The Importance of Administrative Support

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At first glance, administrative support is just another routine and boring job to have and tedious to supervise for managers, CEOs and newbie entrepreneurs. People often forget that a company will not function properly without an effective admin department.

Admin support is a day-to-day function that generally helps you in:

  • Financial planning
  • Keeping records
  • Personnel management
  • Logistics
  • Billing
  • Recruitment

If your business is in the IT industry, data entry and QA specialists ensures the safety and better management of your company’s data. Or, if your business is in merchandising, help desk agents and virtual assistants ensure that your customers are taken care of and increase your brands’ online presence. Admin support is a big help for any types of business in all kinds of industry. It is the all-purpose glue that binds every processes of your business!

Staff Leasing and Admin Support Services

Many companies today are opting for complex business models instead of the traditional one, which is having all your staff in-house and hiring locals only. Some even go to greater heights such as hiring offshore help desk agents and data entry specialists or have their whole admin department outsourced. But it’s not just for cutting administrative costs, for them it’s a great way of sourcing out talents and a new method that allows their business to grow even more.

Staff leasing companies and admin support services helps you:

  • Get a wider range of talents with diverse skills and expertise.
  • Higher level of function for simple and complex tasks.
  • Complex projects become easier to handle.
  • Admin support services are cheaper without sacrificing quality.
  • Increase operational efficiency, flexibility and productivity.
  • You get a variety of staffing solutions from short-term projects to full-term staff leasing.
  • Strengthen the core of your business.

Staff leasing can both be a temporary and permanent solution to your staffing needs.

Should You Go Offshore Outsourcing for Admin Support?

First of all, offshore outsourcing is not the only way to grow your business; it’s only a method that can help you achieve your goals as an entrepreneur, which is why outsourcing and staff leasing needs to be done right and for good reasons.

Admin support services are offered worldwide by outsourcing firms and freelancers with years of experience, you can choose not to outsource and still be a successful business owner. But when you do decide to source your employees from an offshore staff leasing firm, remember that hiring your first offshore employee and achieving your set goals will all rely on your well thought out plan.

Staff Leasing: What to Look For When Hiring a Data Entry Specialist

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Data entry services are offered almost anywhere in the world and can be cheaper when afforded offshore. If you are planning to hire a professional or a team of data entry specialists, you should be as keen and inquisitive as shopping for your own pants.

If you want to reap the great benefits of outsourcing data entry, you have to set your own metrics when searching for the right service provider. Never let a service provider limit you with what they want and what is only written in their proposals.

Always Look For Flexibility
Asking for a price list is always important, but flexibility has to be too. There will be times that your business will undergo financial difficulties or change direction, so your service provider should be flexible in order to accommodate your needs.

There Won’t Be Any Loophole If You Don’t Allow It
If the data entry services being offered to you via an emailed proposal or over the phone have even a very small discrepancy with the contract the service provider wants you to sign, point it out. If they don’t want to change it, simply refuse the offer and move on to the next.

What a Data Entry Specialist Should Really Possess
Typing skill and years of experience plays a big role in deciding who to hire from a list of qualified candidates, but that’s not all that’s important. The speed of inputting data and the accuracy is a must, but those are skills that can be learned. Some clients look for candidates with good personalities and work ethic, the types of qualities that are very hard to learn and impossible to learn for others. Would you rather choose a data entry specialist with high speed and accuracy and an absenteeism habit, or the one with average speed and accuracy but never left a day at work?

Data Entry Services With the Latest Technologies
Always look for service providers who are using the latest technologies available for data encoding and management, so whenever you need to upgrade big or change drastically, you will never have to worry about software and hardware upgrades. Your team of data entry specialists will always be using the best equipment and your business will never be left out.

So the next time you look out for professionals for lease, remember these simple tips so you can avoid unnecessary costs and stressful partnership with the wrong service provider. Outsourcing data entry services are very helpful when done right.

Outsourcing Is Not Just for Big Businesses

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Many entrepreneurs think that outsourcing and offshoring is a business strategy only for the big guys and small companies are not cut out for it. But as technology evolves, so are consumer demands for better products and services, outsourcing has developed new ways for small companies and start-up businesses to benefit from it.

Cost-Cutting and More

Both outsourcing and offshoring began as a cost-cutting measure to help businesses control their cash flow. But as they evolve, they have provided better options and solutions for small businesses to help them grow and improve their bottom lines. Using various strategies, small businesses that outsource were able to strengthen their brand, widen their consumer network, provide their products in market faster and more effective, target more customers without having to spend more on marketing services, and tap into the global pool of talents.

Today, almost everything can be outsourced. From a simple proofreading task, data entry, email and back office help-desk support, computer parts, cable wires, nuts, bolts and screws to a team of engineers or developers, or an entire HR and payroll department.

What to Outsource?

First time business owners may think that they can do everything all the time because they want to keep everything in check. But later on they realize that they cannot do the entire job that runs their business. If you want to start out small, consider outsourcing repetitive and tedious tasks that take too much of your time so you can focus more on the core functions of your business.

Hiring your first outsourced employee can be very beneficial to your small business if you are able to start it right. So be meticulous when choosing for a service provider.

Business Model Innovation

Since outsourcing and offshoring has become a very useful tool, many businesses are starting to change their business model not because they are cutting down costs but due to the increase in demand of their consumers and for the betterment of their products and services in the market.

Introducing new ideas and making tweaks and changes are the things that can help a company thrive, especially to those who run their business in a very popular niche. What you have learned and accepted to change today might not be the best strategy tomorrow, but tomorrow offers a brand new idea where you can either adapt and grow or ignore and remain stagnant.

When to Outsource Your Help Desk?

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In any way you look at it, outsourcing your help desk is not an easy task, considering to outsource it is even harder. So every time you ask yourself when is the time to outsource, make sure you are going to do it for the right reasons.

Some companies have complex business models wherein their help desk agents can grow big only during peak seasons. While some companies only need a handful of help desk agents but do not want to build their own call center, they want to focus more on the quality of their products and services, therefore outsource them to the experts.

When the Cost Is Way Too High For Your Business to Support

New office space, equipments, chairs, tables or cubicles and even software are needed when expanding, and it can cause a lot of strain in your budget. It even cost more when customer service needs to be around the clock 24/7. Outsourcing your help desk agents erases all of that.

Outsourcing firms also thrives to be the best in their field; therefore they are always equipped with the latest technologies available in the market. Hardware and software upgrades will never be an issue.

When You Lose Sight of Your Main Goal

Customer care is important for your business but sometimes it can make you lose your focus and steer you away from the right path. It can also take so much of your time which you could have spent improving your products. Newbie entrepreneurs tend to lose valuable time because they try to manage everything, thinking they can. Outsourcing your help desk to the right third party provider can help you overcome this issue.

When Customer Service Isn’t Helping At All

You want to make a better product for consumers and a better service for your clients, but managing a help desk department is not your expertise. Hiring a third party provider, an outsourcing firm that specializes in call support, can be a wise decision if done right. They can provide you with highly skilled help desk agents who had real experience in helping customers through the phone.

When you have finally decided to outsource, do consider partnering with the right outsourcing firm that can help you improve customer satisfaction. Don’t just hire someone outside to take calls for you, establish metrics so you can determine if the partnership is successful or not.

4 Ways Social Media Can Help Your Business Grow

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It has been a proven way to increase your business’ online presence by using social media optimization (SMO). It is one of the best techniques for brand awareness, building trust and increasing your profit. But do you know how much more you can get with SMO? If you haven’t marketed your business using social media, better start now!

Here are 4 great ways how optimizing your Social Media profiles can help your business grow.

Better Communication and Customer Service

Live interactions with customers and potential clients are limitless using social networking sites. This is your chance to know more about the people who patronize your products and services. You can even use Facebook’s “Insights” to monitor the activities on your Facebook page and make improvements to your weak spots. There’s also your web analytics which can help you determine the most interesting things that can engage a web surfer to your site and target specific locations or audience. Maximize all the free tools available so you can provide your customers with better services.

Free Ways to Keep Your Brand Fresh and Repeat Exposure

Ever wonder why TV commercials need to be repetitive all the time? It’s because of effective frequency which can determine a response from potential customers based on the number of times they have been exposed to an advertisement. If successfully done, it can then engage customers to buy the product being advertised.

Now you’re probably contradicting, because search engines do not like repeated content unlike the commercials on TV. It’s true that content is king when it comes to online branding and search engine optimization, and that mass duplication of content is the opposite. The best way you can remind your customers about your brand is to always provide them with fresh content; have a blog where fresh content is being uploaded frequently, or a forum where customers can interact with you and with each other, then use social media to connect them all!

Build Loyalty and Authority

You can also build and strengthen customer loyalty and authority using social media optimization; by simply interacting with customers and providing them with interesting information, not by constantly posting advertisement of your products and services. Customers doesn’t like to be force fed with ads. Give them respect through interesting topics, advices and discussions, make your business as their go-to resource when searching for help. Happy customers leave footprints of positive comments all around the web.

Hire and Be Hired!

LinkedIn can be a great tool to find professionals with specific skills you need to complete a project. You can even get a team of individuals with different sets of skills for a very complex project you never thought you could finish.

Aside from hiring people online, you can also connect with other entrepreneurs in your industry and share ideas, and collaborate and create new strategies that can benefit your businesses. You will be more noticeable and influential the more you join and interact with various companies and organizations on social media sites. You’ll be surprised to see other businesses asking you for consultation, inquiring about your services, or requesting quotations for projects they want you to handle.

You’ll never know when prospect clients are peeking into your business’ online profile, so it’s better to be active and productive too online. Help your business grow and improve with social media optimization!

6 Great Ways to Get Hired: Job Hunting Secrets and Tips

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Searching for a job has become easier and more effective today than it was decades ago; it has changed dramatically over the years and some approaches may have worked before but no longer today.

The internet, on one hand, is a very useful tool when job hunting online, and the strategies you use, on the other hand, can help you get the job you want right on the spot.

Here are six (6) great ways to get hired using today’s technologies and some of yesterdays strategies; reinvented to be more effective.

1. Referral Beats Applying Directly

Some of you may not understand why referrals are better than applying for a job directly, but it is more effective especially when an employer is searching for specific skill sets. It is a job hunting secret that most job seekers don’t even realize that it can become successful if done properly.

Many businesses today are more into trust and productivity rather than a perfectly written resume and a well dressed applicant. Don’t get me wrong, dressing to impress for your job interview is still important. If you haven’t got your dream job yet, check your professional network or simply logon to your social networking account and search for friends that might have a boss looking for skills that matches your.

2. Online Resume and Portfolio

If you do not have one, I suggest you start creating one now. Many employers today are searching for potential candidates via search engines, as well as sending interview invites online. Here’s a job hunting tip that you don’t read very often;

Tip 1: Do not leave too much personal information as you will be prone to spam, scam artists, hackers and identity thieves. Use a free form online that has captcha for your contact form.

Tip 2: You can emphasize more on your skills and job history even if it’s summarized. Add a request button in case the employer wants to know more about them. Don’t forget the captcha.

If you’re a graphic designer or a video editor, an online portfolio will be your best way to show employers your technical skills and creativeness, just make sure all images or videos you use are yours, and watermark them to prevent thieves from using your work. For writers, save your work as PDF and add watermarks instead of putting them online as plain text, plagiarism is a chronic disease.

Ask a friend or two to give their most honest opinion about your online resume or portfolio. Is it a bit out of line or does not represent you very well? Get professional advices from them and ask for some job hunting secrets and tips they may know.

3. How Are your Social Media Accounts? Have You Met LinkedIn Already?

Some applicants lose their chances of getting considered for the position they’re applying for because of their social media accounts. Your online profiles are searchable and can be viewed by anyone, so are your old embarrassing photos, comments and other bad stuff you’ve made on the internet. If you think your social networking profile reflects your bad side, then it’s time for a makeover.

On the other hand, social media sites like LinkedIn are a very useful tool to present your skills and a summary of your job history! Use it to connect with people working for a company you are targeting to get into. Look for someone you share the same interest in, reach out and be friendly, state your purpose and ask if they have an opening for the position you want. In case they’re not hiring at the moment, ask if he can refer you the next time the position opens, or request for some job hunting secrets or tips he may have on his sleeve that can help you grab the position when it opens.

4. Research and Conquer!

Another great job hunting secret is researching your employer; know the business, how it runs and what makes it run. This can become your key to landing the position you’re applying for. For instance, the employer may ask you what you can contribute to society. Answer by making the company as your example and provide solutions that can help the business grow. This way, you can show the employer your respect and concern for their company’s growth.

5. Seek Out Headhunting Firms

Recruiters at headhunting firms are highly experienced and skilled with matching available jobs to your skills. Once you’re in their database and still available, they will contact you and endorse your profile to companies that are looking for your skill sets. In addition, you can ask them for some tips and secrets on how you can ace your job interview, and they can even coach you on how to properly answer awkward questions that may occur.

Whether you already have a targeted career path or still searching for your inner calling, headhunting firms can be a great way to get hired! Remember, headhunting firms will never ask you for a commission nor deduct any cent from your salary.

6. Tailoring Your Job Application Form and Resume

Sure you have a lot of skills and experience with many things, but do you really have to add your “50wpm typing skill” for the graphic designer position you’re applying for? There are some skills, though impressive, are useless to employers and unnecessary for the position you’re applying for. Tailor your application form by summarizing all your skills and emphasizing only the ones that are indicated in the “Job Qualifications and Requirements” section, same goes to your resume. There’s no need to add the “First prize on the hotdog eating content Season 10” to your achievements.

You can tailor your resume and job application forms for each company you’re going to apply into, even if the positions are the same. What’s important is that you specify that you have the skills they’re looking for.

Call Center Dilemma: Don’t Just Quit Because of Workload Mismatch or Lack of Challenge

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Let’s face it, a lot of good call center agents hop from one service center to another only to hop again after a few months. Some agents argue that workload mismatch or lack of challenge is to blame. If you feel any of these two, do not worry, there is a solution for these kinds of issues and you might find it even more interesting than you ever thought. So don’t just quit your job because of workload mismatch or lack of challenge, try looking at it on a different angle.

Workload Mismatch

If you find your job too exhausting because a huge amount of effort is needed to complete a task that does not even cover half of your day’s work and you’re about to burnout, you can always talk to your manager. Some agents fear that if they express their work problems to their immediate superior, they would get reprimanded, humiliated or fired on the spot. But that’s not always the case; some agents get this kind of treatment because they disrespectfully addressed their problems.

Before knocking on your manager’s office door, think of as many possible solutions to your own problem. Be a solution maker, not a burden. Make sure you express to your manager that you want to be a part of the company’s growth by contributing in your best efforts. You’ll be surprised to find out if all you needed is a cross-training.

Lack of Challenge

When workload becomes too monotonous for you and you feel that boredom is about to take over your career, or when you feel less satisfied with your work because you’re using less of your skills and expertise, don’t just stop and call it quits. You can request for a more challenging role where your entire skills can be utilized.

Call center companies usually have several training opportunities for career development and advancement plans for their employees. You can discuss your desired career path with your manager and work out a solution together.

Sometimes call center agents tend to forget that their word is also valuable to the company. As an employee, if there is something you want to voice out you should do it in the most professional way you could. Your inputs are important for the company’s growth, you just don’t realize it. Whatever the reason is for an employee to consider leaving his job is always a problem for the company.

How Social Media Changed Our Lives: Advantages and Disadvantages

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People love to surf the web, discover new stuff and interact with other people half across the world by using social media. Before you know it, sharing, liking, commenting and posting on the internet has become a part of lives.

It was 2004 when Facebook was launched; it didn’t take that long before it overwhelmed its competitors MySpace, which was launched the previous year, and Friendster, founded in 2002. Long before these big three battled for supremacy, a lot more social media sites were born and eventually shut down or replaced due to the increasing demand of people for newer and more advanced technologies and ways to interact on the internet.

At some point in your life, did you ever stop and think how social media has changed our lives? Whenever there’s an advantage for us on new technologies, there are also disadvantages attached to it.

Disadvantages

Privacy Policies Does Not Cover Everything
Once you make a comment or post a picture of you on the internet, it stays there long enough for other people to criticize you, make fun of you or make copies of your most embarrassing posts and scatter it to other social networking sites.

Vulnerability to Numerous Dangers
Too many social media accounts, too many security settings to oversee. Have you checked yours recently? If you cannot remember when’s the last time you did, do it now! Some people suffer from cyber theft and even bullying because they forgot to change their security settings.

The Easiest Way to Waste Precious Time!
Some people can’t help constantly checking their Twitter feeds or uploading selfies on Instagram. These are dangerous ways to waste time that should have been made for studying or working.

A New Platform for People to Boast and Quarrel
There are times when boasting your achievements or posting photos of the great vacation you had last summer is a good thing, but only to a minimal. Boast too much of everything you have and you will end up with more enemies and two-faced friends than actual friends who care. Remember, there will always be people on your friend’s list who will disfavor your personal business.

Advantages

Reconnecting With Loved Ones
Social media is a great way to help you reconnect and reunite with your loved ones. Some families go their separate ways and live on different countries but still able to remain a family using the power of social networking sites. For others, they’ve reunited with their long lost sibling or parent due to a tragedy long ago or lovers who have gone separate ways but found each other again online and continued their love story.

Getting Hired
Today, a lot of employers are scanning potential candidates using social media. It is a great tool to find skilled professionals! LinkedIn might just be your next opportunity in getting your dream job, or your network of friends on Facebook and Twitter can link you with employers looking for specific skills that you have.

Professional Networking
There will be times in your career that you feel you need an upgrade or seek out a mentor for your professional growth. Social media also offers networking with organizations of like-minded people where you can satisfy your hunger for professional growth.

A Boost in Business
Social networking sites have provided businesses a new way to market their products and services, look for potential customers, and connect with other businesses with the same interests. It even helps newbie entrepreneurs find their niche and help old ones reinvent theirs.

Raise Awareness and Charity
Natural disasters happen all over the world and tragedy is inevitable, but people found a new way to reach out to others and raise more awareness and charity; the clear water projects in Kenya, the donations made for the campaign for Haiti and Japan where millions were moved, those who rushed to donate blood after the Boston Marathon bombing, and to all who helped and assisted the central Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan tore the land. A lot more people became aware and found new ways to help others in need via social media.

Hobbies Just Became Serious!
You’ll be surprised where the best baking recipes comes from, the super unique DIY crafts for gifts, the cheapest fish bait vendor in town, where your love for photography can become a profit, or how you can land the craziest gig using your guitar. You can level up your favorite past time by interacting with people of the same interest online; learn new things while helping others!

3 Essential Elements to Consider in SEO Content Writing

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When all the designing, code fixing, content and SEO are done, have you ever wondered if all is enough? Tweaking your website to improve user experience is one thing, but content writing and SEO are another. A quality content that can be easily accessed and streamed throughout your site can help keep a visitor engaged; increases your site trust and authority.

You will need to take more time in understanding your visitors and market so you can learn how to make the right content for them, distribute it to useful sites and expand your brand to the world. Take into consideration these three (3) essential elements when it comes to SEO content writing.

Nothing Beats the Original
Aside from providing new information to your readers, content writing is also a great tool for brand awareness and nothing can be much more compared to a quality and original content that has been optimized. In search results today, if you want your brand to stand out from the rest, you will need to provide original content that ranks, backed by quality backlinks and shared across social media sites. When competitors try to duplicate your content, then you know you’re way ahead of them in the race.

Make User Experience as Your Metrics
Using your web analytics and/or heat map, you can study how visitors go in and out of your site pages, where they come from and where they go as they leave your site. With these tools, you can learn if your visitors are interested with your site’s content, which part they like the most and the ones that goes unnoticed. Bad pages, pages with content that are unnoticed, may be caused by lousy internal link structures, but they can be improved by using SEO content writing strategies. It might help if you hire a professional content writer who had years of SEO content writing experience.

Geo-targeting and Key Phrases
A lot of webmasters think that geo-targeting is just for local businesses, but it’s not. You can have an online business that caters to the world but have quality content that targets specific regions using key phrases. There are a lot of content written for specific countries, targeting key phrases and are very successful in search results.

Now, if you think your website content needs a re-vamp, you might just be right!

Business 101: Shifting From Employee to Entrepreneur

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When the time comes that you think being an employee ends now and being an entrepreneur sounds better, you will need to prepare yourself to face the impossible. Shifting from a steady employment to make your own name in the world of entrepreneurs requires you to shift your mindset as well. There are a lot of things that will be different from the ways you are used to and a lot of other things you didn’t even knew are packaged along with it.

Finding Your Own Honey Hole

If you’re just going to rely on other people’s suggestions, it will be best if you get back to your full-time job. Finding your own honey hole means finding the right industry to establish your business in. There are a lot of entrepreneurs who used their own skills and industry when they were still employees, while others relied on their hobbies.

For example, you work as a programmer for a BPO company and your favorite hobby is baking. Maybe you’d want to start your own business of programming mobile and web applications and sell them; you can also be a provider of software to multiple IT companies; or build your own mini bakery or invest your severance pay on food carts.

The Power and Responsibilities

Being your own boss gives you the power to do everything and whenever you want it done. Sounds nice, right? But what most new entrepreneurs fail to grasp are the responsibilities that comes with their actions. As an entrepreneur, you will no longer have to wait for someone to tell you what to do or for things to happen, you are the one in charge of making things happen. And whatever the result is – good or bad; you have to take all the responsibilities.

You also have to learn to wear multiple hats, especially if you’re starting out with a small budget. You will have to say goodbye to John from the IT department who updates your OS and cleans your computer of viruses, and Louie, the guy you always pass by down the hall mopping the floors, vacuuming the carpet and watering the plants. You will learn to handle everything; sales and marketing, billing and accounting, customer support and even taking out the trash.

Even if you have the budget to hire people to work for you, you will still need to learn how everything works so you would know if your business is being productive or not. You cannot know if there is a problem if you do not know how things work.

No More Excuses

You’ve probably made a lot of excuses as an employee, but being an entrepreneur, excuses will not help you succeed, and you’ll only be fooling yourself. There will also come a time when people will try to tell you things that you should be doing for your business, these can be new opportunities for you but you also have to learn to say NO because juggling multiple ventures can side-track you from your ultimate goal and that doesn’t make a good excuse either.

Live and Breathe It

As an employee, you learned to schedule your tasks based on the working hours per day you are required to work. But as an entrepreneur, long hours will be a part of your family. This is why it’s important to start something you love to do ‘till the end of time. You will always be thinking of how your business is doing, what more can be improved or if you’re doing the right method. You’ll find yourself logging in to your computer during a weekend getaway with the family or during a vacation on the beach just to check up on your metrics.

Funding Your Dream

Do you know how to manage your cash flow? If you can budget your salary from the day it’s wired to your bank account ‘till your next payday, then you do know how to manage your cash flow. Same goes with building a business, the money that comes in must be higher than the money that goes out or else you’ll go bankrupt.

If you’re really serious about becoming an entrepreneur, fund it ahead of time. That way, you won’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay your employees and the bills.

Shifting from employee to entrepreneur is a great deal; it may be easy for natural born entrepreneurs or to those born in a family with a multi-million dollar empire, but it doesn’t mean it’s not for you. Turn your ambition into a goal and keep your eyes open for opportunities that are already in front of you. Remember that you have all the opportunity to create something out of nothing.