Month: June 2017

It’s no secret that offshore sourcing is fast becoming the new trend in business development. There’s an increasing number of outsourcing companies, offering various staff leasing services to businesses. Big and small outfits, more entrepreneurs are deciding to adopt into this new platform. Outsourcing has proven essential in a technology-driven, technology-dependent business world.

To give further tips for businesses wishing to jump on the bandwagon, here are some of the most common outsourcing services you can avail:

Customer Support

Customer support is probably the most common outsourced service in the industry as of now. The rise of call centers has continued over the years and is still growing ever so rapidly. Countries like America, Canada, and the UK have been partnering with offshore sourcing companies all over the world. This growth boosts economies and creates countless jobs.

Computer Programming

Standard computer programming is also one good example of outsourced service, where a company depends on the skills and creativity of leased employees to monitor the company’s database and other related projects. Outsourcing a computer programmer is definitely much less expensive than hiring an in-house employee, in which case the company needs to expand its offices and delegate other resources.

Data Entry, Writing, & SEO

Data entry, writing, and SEO are preferable jobs for offshore sourcing. These jobs can be done without requiring full supervision from the company, as long as the instructions are clear. Technical writing, blogs, articles and web content are some examples of tasks which can be easily filled by leased employees. Again, a great way to cut company expenses.

Creative Services

Creative services such as animation, graphic designs, logos, and print design can also be simply passed to a group of leased employees. A lot of expenses can be spared through outsourcing, compared to hiring in-house employees. The PEO will be the one providing the workplace and all necessary equipment and software.

Big, small, and start-up companies find offshore sourcing a great convenience, and it’s not just about the financial advantages. The productivity and flexibility of the business also improves from the services rendered by PEOs, which offer excellent performance at a fraction of the cost.

Competition is staple fare in healthy business; it comes with the territory, and many cope with employee leasing solutions. There’s drive to be the first to present something new or innovative, and when the others have followed suit, the game steps up with innovations, adjustments, improvements. It’s an endless cycle of catch-up, and it helps that every competitor knows what they’re up against.

To gather the competitive intelligence that they need, businesses turn to media monitoring services provided by third-party companies. These companies have teams of skilled professionals and experts combing through the variety of media platforms, to get the latest on their clients’ competition. They have the resources and the reach to provide their clients with solid material, which can be used in strategies and business development.

Inside Knowledge Give You The Advantage

Information on product releases is often inside knowledge, which is coveted and crucial to the competition. Businesses need to know what their competitors are offering ahead of time, so they can match or exceed the anticipated release with a product of their own. In employee leasing solutions, media monitoring companies effectively gather information for this purpose; but they can also do more than that. They can trace how their competitors’ efforts evolve over time, spotting trends and windows of opportunities. This is an incredible advantage to businesses: with the information gleaned, there’s opportunity to tweak a successful formula, or fix faults previously unnoticed.

Another thing that businesses can obtain using media monitoring is data on the competitors’ promotional strategies. Whether the others are offering price cuts, bundled deals, limited-time offers, or promos in response to special events, it is important for the clients to get a hold of them. With this on hand, they can go over their own pricing tables and promotional plans, modify the same to stay ahead.

One more information that employee leasing solutions offer is insight on the competition’s activities. Media monitoring services can gather data on where their money is being spent on, whether it’s acquiring new branches or improving facilities. They can even take note of the kinds of corporate positions that these rivals are hiring. These sets of information can help businesses determine how to allocate their own funds and what untapped corporate activities they can try out.

Employee Leasing Solutions: Let Specialists Do The Legwork

Competitive intelligence, when gathered by a dedicated company, is sure to be detailed, extensive, and usable. Businesses may opt to have their divisions of their own to carry this out, but there’s a chance that they’ll be limited in reach and access. Media monitoring companies are rarely in trouble with this thanks to their wide network and formidable skill sets.

Still, it’s the businesses who will be calling the shots, once they know what they’re up against. They can play catch-up, or they can carve their own lane. Whatever the decision will be, there’s the assurance the decision is well-informed by the competitive intelligence provided through employee leasing solutions.

A customized service outsourcing package ensures development of a system or a service. This is very appealing to companies who want their products ready and launched on the market, as soon as possible. This also applies to office operations, in an effort to achieve improved and efficient work flow. Quality assurance (QA) is the best way to ensure products or services are meeting the specified standards; the process is supervised by a professional quality analyst.

It’s only understandable that a dedicated team of QAs should be a part of the company. The dilemma is choosing between an in-house or outsource team. As much as there are benefits to keeping quality assurance operations in-house (such as confidentiality and easy monitoring), outsourcing a QA team is no doubt the cost-effective option to take.

Going beyond the usual reasoning of outsourcing a certain business operation (e.g. a cut in overhead costs, no need for additional training, etc.), outsourcing the QA can offer the company additional benefits, such as objectivity, a high level of expertise, and complete resources/infrastructure to get the job done. A customized service outsourcing package, develop the quality of production and processes; it also frees up work hours of an in-house team. There’s more resources you can focus on other aspects of improving the business.

Objectivity

In most companies, an in-house QA team is commonly the same ones who have created the product or service itself. By employing an outsourced QA team, the business can perform unbiased testing, spot errors or defects that an in-house QA team may unconsciously miss out on.

An outsourced QA team can also offer a new perspective on how to better improve the product or service, as well as suggest possible routes to advance the process.

High Level of Expertise

An outsourced QA team is already professional in their own right. They have gained enough experience to enable them to easily answer any task given. The company would no longer need to worry about lack of professionalism, capability, or quality of service either.

With short-term projects, a customized service outsourcing package is able to complete the goals more effectively and efficiently, given their greater competence and mastery of the field. A skillful QA team can also do better in handling large volumes of workload more quickly. This is a better investment, compared to training full-time, in-house team (to reach that same level of productivity) from scratch.

A Customized Service Outsourcing Package Comes With Complete Infrastructure

In companies that cannot house or facilitate the needed resources or infrastructure for certain testing systems, an outsourced QA team is the perfect solution to address the problem. Dedicated outsourced QA teams would naturally have all the tools and systems at hand, so they can readily meet the objectives of a project.

Availing a customized service outsourcing package in QA, the company can expect a boost in productivity—both in the QA sector and in overall operations. And by letting the experts of the field manage the quality assurance of the company’s product or service, they gain not only a better sense of how to improve their operations, they also reduce risks of losses for the business.

Most Millennials strive to be successful as soon as possible. To be your own boss, handle your own schedules, and meet new connections in the BPO industry. As is often the case with things worth having, there are roadblocks to overcome: the uncertainties of risk, failure, and the pressure to be successful even at great cost. Making it big in business is definitely difficult from the start, but it will be easy once with the right mindset.

Who doesn’t want to be rich and famous? Famous CEOs offer advice to startups, guidance and cautions against mistakes previously committed. Listening to these pieces of advice isn’t half bad because it comes from tried and tested experiences.

1. Find Your Passion And Run With It – No Matter What Happens

This decision might be hard. Thinking of what you want for the rest of your life will conjure ideas like becoming an online marketer, starting a small advertising firm, or staking claim in the BPO industry. The secret to lasting success is to know discover what you’re good at? Are you good at translating languages, teaching math, teaching Adobe Photoshop. Consult your friends and colleagues; if they agree you’re reliable in one skill or expertise, develop it.

2. Risk It until you Reach It

Taking a huge risk for your business will be challenging, but it comes with the territory. Don’t quit even if you fail at first. Real failure happens when you don’t try, so keep at it, or fake it until you make it.

3. Don’t Care What Other People Think

Along the way, there will be people who will say that your idea is stupid or it will not achieve great heights. Take negative comments in stride. If you have to listen to criticism, consult feedback from people you trust.

4. Plan Everything Down To A T

Before starting your business, set your mind in the direction you are going, and plan as much as you can beforehand. A complete understanding of your product is your starting point in knowing where to go, who to approach, and how to promote, especially in the BPO industry.

5. Manage Your Money

Everything you do for the business has a price, like ads, promoting, employees, inventory, bills, payroll, and more. Manage your money wisely to avoid unnecessary expenses, especially if your business is new, and tight on overhead costs.

Social media management is now a staple service in offshore sourcing. Networking tools are now available to anyone, across different lifestyles and tastes. Age demographics, preference in music, and more are considered in sharing and optimizing content. Discovering things and meeting people with same interests are examples of what you can do with media; of course there’s also the opportunity to expand your business reach.

From a business perspective, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin are useful to anyone with a marketing strategy to execute. Targeting your market will be easy and convenient because of the features these platforms offer. In some platforms, you can segregate the target market into demographics, by using hashtags, or by analyzing what videos are trending, even by researching trends in search behavior. Marketers love to use hashtgas, since these offer insight on what the market wants for the product/service.

Facebook and Twitter are always top platforms used by offshore sourcing in social media strategy. Have you considered including these platforms in your social media campaign?

1. Pinterest

Pinterest is a great source of high-quality photos, and every user is part of a connected community. This is a visual platform, where relevant and attractive pictures gain more reach; there’s even good chance for content to go viral. Having a profile with many followers is great because of the influence that comes with it. By default, a pinned picture is visible to followers; gain enough pins and engagement, and the photo can become viral. A photo of a product gone viral is a boost to the company brand, attracting traffic and unique engagements.

2. Youtube

YouTube is the definitive video platform for marketers; it’s very accessible, and a relevant post can rake in millions of views. It ranks content with algorithm similar to Google’s, so if there’s one thing viral videos have in common, it’s community appeal. Searching through YouTube is like searching in Google; keywords and keyphrases are seeds in search. With this platform, your product placement (especially if advertised) can do more than demonstrate: it can engage and convert.

3. Instagram

Instagram is yet another visual platform, with very digestible content and appeal. Users navigate content with hashtags. The tags you use can make or break a marketing campaign. For example, using #marketing, the search will show all user photos with that same hashtag. Connect with people through hashtags, connect with the community, coordinate events, push promotions; the simple hashtag is an efficient marketing strategy.

With the variety of social media platforms to choose from, you’ll have to prioritize which to use in optimizing content. Offshore sourcing services ease the process, but it is still your decision that defines what’s best for the company, what’s best for your business.

Every entrepreneur knows starting a business can be an uphill climb. Outsourced call center services somehow ease the process. Nevertheless, you often hit the ground running; once you’re successful, sustaining momentum is also a challenge. Over the years, the business world has evolved so much with technology, most notably the emergence of internet and social media.

Competition amongst corporations became a close, even cutthroat, in a bid to cater to the general public’s taste and expectations. While it is true the evolution of modern technology has been a great breakthrough both for the consumers and business owners, its underlying effect (threat) to companies is also inevitable.

Keeping Up With Trends Is A Challenge

The question for big and small businesses alike: how are they supposed to keep up with fast-changing market trends? Outsourced call center services broadened possibilities, drastically changing the business landscape.

This is where market research comes in -a business strategy which allows corporations to gather and analyze updated information about consumers, and the current status of the market. This process provides business owners opportunity to study their target markets. Consumer needs, purchasing habits, characteristics, likes, and dislikes are good predictors of market behavior.

Outsourced Call Center Services

Outsourced call center services conduct market research by gathering, processing, and interpreting primary data. It involves conducting interviews, surveys, and feedback from existing and potential clients. Moreover, examining secondary data (published researches and reports by private and government agencies, media networks, etc.) also provides a more elaborate understanding of market trends.

In other words, it gives companies insight on how their current products/services stand or appeal to consumers. Potentially, conducting a market research allows businesses to adjust their marketing approach. The goal is to develop new services that would best suit the needs and preferences of their target buyers, to reach out to clients, and to understand the competition.

Outsourced call center services is crucial in business development. Market research serves as a how-to guide in ensuring the feasibility of the business. It indicates whether or not a product or service will reach and attract the attention of consumers. As an important business process, serving as a weighing scale that maintains corporal balance. It’s safe to say successful corporations that have strong marketing strategies rely on the function of effective research.

It’s difficult to sustain focus in fast-paced work environments. This is especially true in BPO and offshoring services, where multiple tasking is the norm. Millennial entrepreneurs are known for their energy and passion in start-ups, but sometimes there aren’t enough hours in a day to get things done. One solution is to outsource processes and streamline operations, which is always a feasible solution.

In a culture of long work hours and constant crunch time, the consequences of overclocking your attention span is often overlooked. The common notion is that longer work hours equals to increased output and productivity. Studies have shown the opposite is the case. Do you belong to the new breed of hungry entrepreneurs, or are you a hardened a veteran with lots of energy to spend? As much as you may take pride in getting by with little sleep, your body isn’t clockwork, far from it.

Here are four ways you can curb your overclocked routine, and recover hours of free time to spare.

1. Sleep is precious (and non-negotiable).

Lack of sleep limits your ability to focus on tasks, and you can only get by for so long with caffeine. You may not feel the effects early in the week, but it will eventually catch up on your health. The optimal amount of sleep varies between people, but seven hours of solid sleep is enough to restore and reboot you for the next day. Anything less than six hours eventually impairs judgment and concentration.

2. Cut down on distractions.

This is difficult in hectic work environments. If there are too many priorities competing for your attention, you have to put your foot down and streamline, hire offshoring services. Multitasking is a misconception; you can’t really perform two tasks simultaneously. What you can do is handle tasks one at a time. How much you’ll invest on a task varies on priorities, and productivity apps like Pomodoro help you get going. Once you’ve adjusted to the learning curve, you can stay in the zone of tasking routines, and it becomes second nature.

3. Manage Your Time.

Make time for each task, develop a schedule, and stick to the routine. Leisure time is also an integral part of the process; did you know spending a few minutes checking social media is actually a good thing? The danger is in losing yourself in the momentary distraction, find yourself wasting more time than you’re supposed to. Fortunately, decisiveness is a default attribute in entrepreneurs; compromised productivity is something few are willing to risk.

4. Delegate To Offshoring Services, And Spare Time To Spend On Yourself.

“Me time” often suffers under the pressure of busy workdays. You’ll find it easier to carve leisure time once you’ve streamlined your day. If you find hours to spare on a busy afternoon, don’t try to fill it with tasks; go out for a walk or take a nap, anything you consider an enjoyable way to spend idle time. Besides, there’s a reason why many entrepreneurs outsource. Time is your most precious commodity, you only have 24 hours to spend in a day. Make every second count.