Pros and Cons of Outsourcing

November 21, 2010

There is an ideal opportunity that you own a computer or any other piece of electronic equipment. There is also a great chance that you ran into some problems with these devices and called the manufacturer for technical support. There is a good chance that the technical support you called is located thousands of miles away from the company in another country.

This is called outsourcing. Companies today are now considering outsourcing their jobs in other countries, such as the Philippines, Mexico, India, and China because of cheap labor. The reason why outsourcing is very popular among companies today is because of cheap labor, quality services and it allows the company to focus more on important factors involved in letting the company grow.

Help desks, and technical support services aren’t the only outsourced jobs today. Now, companies are also outsourcing their payrolls, their business process, data entries, human resources and a lot more. Because of the growing competitiveness of other countries in the information technology, outsourcing companies are now widely available.

Here are some of the advantages of outsourcing services and the reason why companies are considering outsourcing their jobs:

•   Lower personnel costs
•   Allow the company to focus on more important factors
•   Free up space in the company building for other important uses
•   Increase productivity
•   Effectively manage the jobs of a company
•   Reduce cash flow
•   Free up management time
•   Increased company efficiency

However, with all the advantages of outsourcing, there are also disadvantages that you should consider. Here are some of the disadvantages that outsourcing will have:

•   Loss of local jobs, particularly jobs related to customer service and technical fields
•   The company losses direct control over the management
•   Quality problems
•   Slow response time, which can lead to frustration and anger of some of the customers
•   Foreign agents sometimes have different accent that may be hard for local consumers to understand
•   Slow resolution times
•   Reduction of product sales because of frustrated customers or people who boycott a company’s products because they outsource

These are some of the disadvantages of outsourcing however, if your target is inexpensive labor, you can definitely consider outsourcing. But you have to make sure that the quality of the services of an outsourcing company should be at par with your standards. For example, if you need a call center to be outsourced, you have to make sure that the employees of the call center company should be competent and qualified to get the job done. You should also consider the fact that they should be able to speak fluent English with an accent that is easy to understand.

Outsourcing has a lot of benefits that your company can take advantage of. However, before you outsource, you should first weigh the advantages and disadvantages and know whether outsourcing is for you.

If you want to provide jobs for your countrymen, then you shouldn’t consider outsourcing or you should consider outsourcing your company’s jobs to local outsourcing companies.

These are some of the things you should consider when you plan on outsourcing. You have to keep in mind that there are a lot of advantages as well as disadvantages in outsourcing. You have to be able to weigh it in order to arrive at a good decision in whether you want to outsource or not.

One of the most popular places to locate freelancers, is Freelancer.com.

SOLD! WeBuyWebsites.org is Aquired by Farlex, Inc.

October 15, 2010

Launched in 2008 as a private list it was opened to the public in April 2009 and currently has hundreds of subscribed buyers. WeBuyWebsites also purchased a select number of high quality, established websites.

In October 2010, Farlex, Inc., the publisher of the world’s most comprehensive database of online reference material announced its acquisition of WeBuyWebsites.org, a community of website buyers and sellers. WeBuyWebsites facilitates the process of buying and selling websites—everything from e-commerce stores to affiliate sites—by distributing information about sites for sale to interested buyers.

“WeBuyWebsites provides a valuable service to webmasters,” said Steve Boymel, co-founder and executive vice president of Farlex, Inc., “and we at Farlex are thrilled at the prospect of sharing all that it has to offer with our vast user base.”

Millions of people visit Farlex’s flagship websites, TheFreeDictionary.com and TheFreeLibrary.com, each day, and the company plans to grow the WeBuyWebsites community and increase its exposure by promoting it on these sites.

Website Flip Strategy – Buy and Offer a Lease Option

August 13, 2010

To most of my readers this is probably a concept you may have never considered but it’s sure to be a successful strategy in the future. Sometimes, you can actually make MORE money by selling an established website either on terms (over time) or with a lease agreement.

Think about it. If you let someone buy on a lease rather than buying outright then you get to keep the asset for yourself while collecting cash. At first, this may seem crazy but you can improve your net worth if you know how to fix a website then find someone who is interested in operating a website but does not have all the cash at one time.

Flip Strategy #2 – Buy and flip “as is”

July 25, 2010

Don’t like feel like doing fix-up work? Consider selling the property “as is.”

If you’re able to find an exceptional value, this may be the route for you and it’s especially true if you’re able to locate a hot-topic website or where the owner is in a “must sell” situation.

When I was writing this post, I placed a post on one of favorite forums asking if others had utilized this strategy. One forum member privately contacted me to say “yes.” The only concern was that he did not want me to identify him publicly but here’s what he said.

“The deals to be had are unbelievable compared to other investments such as a standard savings account. The main way I made and still make money is to buy under-valued websites and sell them on other marketplaces. It takes a little more time but in the end I usually make between 30-50 percent profit by simply selling the site almost the same as I purchased it. If I need to, I simply hire a freelance programmer to do minor work which is still cheaper than having a regular staff. In the end, this is a great way to make money.”

When asked what his number one secret was to his success, he stated it was two critical factors. The first being a site which sold way undervalued and equally important was the “sale description” in the marketplace advertisement.

Flipper’s Tip: If you buy a website, it’s advisable not to use the same marketplace that you bought the website to resell the site.

While I wish I could reveal this individual, he is thoroughly convinced that flipping websites “as is” is one of the easiest methods of generating a positive cash flow.

Website Flipping Strategy – Fix and Flip

July 1, 2010

The most common strategy of website flipping is Fix and Flip. This involves buying a website which needs simple improvements then selling it for a nice profit. Like any other website purchase, the key is to buy it at a price which is much lower than market value then sell it for a profit.

To make this strategy effective, you need to know exactly what it will take to get the website in “sale-able” condition. For example, you see an underperforming website which lacks obvious elements all websites should possess such as meta tags, site map, backlinks, etc

In other words, basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) programming which could be easily improved. Another situation would be a website that has quality content but the presentation is poor. Both examples would be a good situation where you could take a website needing some tender loving care, fixing up the site then selling it for a profit.

A buyer can quickly identify these deficit features and within a few days incorporate them and then post the website back up for sale. This Fix and Flip strategy is a tried-and-true method and works very well. You can easily make a decent profit on one deal, depending on your market, how good you are at finding bargains and the quality of your sales presentation.

The possible challenge with fix and flips is either paying too much or underestimating repairs. Be realistic in your improvement costs and length of time it may take to resell. This is where being a seasoned webmaster/internet developer can be to your advantage because it doesn’t take much to sort out the bargains that are available. And if you don’t desire to fix up a site, you could just hire a freelancer. You will need to incorporate their costs into your expected profit margin but they tend to be very cost effective.

When I had a chance to buy a friend’s website (HalloweenAlliance.com), I knew that it had potential. Although I had been hired as the webmaster for the previous few years, I knew the owner was not taking advantage of the many opportunities to make the site profitable.

She had tons of other websites linked to her but found it “not worthwhile” to her to hire someone on a continual basis. When she decided to sell, I bought the site (with no money down) for $2,500. I spent about 12 hours fixing the site and, in the end, I flipped the site for nearly $10,000. This of course, was after the site netted me about $10,000 within 18 months so as you can tell, the “investment” or time to flip the website was obviously worthwhile.