily pick a staff to work for you during peak seasons only. You can even arrange an engagement with your service provider to supply you with data entry specialists during one season, and help desk agents or virtual assistants subsequently or simultaneously with different ending contract periods.

Risk Management

Companies of all sizes sometimes suffer from high employee turnover; some staff will leave for another opportunity while others are on extended leaves. This could be the perfect time to outsource additional manpower because outsourcing firms offers their services for both long term and short term periods. Companies that often suffer from high employee turnovers can seek assistance from a third party service provider to reduce risk and allow their business to continue operating.

Accountability

Outsourcing firms thrive for excellence so each penny they are paid they return it with quality services. Especially in prime countries for outsourcing, competition gets higher so they continuously evolve in order to consistently provide quality services at a lower cost. So don’t get yourself baffled if you see the pricing for services such as data entry, help desk and virtual assistant are extremely low from these prime countries.

Recruitment Assistance

By outsourcing, business owners are able to discover talents that are not available in their area or country, or too expensive to hire in-house. Service providers has large pools of talents ranging from junior to master level professionals, you can easily handpick your own admin support staff from a list of qualified candidates based on your requirements. No more hassle for recruiting and training new employees! Your newly hired data entry specialist, help desk agent or virtual assistant is already equipped with the necessary skills needed to perform and complete their tasks.

Outsourcing is a great business tool; it can be the key to expand your brand online, discover new markets, reclaim lost profit, or the alternative method to save your bottom line.

A support staff can be assigned to different departments within a company and can multitask depending on his responsibilities. The main goal of a support employee is to provide clerical, secretarial and over-all administrative support.

Through a staff leasing firm, hiring a support staff has become more affordable in terms of salary, employee benefits and the need for additional office space has been eliminated. That is why many businesses today are opting for staff leasing services.

If you already have outsourced other services or just planning to outsource your support staff, here are three (3) simple ways to look for so you can guarantee effectiveness and efficiency of your leased employee.

Right Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Your support staff should possess the necessary skills to ensure efficiency and effectiveness within your company. Some business owners prefer support workers who have multiple skills so they can gain more strategic advantage like having their support employee work in various departments or have them work on multiple tasks at the same time.

Generally, your support staff should posses:

• Basic computer skills including web navigation
• Analytical and problem-solving skills
• Time management and organizational skills
• Clear understanding if the company’s policies and mission

In staff leasing firms, since they are very competitive with each other, support staffs normally possess two (2) or more skills. For example:

• Virtual Assistant (VA) – general VA skills, plus basic internet marketing and writing skills
• Data Entry Specialist (DES) – general DES skills, plus basic graphics and HTML skills
• Quality Assurance (QA) – general QA skills, plus basic internet marketing and some DES skills
• Help Desk Agent (HDA) – general HDA skills, plus basic internet marketing and some DES skills

With a staff leasing firm, you can come up with various marketing campaigns and business strategies with multi-skilled support staffs.

Strong Communication Skills

An average to excellent communication skills is a must, but a support staff also needs to communicate effectively, both verbal and written. This means that your support worker should be good in listening, can provide clear information, and can process a situation without being too emotional. Strong communication skills enhance all kinds of relationships in the work place.

For a staff leasing firm, good communications skills of their support staffs can either be a acquired through experience or by attending trainings and seminars. So you are never getting a support worker from them that do not know how to communicate well with a client, customer and company executives.

How to know if the support staff you are going to hire from a staff leasing firm can communicate well?

• Conduct a face-to-face interview or a Skype interview
• Have the candidate write a short description of anything you want or a sample report

Good Work Ethic and Personal Attributes

All types of skills can be learned and developed through time, but a good work ethic can be unlearnable for some support staffs. While employees with a good set of personal attributes can sometimes be hard to find, because they are mostly already employed by someone else. So you should always be aware of work ethics and personal attributes when hiring a support worker from a staff leasing firm.

Aside from respect and integrity, your support staff should also:

• Possess cultural awareness and sensitivity
• Has strong sense of responsibility
• Flexible to changes and ability to adapt
• Demonstrates good morale and teamwork

A good work ethic is vital to any business in achieving its goal, from support staffs up to the CEO and the owner of the company. That is also what makes a staff leasing firm effective in help you achieve your goal, because they always make sure that the employees they lease are not just skilled on their respective fields but also possess good personal attributes.

Many businesses today, both old and new, rely on the internet and the power of social media to further expand their customer network, increase brand awareness and build partnerships.

Having a steady stream of customers is what makes a business successful, that is why entrepreneurs explore all avenues of marketing to gather as many customers as they can. And that is where the internet and social media plays such big roles.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you want to widen your customer network using the internet and social media, so you can build a better online presence and create intelligent brand awareness campaigns.

Social Media Optimization (SMO)

You don’t necessarily need to hire a Virtual Assistant to manage your social media accounts, and hiring an expert SMO company is not very practical for start-up businesses. Expanding your customer network doesn’t need to be expensive.

You can start your own SMO simply by creating an account and adding a description of your business. Try it with top social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Learn basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so you’d know how to use keywords. Anyone can be a SMO or SEO specialist if only they would take the time to learn it.

Pay More Attention to Details

Twitter has a list of trending topics. Try to look for topics related to your business and industry. This can help you understand your costumers better and make improvements on your products and services

Blogs and forums are also best for stalking gossips and praises about your business as well as your competitors’ online reputation. You can also go through the comments section on Facebook to learn more about what your customers really wants. You will be able to plan for better campaigns to increase your customer network.

Microblogging

Articles doesn’t always need to be long and full of pictures, that is why we have microblogging such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Plurk and many more.

Microblogging sites are good for making short updates about your business and to start a discussion with an interesting topic. The main goal here is to let customers and potential clientele know about the latest happenings in your business, it’s a great way to market and sell products using social media sites!

Vodcasting

Vodcast is a video file that works as the same as podcasting. It’s a simple way to let people know about your products and services. It can also build ongoing relationships with your clients and employees, and expand your customer network.

Remember that YouTube video you watched about a product that made you feel you want to try it right away? How about the short clip you saw on Vine, Netflix or MetaCafe that made you feel special? These are social media sites for video sharing, a great platform for businesses to build brand awareness.

What makes it very effective? It’s portable, convenient and the content is easy to digest. You can share it almost anywhere on the internet, and people can download it and watch it anytime they want. You can hire a part-time video editor or media manger to help you create amazing vodcasts!

Go Mobile

Is your business mobile ready? Because your customers are always up to date with the latest gadgets and technologies available in the market. Always think and plan ahead.

More and more people today are now using their mobile phones to connect to the internet, interact on social media sites, check their emails, look up a website, purchase things they want, find a local business and many more. So it’s important that your business is also up to date.

Imagine if there is no internet today, your manufacturing or service business is new and you have a very limited budget. How will you market your products and services offline? What if you can’t afford even the cheapest packages that local advertising companies offer? Will flyers help expand your customer network?

An entrepreneur who stays inside his comfort zone will never experience true success. Take risks. Gamble on what you think can benefit your business. If you feel that hiring a Virtual Assistant can help expand your client network using social media, do it. If you think that hiring the services of a video editor or a media manager can help boost brand awareness, do it! Do not get yourself left behind in this fast changing world, it’s either you adapt or drop out.