Corporate Outsourcing...

BPO of TELCO

2010-01-07T12:46:00.000+06:00

SMS stands for Short Message Service. It is a technology that enables the sending and receiving of messages between mobile phones. SMS first appeared in Europe in 1992. It was included in the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) standards right at the beginning. Later it was ported to wireless technologies like CDMA and TDMA. The GSM and SMS standards were originally developed byETSI. ETSI is the abbreviation for European Telecommunications Standards Institute. Now the 3GPP(Third Generation Partnership Project) is responsible for the development and maintenance of the GSM and SMS standards.As suggested by the name "Short Message Service", the data that can be held by an SMS message is very limited. One SMS message can contain at most 140 bytes (1120 bits) of data, so one SMS message can contain up to:

160 characters if 7-bit character encoding is used. (7-bit character encoding is suitable for encoding Latin characters like English alphabets.)
70 characters if 16-bit Unicode UCS2 character encoding is used. (SMS text messages containing non-Latin characters like Chinese characters should use 16-bit character encoding.)

SMS text messaging supports languages internationally. It works fine with all languages supported by Unicode, including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.Besides text, SMS messages can also carry binary data. It is possible to send ringtones, pictures, operator logos, wallpapers, animations, business cards (e.g. VCards) and WAP configurations to a mobile phone with SMS messages.One major advantage of SMS is that it is supported by 100% GSM mobile phones. Almost all subscription plans provided by wireless carriers include inexpensive SMS messaging service. Unlike SMS, mobile technologies such as WAP and mobile Java are not supported on many old mobile phone models.

26 Things to Do When Business is Slow and in Downtime Mode(Contd...)

2009-12-20T15:02:00.001+07:00

Brainstorm Ways to Obtain New Clients

In addition to searching for new jobs, freelancers should also take this slow business period to brainstorm about ways to gain the most amount of new clients in a short period of time. This may involve reconsidering one’s advertising methods, checking the available finances to see what resources they can use to gain more clients through advertising and looking over the current offerings to see if the business can offer more valuable services.

Network and Make Business Connections

This is the best time to make more connections for your business. This can take the form of exchanging links, posting on forums, joining community sites, posting your articles to article banks, using social networking sites, etc. Here is an article I wrote on Successful Viral Marketing. It is a must-read article if you are interested in viral marketing and networking successfully.

Make Money on the Side
There are plenty of ways to make money both online and offline. A few ways to do this are:

Write articles for sites that pay for them.
Sell used things on eBay for a profit.
Fill out surveys for money.
Place Google Ads on your website or blog.
Place affiliate marketing ads on your website or blog.
Sell products on CafePress by coming up with unique items.
Take pictures and sell them to Stock Photography sites.
Here are ideas for web designers and graphic designers.
Blog daily and put Google Ads on your blog”¦believe me the money will come in.

Take a Vacation with the Family
Since many freelancers work seven days a week, vacations are usually few and far between. When business is slow, this is the optimal time to get away for a little while and reconnect with the family. Since freelancers are never too far from their “office” as they usually work out of their home, getting away from it all in the way of a vacation is the perfect thing to do. Due to the fact that business is slow, there are no excuses with regard to being unable to get away from the office for a vacation.
Take the Time to Have Some Fun
If you don’t have the time or cash for a vacation, then at least allow yourself to have a little break from work. Use this free time to take a walk, go to the park, walk around in the mall, go out with some friends, go to the spa, or whatever floats your boat. Soon you will have more work than you can handle, so why not take advantage of this free time.
Take Care of Household Duties
For those who do freelance work out of their homes, it is often easy to overlook household duties and tasks, especially in the height of the work season. During the time when business is slow, use this time to take care of household duties whether it be something as simple as cleaning the bathrooms to something more extreme such as cleaning out the garage.

26 Things to Do When Business is Slow and in Downtime Mode(Contd...)

2009-12-20T15:00:00.000+07:00

Create a Form Letter for Potential Customers

Now is a good time to work on a letter that you can send out to potential customers. This letter isn’t to be sent out to random people, rather people that you almost made a sale with. This letter will remind them that you are available for work and is simply being sent to see I they are ready to make their decision. A sample letter would be:

Dear Sam (if you are on a first name basis),

It was so nice speaking with you in December. I hope that you had a nice holiday season and that life is treating you well. I am just writing to see if you had started the big project that we spoke of. As you already know, I have 20 years experience working with publication companies, and I know that I could help you achieve your goal within your budget. If you are ready to start your project, I am available for a free hour consultation. Call me any time, day or night.

Ps. I have included our e-zine. I hope you enjoy it.
Sincerely,
Rachel Goldstein
AllFreelance.com
999-999-9999
Review Your Marketing Materials.

You should stop to analyze why you aren’t busy with projects. Now is a good time as any to set some time aside to review your marketing materials. Is the design too flashy or outdated? Was your design created with MS Word and printed out on your home printer? If so, I suggest that you have your marketing materials printed out professionally. You will find an increase in business if you step up and have your brochures, business cards, etc. printed out by a commercial printer. You should also look at the copy on your marketing materials. Show your brochure and other marketing materials to family and friends to see what they think. If you have enough money, have a professional copywriter rewrite your copy.

Rethink Your Business and Marketing Plan

Revisiting your business and marketing plan is always tedious and something that you probably aren’t going to be too excited about doing. However, if business is slow, you might be going through a slump because the market has changed. Another possibility is that your business focus has changed without you even realizing it. Take the time to analyze your marketing and business plan and hopefully something good will come out of it.

Review and Update Your Website or Blog

If you already have a website or blog, then take some time to update the design and copy on the web site. Make sure there aren’t any typos and that your marketing copy is working for you and your business. If you need to, consider hiring a professional copywriter and / or web designer.

Take the Time to Learn Something.
As a freelancer, you are supposed to be an expert in your field. With an overbooked schedule, you probably haven’t had the time to keep up with new standards in your industry (especially if you are in a technical field). Now is the best time to jump back into school. There are plenty of online courses that you can take or you can take a course at your local community college. Just remember that you will most likely get a client (or two or three) before you are finished taking your course, so I don’t recommend taking more than one course at a time. However, if you can find short classes or classes that you can finish at your own pace, then you can take as many as you please.
Work on Your Financial Records
If you are anything like me, then you put off your bookkeeping tasks until the last minute. Now is the time to work on this tedious task. Find all of your receipts, credit card statements, and bank account statements. Get to work placing all of your revenue and expenses into your bookkeeping system.
Write Articles

As a freelancer, I am sure that you are always looking for ways to promote yourself and your business for free. Well, the best way to do this is to get your name out on the web by writing articles and submitting them to article banks and sites that accept submissions. You can increase your visibility drastically by just submitting one article. However, I recommend writing many quality articles to show your expertise in your field. Make sure that you are referenced in these articles. Something like this works best:

John Smith
Fake Company
Expert Web Designer
http://www.fake-company.com/
fake-company@server.com

Some web sites won’t let you have all of this information written as a signature on the article, but they will let you have a summarized version. If not, at least insist on your name and website address being added to the article. In order to utilize this idea to promote yourself with this viral marketing technique, bookmark this page full of article banks and article submission sites so that you will know who accepts articles.

Copy Paper Items into Digitized Format

Do you have a rolodex that is busting at its’ seams? Do you have phone numbers all over pieces of paper and sticky notes covering your desk? Are you a chronic note taker (but on paper)? Now is a great time to put your paper items into digital format. You might want to consider getting a PDA or an iPhone to reduce your paper clutter.

Look for Ways to Cut Costs

Now that you have some free time on your hands, you can take the extra time to research more economical options to your business practices. Some things that you can take a look at are:

Look at other Internet Service Providers in your area to make sure that there isn’t a plan available from another company that better suits your needs and your pockets.
Look at your telephone plan. I pay a ton less, now that I use my cable company as my phone plan. They gave me a low price for TV cable, phone service, and cable modem service.
Don’t forget about your cell phone plan. Are there lower plans out there?
Office supplies costs much less online because you can sort by lowest price. And I love that Staples ships for free.
You can buy toner and ink to refill your printer cartridges. This is much cheaper than buying new cartridges and much better for the environment.

Survey Your Clients and Potential Clients

How else are you to know what your clients want unless you ask them? Write up a survey. Start by asking them how they would want to keep in touch and work your way up to what additional services can they could use? Also ask about how satisfied they have been with your services and how you could have improved. Keep it brief and make it easy to respond. You should offer those who fill out the survey in full a discount on one future order, a free gift, or a gift certificate to a business like Amazon.com or other store. You’ll learn some very valuable information on how to adjust your business offerings or operations to keep — and maybe even gain — customers. Then you can compile all of the questions and answers. You can use these questions and answers on your web site.

You can also ask your clients what questions they would want answered. These would be questions that probably most potential clients would want to know to. You could answer your clients’ questions and then also use your answer as an article for your newsletter, blog, or web site.

26 Things to Do When Business is Slow and in Downtime Mode(Contd...)

2009-12-20T14:54:00.000+07:00

Get a Head Start on Your Taxes

Quarterly taxes are never too far away. There is no time like the present to get ready for tax season. Use this free time to prepare your tax files so that you can get taxes down it a snap when tax time pops up out of nowhere (as it always does). Some things that you can do are:

Make sure your books are up to date.
Go through your expense receipts and categorize them.
Estimate your last tax payment for the current year.
Put all digital receipts in a digital folder.
Make sure all of your payers have your correct information for when they send out 1099s.

Good Will Towards All Clients

Use this extra time on your hands as an excuse to be nice to your past clients and potential clients (companies who almost used your services). If you are out of work around the holidays, send out a holiday card to them (nondenominational card as to not offend them). Even if it isn’t around the holidays, you can still take the time to write a personal note to your client (preferably snail mail) in which you thank them for using your services. You can also include a coupon, certificate, or freebie in the envelope. This is a good way to just place yourself in their mind. This way if they do need some work done, they will hopefully hire you to complete it.

Add Services Depending on Your Clients’ Needs

During slow business times, you should focus your attention to new ways to make money for your business. This might mean that you learn a new skill or that you start doing work that you don’t necessarily enjoy. Once you get your feet back on the ground, you can change your direction and outsource this extra work. But for right now, you need some work and beggers can’t be choosers.

Just think about all the business that you are throwing away. Lets say that you are a web designer. Someone who needs a web site might need a web designer, logo designer, writer, web developer, a hosting company, etc. Maybe you are an excellent writer and fantastic at logo design. Why are you throwing away this business? Most server companies offer reseller hosting accounts. This means that you can sell hosting accounts. Look into this and see if you can get some extra work out of it.
Lets say that you don’t have the skills or talent to offer those extra services. Well, then I suggest that you join up with some other freelancers who do have these talents. You offer to share your extra work with them that is in their career field if in return they throw business over your way. Networking is the key to the game.
Start Selling Products

I know. I know. You might think that I am pushing it past your boundaries with this idea. But, really, I am not. You are an expert in your career field, aren’t you? Some ideas for products are to create an online course or to write an e-book for Your career field.
If You Don’t Have a Website, Create One
Your best self promotional tool is the Internet. If you don’t have a web site, then you need to find out how to create one or who to hire to create one for you. If you can’t afford a website designer, then I suggest using a web template. Templates range from free to very expensive, so shop wisely. If you don’t feel that you can handle a web site, then you might be able to get away with just having a blog. You would do much better with your own domain (for SEO purposes), but if you can’t handle this than you should pick up a Blogger or WordPress account.
Create a Blog
A blog is just as important as a web site and can be used as your web site if you want. My personal opinion is that a blog is the best marketing item that you can use. Why?

Blogs get picked up by search engines almost immediately.
RSS readers also pick up blogs.
You can ping sites to tell them to pick up your blog.
Content can be syndicated and shown all over the web.
People can subscribe to your blog.
People can comment on each article.
You don’t need to know HTML or how to code.
Metatags are updated automatically.
Trackbacks (When you link to another blog, they automatically link back to you).

26 Things to Do When Business is Slow and in Downtime Mode

2009-12-20T14:51:00.000+07:00

What to Do When Business is Slow

26 Ideas for Freelancers When Business is in Downtime Mode

Freelancers are in a great position in that they have the freedom to work when they want to and they have the choice to take a vacation whenever they are in the mood. With that said, some freelancers are anxious to work day in and day out which may present a problem for them when business is slow. However, there are many things which freelancers can do to bide their time while waiting for new work to come in.

Brainstorm and Doodle

Perhaps one of the most constructive things which freelancers can do while business is slow is to brainstorm. How often do we have a free block of time to just sit there and think? Think about what your goals are for the following year. What will you need to do to meet or beat those goals?

Search for New Jobs

Perhaps one of the most constructive things which freelancers can do while business is slow is to search for new jobs. Depending on the type of freelance work one pursues, this can involve cold calls, searching the Internet for job opportunities, handing out flyers, putting advertisements in the paper or using one’s contacts to expand their client base. No matter what the desired route in the pursuit of jobs may be, searching for new jobs is a great way to spend your down time when business is slow.

Organize Your Home Office

Another way to keep yourself busy when business is slow is to organize your home office. Since there is often little time to do so when the days are busy and work is flowing in, tidying up the home office is always a wonderful way to spend your off days. This may involve anything from organizing files and contact lists to purchasing new home office equipment. Whatever it may be, use the time when business is slow to get things in order within your home office setting. Go through all the useless piles of papers, magazines, and other junk that have been getting in your way for as long as you can remember, and get rid of them once and for all. Remember the this organizational mantra: Do it, Ditch it or Delegate it. Your goal is to reorganize your office in a manner that will allow you to find what you need in 60 seconds or less. This will optimize your time when work starts pouring back in.

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally (Contd...)

2009-12-20T14:16:00.002+07:00

Call in to Radio Shows

Call into talk radio shows and somehow try to shamelessly plug your business without appearing as if that was what you were calling for. Free PR is always fun.

Get Listed with Trade Associations.

Sign up with relevant trade associations and get listed in their offline directories. I would list these trade associations but since I don’t know what field you are in, you will need to find these on your own. Good luck.

Free Note Pads with Coupons

People eat up free note pads because they are so useful to have around. An innovative way to market your services is to pass out free notepads to people that have ads intermingled every ten pages or so. Your sales will almost definitely pick up with this marketing strategy.

Direct Mail Campaign

Create a mailing list yourself by looking in the phonebook, using an online directory, The Chamber of Commerce, The Better Business Bureau, or by contacting trade associations. Or you can purchase a mailing list from many online sites. A well designed and written direct mail can help your business brand awareness and even result in many new customers.

Create a Unique Organization.

You can try creating a unique local organization appealing to a target group of members. Many associations and organizations have been created to market a business. You can either create a group to target all business owners or create a targeted niche market such as publishing. Get creative, have fun, and get noticed.

Be a Sneaky Snake at Libraries and Book Stores

If you are having troubles finding business leads, then this tactic might work for you. Although, it might also work against you. Go to local book stores and libraries and place business cards in books that make sense to your business. When people find your business card, maybe they will give you a call. On the other hand, you might get in trouble from the library or book store. Or, the person who finds the business card might think that you are a jerk for putting your business card in the book. Who knows though, it could work for you.

Connect Yourself with Local News or Current Events

A good way to get into the local newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV is to tie yourself in with current local events. Find a news story that you can connect to as a freelancer. For example, if you are a freelance dietician and you see a news report about the increase in obesity amongst children, you just found yourself a good story. Issue a press release to local media and get yourself on local radio shows and in newspapers and magazines as an expert in your field.

Flyers in the Bathroom Stall

I know, I know, this one is a little desperate. But, if you are desperate for more business, then swallow your pride and stick flyers on the inside of bathroom stalls.

Stand Out at Trade Shows Before it Begins

Paying special attention to trade-show attendees the night before a trade show can be hugely successful in leading to new business. It is very important that you stand out in the crowd. In order to get a leg up on competition, start working on networking the night before. Hang up marketing door hangers on hotel rooms boasting discounted rates. You can also leave branded freebies in front of hotel room doors. An additional detail that will get noticed is if you write a personal note stating how excited you are to meet them at the trade show the next day. You will stand out and definitely be noticed.

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally (Contd...)

2009-12-20T14:15:00.002+07:00

Offer Free Demonstrations of Your Services

Visit local businesses (that are related to your services) and offer to provide free demonstrations and lessons to their customers. Promise that you won’t schmooze the customers and they will probably take you up on your offer. After all, by providing your free demonstrations, more customers will come into their store that day. Make sure to have leaflets, business cards, flyers, and promotional freebies available for everyone.

Yuck…Cold Call Potential Customers.

I don’t like cold calling, but I have done it. I wrote an article about cold calling a few years back. You can refer to it right here.

Create a New Local Holiday

Who says that you can’t create your own holiday? I never seen or heard about a law against this. Get creative and make a holiday up that promotes your business’ services. Some examples of a new holiday are “Free Ice Cream Day” or “Give Art to a Friend Day”. The most important part of this process is to publicize, market, and announce your new holiday. You will get noticed and hopefully receive new customer contracts.

Every Customer Gets 2 Cards

How about paper clipping 2 business cards onto your invoice or correspondence with a personal note asking your customer to keep one and to give the other one to someone who could use your services. If you have a good relationship with your customer, he or she will be glad to help.

Bribe Your Customers

There is nothing wrong with a little bribe, right? Well, in that case, why not offer your customers an incentive to refer new customers to you. Why not offer a percentage off your customer’s next (or current) order if they refer a friend to you. Now your customers will have a reason to talk about you and your services.

Find an Agent to Promote You and Your Services

If you are having way too many problems finding new customer leads, then maybe you should consider finding an agent to promote your services. When your agent finds you a client, they you will need to give your agent a percentage of your profits.

Sponsor a Local Contest or Event

A good way to get local recognition is by sponsoring a local contest or event, such as a fair, an art show, or a play.

Customer of the Month

Award a “Customer of the Month” every month and see how excited each customer gets. Award a certificate or plaque that can be then hung in your customer’s place of business. The award can remind them of your services as well as become an attention getter for visitors of your client’s office.

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally (Contd...)

2009-12-20T14:14:00.000+07:00

A CD-ROM Business Cards

Why not be different and create a CD-ROM business card. Pass out your CD-Business Card at trade shows, seminars, fairs, or anywhere. You can even send them in a direct mail piece.

A Business Card as a Guide

A great idea is to create business cards that unfold into a mini-guide. Your business card can be a guide that helps your potential customers with field related topics. For example, a graphic designer’s card could open up into a mini-guide for printing, fonts, colors, etc.

Business Card Magnets

Business Card Magnets are a great way to keep your business card handy and useful. I always need more magnets, and I keep all of the magnets that I get. Maybe other people do.

Come Up with an Elevator Speech

An elevator pitch is a short speech that can be delivered in the time it takes you and someone else (poor soul) to get from the ground floor to the top floor. You need to come up with a short speech that in that short amount of time will pique the interest of whomever gets stuck with you during that ride. Even though it is called an elevator speech, that doesn’t mean that it can only be given in an elevator

Offer Your Services for Free to a Local Non-Profit Charity

Why not do something good and at the same time get some great coverage. Provide a free service to a local charity in exchange for some sort of promotional coverage of your business. For example, if you are a Graphic Designer, offer to design a charity’s brochure for free. In return, you can ask to have “˜Thanks to ABCDEFG Company for Donating the Design of this brochure”. This is great coverage and great PR. Call the local newspaper and media and tell them about your good deed. You could get some great coverage and get a good feeling from doing a good deed.

Sponsor a Charity Event

Sponsor a local charity event and get recognition for your company (along with the resulting good feeling of helping a charity). Call the local newspaper and media and tell them about your good deed. You could get some great coverage and get a good feeling from doing a good deed.

Offer Free Consultations to Potential Clients

People love to get things for free. Utilize this knowledge to your advantage. Sometimes just offering a free consultation will land you the job, however, sometimes it won’t. When a client meets with you, you already have your foot in the door, so I think that it is worth the risk (if you are just starting out that is).

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally (Contd...)

2009-12-20T14:11:00.000+07:00

Distribute Your Free Printed Newsletter to Local Businesses

Many small businesses love getting free magazines and newsletters for their customers to read. Distributing your own printed newsletters is an effective way to promote your business. Allow people to cut out a postcard to subscribe to your printed newsletter (or provide a web site url for them to subscribe). So as you can see, by having a printed newsletter, you are collecting mailing address information about potential customers. And a benefit is that printed newsletters can be virtually free if you use your own printer. Writing articles for your printed newsletter is time consuming, but it is worth it when you prove yourself to be an expert in your field to your local area.

Newsletter Cross-Promotion Works

Find other industry leaders who publish newsletters. Cross promote in each other’s newsletters. Don’t cross promote in a direct competitor’s newsletter, but rather find someone who is in a similar field. For example, print designers could promote themselves with web designers, photographers, writers, etc.

Get Involved in Social Events

Social events are a great place to network too. Just don’t overdo it. Just be friendly and there will be an appropriate time to mention what you do. Some examples of social events are church, synagogue, and school events.

Your Mail and Packages Too

On all of your outgoing packages and mail, you should include your Company Name, tagline, and website (if you have one). Just purchase a stamp or labels and this will be an easy task and a cheap advertisement that might get noticed”¦you never know who will see it and give your business a chance.

Participate in Trade Shows

Get a leg up in your industry by participating in trade shows. This is a great way of getting your name out to industry leaders.

Sponsor a Local Sports Team

Sponsoring a local Little League baseball team or other sports team is a great way to get noticed. Your company name all over the kids’ uniforms is a lot of recognition for your company AND it feels great to do as well.

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally (Contd...)

2009-12-20T14:10:00.000+07:00

Ask Local Friends and Family Members for Help

Just because you are not in a business relationship with friends and family, don’t let the opportunity to utilize your friends’ resources slip away. Friends can provide you with referrals, introduce you to prospects, endorse your services, display your business’ literature in their homes or offices, and distribute or publish your business information. Just remember to use tact and don’t go over the line and be too pushy or salesman-like with your friends and family.

The Radio Can Be Your Friend

Believe it or not, the radio can be more effective than television advertising and often more cost effective too. If you decide to advertise on the radio, then I suggest that you find professional help to develop a radio campaign for you. However, radio is very seldom likely to work as a sole medium for an advertising campaign unless you put a significant amount of investment into it. Trying to buy one or two commercials a day in a run-of-schedule rotation is throwing your money away if the results you expect are lines of people at your door. You need more repetition and a great promotion to draw that kind of notice.

You Should be a Walking Advertisement

You should wear your clothes and accessories as an advertisement. What do I mean by this? You should buy hats, shirts, coats, and bags with your company information on it. Now everywhere you go, people will see your advertisement and possibly even ask you about it. Your shirt or hat or whatever is a great icebreaker. Won’t it be nice for someone to ask you about your company rather than having to get into another uncomfortable position where you need to bring up your company out of nowhere?

Road Signs as Marketing Signs

You see people hanging up signs on road signs. It might be tacky, but it must work if people continue to do it. I have never done this because I think it is in bad taste. However, if you are braver than me, give it a try. WARNING: Don’t Cover Road Signs, only use the post. Otherwise you could accidentally cause an accident.

Stay in Contact with Past Coworkers

You should stay in contact with past companies that you worked for as an employee. Make sure to let them know that you are available for outsourced projects that might pop up.

Your Checks Too

On your business checks, you should write a tagline underneath your business’ name. A good tagline would be something like “We design brochure and logos”. You never know who will see your check and be interested in your services.

Create Your Own Locally Published Directory Online and / or Offline

Create your own local business directory to get to network with other local business owners and to get your name out there in a unique way.

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally (Contd...)

2009-12-20T14:09:00.000+07:00

Utilize Friendship Marketing

Find local businesses and co-market each other’s business. The idea is to include each others’ promotional material in outbound orders, such as flyers, coupons, business cards, or freebies. One site to help you find sites interested in such partnerships is Mom Packâ„¢ . However, if you want to use friendship marketing locally, you will most likely have to mail, phone, or visit potential marketing partners to create the partnership.

Another idea for friendship marketing would be to offer customer referrals in exchange for displaying your business cards. An example of a situation where this would work is with a graphic designer offering to sending all of their customers to a specific printing company in exchange for that printing company displaying that designer’s business cards. It is a win - win situation for both parties.

Research Local Businesses

It is important to focus your energy on where there is likely to be a need for your services. One way to find out which local business that you should focus your energy on, you will need to research. Uncovering a business opportunity often times requires broadening the range of your skills and services. Since you are targeting all sorts of different businesses you will often need to learn about different industries in order to be useful. You might find that you want to focus on one industry, for example, only targeting restaurants. For example, if you are a graphic designer and you wanted to target restaurants, you could create sample online menus, downloadable coupons, reservations, take out orders, and any other innovative ideas to draw in the prospect’s interest. In fact, imagination and creativity are your keys to success.

Excellent tools for researching local businesses are :

1. Yellow Pages

2. Chamber of Commerce

3. Better Business Bureau

4. Department of Small Business Development

5. Trade Associations

6. Search Engines

7. Purchased Lists

Use Your Car as a Moving Advertisement

We have all seen the cars driving by with company names and contact information printed all over them. This is nothing new, plumbers and electricians have been doing it as long as I have been alive. There is no reason why you can’t employ this same tactic. You can either go the expensive route and have your company information imprinted on your car or you can go the inexpensive route and get a professionally printed magnet to stick on your car.

These magnets come in pretty large sizes and run about $35 to buy one.

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally (Contd...)

2009-12-20T14:06:00.000+07:00

Your Local Cable Channels

You have probably seen the ads that run on your local television channel(s). Sometimes these ads are rolling while they play music. Enquire with your local cable company to see how expensive it is to run an ad.

Take Advantage of Bored Bus and Train Passengers

Most bus stops have a spot to list an advertisement. People waiting in the bus stop are usually bored out of their minds. Give them an advertisement to focus on while you have their attention. Maybe when they arrive at work, they will give you a call hire you for a project. Another option is to purchase an ad on the side of the bus or on the inside of the bus.

Print Out Funny and / or Unique Bookmarks

Promote your business in a fun way by printing out funny and / or unique bookmarks (with your biz info on it as well) and place them in book stores, libraries, and coffee shops.

Schedule Speaking Engagements

Although we all have a shy side, if we are going to have a successful freelance business, we have to learn to swallow our pride and network with others whenever we get a chance. Try to get your foot in the door to host presentations or seminars. The more people you can get in front of the better. You will become known as the expert in your field in your local area and your business will boom. Also, you should try to find out more about professional groups in your career field. Do they exist in your area? If they do, you should join and network amongst your peers. You would be surprised at how many jobs can come from these professional groups.

Write a Column in Your Local Newspapers and Magazines

Try Submitting your great ideas to local newspapers and magazines. Publishers are always looking for content and it is a great way to get the word out about your knowledge in your specific field.

Do Something Controversial for the Free PR.

Try doing something controversial to get free PR for your business. Don’t do anything too crazy though”¦I don’t want to hear about you in the news.

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally (Contd...)

2009-12-20T14:05:00.000+07:00

Branded Freebie Items

Handing out branded free items is a great way to etch your business name into people’s memory. Purchase useful items that people will keep and look at multiple times per day. Items such as refrigerator magnets, mousepads, calendars, and key chains are all items that are seen multiple times throughout the day. If you hand out refrigerator magnets, hopefully every time potential clients open up their fridge, they will see your magnet. Next time they need services that you offer, hopefully they will think of you and give you a call. Make sure to have your logo, contact information, and web url printed out on the freebie item.

Yellow Page Ads

Although the Internet is a commonly perused resource for information people still use the good old Yellow Pages. Putting an advertisement in the Yellow Pages stating your particular freelance business and services offered is a good way to put your name out there.

Hang Up Flyers and Posters Around Town

Although it seems quite juvenile, hanging up flyers and posters in strategic locations actually works. When I started my business, I received call after call about my services. All of these calls were coming from the flyer that I hung up in my local library. It works. Some other places that you could consider hanging up your flyers or posters are supermarkets, malls, social clubs and business centers. Make sure that you are allowed to hang up your flyer before you hang it up. Most companies require a signature from the office manager before a poster or flyer can be hung up.

Local Activities and Groups Websites

Many cities and towns will have one or many websites dedicated to information about the particular town. The websites may focus on events in the area or other similar types of information. Since these websites often need to make money to stay afloat they will try to get advertisers to pay to post ads on the site. Posting your freelance job offerings on a local website such as this may also promote your business and gain new clientÃ¨le.

I’ll Scratch Your Back if You Scratch Mine

Try approaching local shops and offering your services in return for free promotion of your services. For example, if you are a muralist, offer your local pediatrician a free mural in exchange for your business cards being placed out on the front desk. If your mural is good, just think how many clients you would get from that one free mural. That free mural would pay for itself in no time. One mural could keep you busy for the rest of your career (because once you get clients, word of mouth keeps your business going).

Try Your Best to Get Interviewed by a Radio Station or Newspaper

Try to get free PR by asking local newspapers and radio stations to interview you. This free PR will bring customers left and right if it goes well.

Movie Theater Ads

Do you know those ads that run across the screen before a movie comes on at the theater? Well, those ads are paid for by local companies. Contact your local movie theater to see how much these ads run for. Maybe this would be worthwhile and bring you some business.

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally (Contd...)

2009-12-20T14:03:00.000+07:00

Advertisements in Free Local Magazines/Newspapers

Another way to get the word out regarding your freelance business in your local area is to take advantage of free local magazines/newspapers available in your vicinity. You will most likely have to pay to have an ad placed in these periodicals but the good news is that large numbers of individuals will read the items since they are free.

Billboards and Other Types of Signs

If you can afford to do so, taking out an advertisement on a billboard is an excellent way to get yourself noticed in your local area and gain clients for your freelance business. Just think of how often you notice signs and billboards in your local area when you are driving around town and sitting at traffic lights. Advertisements in the way of billboards or a more economical type of sign may bring in quite a bit of new business for your freelance venture.

Marketing Yourself with a Business Card

Another important thing that you should do to promote your business offline is to make sure that people don’t just know what you do but also how to reach you if they’re ever interested in your freelance services. Business cards are the number one method of doing this. Make sure that yours are eye catching and also that they include all of your various methods of contact (email, phone, address, etc.) as well as your web address(es). Hand your business cards out liberally to anyone who might have any reason to contact you. Give them a second one at the same time; they might throw it away, but who knows, they might also pass it along.

Be Unique with Your Business Cards

Business cards usually have an entire back that is blank. Utilize this space to print a coupon for your services. Or do something completely unique that hasn’t been done before. Get some great ideas for business card designs with these amazing examples.

Business Cards in Local Establishments

You may also find it useful to post your business cards in local establishments. Places such as coffeehouses and libraries will often have a notice board where individuals can post flyers, business cards and ads. Many individuals view these boards to see what new services are posted and putting your business card up there might be another good way to draw in new business.

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally

2009-12-20T14:01:00.000+07:00

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline & Locally

It’s easy to remember to promote your freelance business online. After all, you’re probably online a good portion of the day already and it’s practically second nature to do things online that promote your business. But what the freelancers who are savvy in the Web 2.0 world tend to forget is that there was a whole world of business happening before the Internet ever made its way through the office doors. Although online promotion is important for your freelance business, it’s crucial to remember to go back to your basics and do offline promoting as well locally, nationwide, and worldwide depending on who you are marketing to.

Talk About Your Business

One of the best and most inexpensive ways to market your business locally is by word of mouth. Word spreads fast and this can be beneficial for freelancers who are trying to gain new clients and increase their popularity. Talk to people who you run into at your local Starbucks, supermarket or library and tell them a little bit about your business offerings in a casual way. You will often find that, if done right and subtly, this is a great way to gain new clientÃ¨le in the local area.

Networking with Other Local Freelancers

I’ve always found that the best way - hands down - for a consultant to build his/her business is by networking. This includes attending Chamber of Commerce events, networking events, volunteering at high visibility non-profits in a high visibility position, church memberships, and anything else that will get you face to face with people. One of the large networking associations for business owners is BNI - Business Networking International. They hold weekly lunch meetings and include one individual for each business professional. Their website has a listing of meetings that can be searched by zip code.

Oracle Business Process Outsourcing

2009-12-18T13:49:00.001+07:00

In today's uncertain and competitive marketplace, the pressure is on for organizations to reduce costs while operating more efficiently. That's why many companies are choosing to outsource non-core business processes, such as payroll, human resource administration, or accounts payable and receivable. By outsourcing, they can focus on their business challenges, instead of back-office operations.

Oracle Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) makes our complete stack of world-leading technologies in applications, database, and middleware available through Oracle's network of BPO providers. Learn more about how your company can participate in the Oracle Business Process Outsourcing initiative and begin delivering BPO Powered by Oracle services. Alternatively, if you would like to discover how Oracle's BPO Providers can help your company remain agile, be responsive to changing conditions and effectively manage costs, please visit our extensive list of providers from around the world.

Top 10 Tips for Outsourcing Success (continued) - Do What You Do Best and Hire the Rest

2009-12-15T11:53:00.000+07:00

8. Negotiate ownership of work up front

For any type of outsourced project, make sure that you are clear about who owns the resulting work product and any important components of that product. Make sure the service provider understands how you intend to use the deliverables that they are agreeing to provide. For example, the development of a custom software application for your personal use would be substantially different from the development an application that you intend to package and re-sell.

9. Don’t forget about support after the project is complete

For technology projects, it’s a good idea to specify a warranty or support clause so that you are assured of some amount of continuing support from the vendor after the project is complete. It’s much easer to negotiate a support clause before the service provider begins work, rather than after the completion of the project. Even creative or business services can benefit from a support clause. Suppose you need some changes to a business plan based on feedback that you get from potential investors. Or maybe you find that you need that snazzy new logo delivered in a new type of file format. Specifying some amount of free support or negotiating discounted prices for future modifications can save you time, money and headaches later on.

10. Get it in writing

During the course of a service engagement, the scope of the project, deliverables or even the agreed upon price may change. Make sure that you clearly communicate any schedule, scope or payment changes to your service provider and get confirmation from them - in writing - that they understand and agree to the changes. Similarly, keep a record of any agreement changes requested by the service provider and whether you accept or reject those modifications. Save copies of any email exchanges that you have.

You can access top-notch expertise any time you need it without the overhead of hiring full-time staff. By staying focused on your core competencies and hiring expert freelancers for your other needs, you can compete with the delivery capabilities of larger organizations while maintaining your independence.

Top 10 Tips for Outsourcing Success - Do What You Do Best and Hire the Rest

2009-12-15T11:49:00.000+07:00

5. Review portfolios and samples

Examine the vendor’s previous work (their “portfolio”) and make sure that their previous work meets your expectations for quality and style. If you’ve evaluated a vendor’s portfolio, references and previous experience and are still unsure of their capabilities, consider asking them to do a quick mock-up or provide a basic outline of a work plan. A service provider who really wants to win your business might be able to give you a rough concept so you can better understand their approach to solving your problem. But never cross the line between asking for a mock-up and insisting that a vendor provide you with finished work “on spec.” No qualified professional expects to work for free.

6. Start small

When engaging with a service provider for the first time, start with a project that is relatively small and simple in scope. This will give you a better idea of the provider’s style and capabilities before you entrust a “mission critical” project to them.

7. Tie payment to clearly defined project milestones

Just as you should be clear about project scope, make sure that you define a work plan for your outsourced project with clearly defined milestones. Having scheduled checkpoints where you review the status of the project as it works toward completion—is an easy way to ensure that you meet your final deadline and that the final product meets your standards. Tie the vendor’s payment to these milestones. A good guideline for IT and software development projects is to pay no more than 20% to 30% of the total project price up front, with the rest of the payments awarded based on the completion of 3 or 4 milestones.

Top 10 Tips for Outsourcing Success - Do What You Do Best and Hire the Rest

2009-12-15T11:46:00.000+07:00

1. Clearly define the scope and schedule for your project

This might seem obvious, but any successful outsourced project always starts with a clear statement of what you are hoping to accomplish. Define your project requirements up front. Service providers need accurate, complete information to present you with realistic proposals and to quote you a reasonable price. Be specific about the deliverables you expect the vendor provide. Give vendors as much information as you can about what you need delivered and the way in which you need the work done. Also, be clear and realistic about your schedule requirements - project schedules can have a huge impact on project costs.

2. Evaluate a service provider like you’d hire a full-time employee

When you’re evaluating proposals from service providers, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Just like hiring a full-time employee, selecting a vendor is a very subjective experience. Check their references and ask for feedback from other clients who have used their services. Engage in a dialog – if you have any concerns about a vendor’s specific capabilities, voice your concerns. Don’t just stew about it and hope for the best.

3. Look for specific experience fit

Ideally, the service provider you select will have specific experience with the type of project that you’re undertaking. You don’t want to be somebody’s “guinea pig.” This is especially crucial when outsourcing complex technical projects such as software development. For example, if you’re looking for someone to develop an application for the Palm PDA, make sure they’ve actually completed commercial projects on that platform for other satisfied customers. This advice holds true for other types of projects as well. If you need a business plan for opening a retail store, you’ll get best results if the consultant you hire has verifiable experience in the retail sector.

4. Don’t choose a vendor based solely on price

Though it might be tempting, never select a vendor based solely on price. Experienced buyers who have outsourced many projects and evaluated hundreds of proposals almost always recommend discarding the highest-priced and lowest-priced bid. Buyers report that their most successful projects are the ones where they felt the vendor offered a balance of good value and quality results.

Top 10 Tips for Outsourcing Success

2009-12-15T11:40:00.003+07:00

Do What You Do Best and Hire the Rest

Entrepreneurs and small businesspeople are always looking for creative ways to accomplish more of their business goals for less money. One strategy that can help you save time, money and frustration as you start and build your business is to outsource as much work as possible to skilled, but cost-effective, external service providers.

In my work with Elance Online -- an online marketplace that helps small businesses outsource almost any type of project – I’ve talked with dozens of buyers who have successfully outsourced projects as diverse as administrative support, business strategy, graphic design, web design and development, writing and even software development.

When I talk to buyers who’ve mastered the art of effectively managing external service providers, the same themes emerge over and over. I’ve distilled their advice into the following “Top 10 Best Practices” for working with external service providers. Following this advice can help you get the most out of your relationships with external vendors or contractors -- whether you use the web to find service providers or are requesting and evaluating quotes from vendors the “old fashioned” way.

Company Profile for Diversified Web Holdings

2009-12-13T16:46:00.000+07:00

DWH is a venture capital firm that strategically invests and partners with companies that can benefit from digital media resources and expertise. Portfolio companies typically outsource key aspects of their businesses, such as sales and marketing, public and investor relations, and business development, to the DWH team.

DWH media experts and investment professionals rapidly identify opportunities that contribute to the growth of the business. This may include expanding into new verticals or new markets overseas. In addition to investing "marketing and advertising dollars" into portfolio companies, DWH management uses its experience and networks to source capital, evaluate future financings, acquisitions, and exit opportunities.

Company:               Diversified Web Holdings
Headquarters Address:  55 Broad Street, 19th Floor,
                       New York, NY 10004
Main Telephone:        212-964-0044
Website:               www.dwhvc.com
Type of Organization:  Private
Industry:              Venture Capital
Key Executives:        Boris Goldstein, Director
                      Corporate Communications

Contact:
Crystal Agresti
Phone: 212-964-0044 x 263

Hollywood’s Brilliant Coda to America’s Dark Year

2009-12-13T16:40:00.000+07:00

ON Christmas Day, Hollywood will blanket America with a most unlikely holiday entertainment. That’s when “Up in the Air,” the acclaimed new movie starring George Clooney, will spread from its big-city engagements to more than 2,000 screens. Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a corporate road warrior for a small, Omaha-based contractor hired to lay off employees for companies that prefer to outsource that unpleasant task. Ryan has fired so many people in so many cities that he is approaching a frequent-flier status unknown to all but a few Americans.

How could a film with that premise be a Christmas hit in a country reeling from the highest unemployment rate in decades? By using the power of pop culture to salve national wounds that continue to fester in the real world.

“Up in the Air” is not a political movie. It won’t be mistaken for either a Michael Moore or Ayn Rand polemic on capitalism. What makes it tick is Ryan’s struggle to reclaim his own humanity, a story that will not be described or spoiled here. But the film’s backdrop is just as primal — and these days perhaps more universal — than the personal drama so movingly atomized by Clooney in the foreground.

Here is an America whose battered inhabitants realize that the economic deck is stacked against them, gamed by distant, powerful figures they can’t see or know. “Up in the Air” may be a glossy production sprinkled with laughter and sex, but it captures the distinctive topography of our Great Recession as vividly as a far more dour Hollywood product of 70 years ago, “The Grapes of Wrath,” did the vastly different landscape of the Great Depression.

While “Up in the Air” opens with a remix of Woody Guthrie’s Depression-spawned “This Land Is Your Land,” its dispossessed Americans don’t resemble those in a black-and-white Dorothea Lange photograph. They’re not the familiar contemporary blue-collar factory workers in our devastated manufacturing economy. They are instead mostly middle-class refugees from the suburban good life depicted in credit card ads. Their correlative to the Dust Bowl is a coast-to-coast wasteland of foreclosed office spaces where desk chairs and knots of dead phones lie abandoned in a fluorescent half-light. “Up in the Air” taps into the desperation, fear and anger that both the populist left and right are trying to articulate right now, and that leaders of both parties have failed to address.

“Retailers are down 20 percent,” Ryan’s boss tells his troops in a conference room. “Auto industry is in the dump. Housing market doesn’t have a heartbeat. It is one of the worst times on record for America. This is our moment.” And so it is. In constant flight from hub to hub, his staff parachutes into troubled companies to lay off dozens of workers with impressive assembly-line efficiency. The genial Ryan and his fellow “transition specialists” never use the word “fired,” of course. They tell employees they are being “let go” and not to “take it personally.” They hand their prey slick-looking severance packets and, with a doctor’s bedside manner, intone that “we’re here to talk about the future.” Soon it’s time to send the discarded employee to collect his personal effects on the way to the exit.

A new colleague of Ryan’s, a “dynamite young woman” from Cornell, comes up with an innovative strategy for downsizing the downsizers. To eliminate travel costs, she proposes that in-person firings instead be executed long-distance by teleconference, with ranks of “termination engineers” at computer screens reciting from a script titled “Employee Termination Workflow.” In a dry run, the guinea pig is a burly 57-year-old office worker who refuses to stay in the camera frame and staggers off in a paroxysm of anger and sobs. It’s like watching a man being assassinated by a predator drone. But this is Detroit, not Waziristan.

The fictional doings in “Up in the Air,” adapted from a 2001 novel by Walter Kirn, are bookended by brief montages culled from interviews that the director, Jason Reitman, conducted with real-life laid-off workers while shooting in Detroit and St. Louis. He asked the interviewees what they had told — or wished they had told — the H.R. bureaucrats who let them go. “On the stress level, I’ve heard that losing your job is like a death in the family,” says one man. “But personally I feel more like the people I worked with were my family, and I died.”

How do the Chinese do it ?

2009-12-13T16:33:00.000+07:00

The phenomenon of Chinese manufacturing is well known worldwide - outsourcing and relocating of companies to China have increased so rapidly that almost all types of goods consumed throughout the world are made there.
Even many typical "local" goods, such as traditional Indonesian candy Ting-Ting, are now manufactured in China. Favorable Chinese economic factors, such as low wages and the exchange rate, are generally credited for attracting importers to China. Yet, the low quality or deleterious outcomes of Chinese manufacturing, such as the production of toys made with lead and baby milk containing toxic elements, have not seemed to deter outsourcing.
Paul Midler's Poorly Made in China explores this puzzle. Drawing on his extensive experience as a liaison between importers and manufacturers in China, Midler provides an on-the-ground view of how the Chinese manufacturing industry works and an insight into why goods produced in China tend to be of lower quality.
Although Midler's book focuses mainly on his work as a representative for a US-based importer of health products, his experience in various other industries such as home furnishings, construction and waste paper recycling also provides the reader with a broader understanding of how international manufacturing in China works.
Midler believes that doing business in China generates benefits far beyond the low wage rate generally credited with driving the industry. He begins by demonstrating how China has provided a supportive environment for foreign investors: "China was on a national mission to build its economy and it was tacitly understood that foreigners were to be treated in a manner that would encourage their return and further investment."
He also shows how easy it is for foreigners to form an exporting business in China, with local factory owners, keen for entrepreneurs to choose them, more than happy to assist with the necessary paperwork, freight forwarding and other technical issues. The downside, he reveals, is factory owners deliberately misleading foreign investors in order to secure a manufacturing order. The author witnessed this practice firsthand during a survey of a factory for a hygiene products company. To feign productivity, the factory owner had her workers pretend to be fulfilling a large order, although, as Midler finally discovered, there was in fact no work to be done. Furthermore, before inspecting the production process Midler was asked to abide by certain procedures such as hand washing and wearing sterilized clothes. However, this practice was as much of a show as the rush in work; after the manufacturing deal was closed, the sterilizing procedure was never used again.
The book also illustrates how Chinese manufacturers' remarkable imitation skills attract foreign businesses: A foreign company only needs to bring a sample of its product for a factory to reproduce it. Unlike in other parts of the world, in China this skill is appreciated and socially acceptable. Midler gets to the root of this practice by taking the reader on a brief journey through China's history to the Qing dynasty, when Emperor Qianlong was impressed by the skill of an artist creating a fake Ming style jade cup.
Further pitfalls await investors, Midler shows. For example, once a contract is signed, the manufacturer might tamper with the agreed contract to gain extra modest profits. Midler encountered several classic maneuvers during his dealings with Chinese manufacturers, such as switching to cheaper ingredients, fiddling with product specifications, increasing price at short notice and using the metric system conversion to their advantage (for example, assuming 10 feet is equal to 3 meters): "Chinese factories often engaged in this sort of quality fade - the incremental degradation of a product over time," he writes.
Although Midler presents these manufacturers as being somewhat shortsighted, he also demonstrates how they are able to think two steps ahead of the foreign investor. Although dealings may result in goods that do not meet the importer's standards, it is uncommon for foreign businesses to take legal action. Midler claims this is because importers would lose more from halting production and suing the manufacturer than would be gained from trying to fix the poor-quality goods and meeting the demand from the retailers back home: "manufacturing problems tended to be small relative to the size of the overall business, and factory owners actually took this into account when they considered whether or not to manipulate quality levels."
Thus, as Chinese manufacturers know they are unlikely to face legal action and with large domestic retailers looking for ways to cut costs by taking the importer out of the distribution chain, factory owners can pressure importers little by little to gain marginal profits. With minimum legal support for contract enforcement and the ease with which the Chinese can repetitively set up a manufacturing company after each failure, low-quality goods are almost inherent in this type of manufacturing and import relationship.
Another way Chinese manufacturers seek extra profits is by producing more than the agreed quota and selling the extra stock to secondary markets, where buyers are willing to pay a high price for low quantities of the good. Midler also shows how Chinese manufacturers tend to sell imitations of products protected by copyright to developing economies. Some companies outsource the manufacturing of their patented products to China mainly because they are offered a very low production cost. Chinese manufacturers are shown to be willing to produce these goods at no profit in order to sell the imitation with a high markup to other markets where intellectual property laws are not enacted or enforced.

Another problem investors face is price discrimination. In economic theory, price discrimination refers to the vendor's ability to sell each product at the price at which the buyer values the good. This allows the company to make maximum profit by applying a different price for each buyer according to their willingness to pay.
As depicted in Midler's book, Guangzhou city holds an export manufacturing exhibition twice a year called the Canton fair. Most of the visitors to the fair are relatively new small to middle-sized importers from across the world looking for goods to import at a profit - and they all have an idea of how much their goods are worth in different markets.

"Customers who came from France did not get quoted the same price as those from Russia," Midler writes. "This business about *what's your market' incensed many importers who suspected that they might not be getting the absolute lowest price available." This approach is possible, however, because it is difficult to find reliable information on the manufacturers. Importers, especially new ones, are forced to choose their manufacturer by trial and error.
Because of Midler's focus on all the extra costs incurred by the foreign investor, it remains unclear how the benefits from choosing to locate in China outweigh these negatives. If the costs are indeed larger than the benefits, then either foreign investors are learning nothing, or they are playing a one-shot game. In fact, Midler writes that Walmart switches manufacturers as soon as a contract expires or the manufacturer starts to seek a higher price. This lack of long-term relationships between foreign investors and Chinese manufacturers should lead the reader to question why investors are not learning anything, or why there exists such a large business migration to China instead of a mass emigration from China. This leads the reader to conclude that either these costs are not as great as Midler contends, or the prospect of facing low entry and fixed costs at the moment of business creation and low wage costs throughout the business relationship are enough to tempt foreign investors into suboptimal contracting.
Overall, Poorly Made in China provides an in-depth look into how China's manufacturing industry conducts business with foreign investors. Midler's narrative skills bring out the insights gained from his experience in an entertaining way. Yet, given the narrative nature of the book, readers who are expecting a rigorous approach to this topic may not be completely satisfied or convinced by his conclusions. The author's reliance on anecdotal evidence casts doubt on his attempt to generalize his observations. However, the book is a captivating read with compelling illustrations of what really lies behind the "made in China" label.

ADP's Midmarket HRO Business Heats Up

2009-12-13T16:27:00.000+07:00

Experts agree that the two leading suppliers in midmarket HR outsourcing today are ADP, which has 43 clients with an average of 9,200 employees each, and Ceridian, with 25 clients that have an average of 4,000 employees each. But the competition is increasing. On one hand, professional employer organizations, which typically target companies with fewer than 500 employees, are moving up-market.

Providers are offering more standardized solutions to meet the needs and budgets of these clients. While large companies can afford complete customized platforms, 62 percent of midsized organizations said in a recent survey that they are willing to adopt the providers’ standardized process as their own. Even if companies start with outsourcing just one or two processes, they are going to grow and want to outsource more back-office work. Particularly high-growth companies will see a need to do this.

Unlike larger companies that are jumping into full-blown HRO deals with a single vendor, the midsized organizations are taking a more cautious approach. In the midmarket, they’re just dipping their toes in and outsourcing only one or two processes at a time.

This is partly due to the fact that many midsized companies don’t have the systems in place to mesh with an HRO provider and its service offerings. For example, while a large employer may want to outsource its recruiting and screening process, the midmarket client may not yet have an automated process in place. The other reason is that relatively few vendors offer total HR outsourcing services to midsized employers. But that’s starting to change as experts predict that the $1.2 billion midmarket HRO business will double by 2010.

Could the evolution of outsourcing be the fastest global development in history?

2009-12-13T16:24:00.000+07:00

In a recent interview, the CEO of a major BPO company, WIPRO, said, "As a young industry, business process outsourcing has seen significant change in the market, both from buyer and supplier perspectives."
How significant is this change?

Traditional outsourcing tackled poor communication with pricey phone calls and expensive business trips. But, over the last decade, internet communications has made it fairly easy for local businesses to setup their offshore support, adhering to textbook communication standards. Free software(s) like "Skype" enable businesses to be in constant contact with their BPO units. Skype allows instant messaging & virtual conferencing with voice and video efficiencies. It has become such an outsourcing fad, that GN Netcom, the largest headset provider estimated that the "2009 global market for headsets is worth $2.5 billion and is growing rapidly at 17 % per year." Over the last decade, American businesses developed a familiarity with outsourcing. While cost used to be a principal factor in diving offshore, businesses became attentive to the liability it aligned itself to. Before long, the solution arrived...

... In an interview with Rohit Barman, president of DPS America, exclusive consulting hub for 30 year old BPO service, DPS Technologies, he said, "Currently, the ISO 9001-2000 certifies companies for better performance and quality. Simply, do not outsource to a BPO that isn't accredited."

While the two barriers in outsourcing were tackled aggressively, where is this global phenomenon heading?
... It's only been a few years since American Businesses supported "working from home" to reduce infrastructure costs. BPO vendors recently began evaluating this option as well. Raman Roy, CEO of outsourcing facility, Quattro Solutions, views this as "the next-generation step for the industry. It will create jobs for people who are educated but don't have travel flexibility."

In 2005, New York Times columnist & author of bestseller, "the World is Flat", said, "If you don't visit the bad neighborhoods, the bad neighborhoods are going to visit you." With the advent of seamless technology & support, globally accredited BPO models, and cost effective business remedies that mirror local service standards, Business Process Outsourcing is reinventing itself daily. The global neighborhoods have merged, company fences eradicated, and cubicles are being set up thousands of miles apart.