This thread is not read-only due to length. Please start a new question about outsourcing.

outsourcing was a very nice marketing strategy, but there are things to remember if you want to outsource a business.   1. You have a wide scope for your business. 2. Knowledge of doing business with others since different country has there rate and business attitude. 3. Most important you check the capabability and capacity of your business partner outside the country, before you ingage on the outsourcing business.   There are a lot of things that you might considered, this is just some tips that might help for you.

In case of having job over your current employees. And do not require new one to take care about it. it may be such a task only done for a specific period of time or a job that you do not savvy about that. In my opinion you may have to rely on outsource. Orawan i-smartbuy.com Affiliate Marketer since 2006 ---This post was edited to remove a commercial link. Read our discussion policies for more Community best practices.

We have not outsourced much, if any, of our website writing - and absolutely none of our work - because it's so hard to vet freelancers.  Anyone can scrounge up a good reference or two, but it's unfortunately rare to find a good source of outsource work without blind trial and error.  At least in my experience!

Yes, I've outsourced all my content writing and webdesign.  At first I outsourced to other countries and the communication was the problem.  I would find alot that said they could do the job.  In fact, was the opposite of what I wanted.  Then I started to just hire only USA workers.  Sure it cost me a little more money. But it was worth the cost.  I didn't have the communication problems anymore. And I always started with a small job as well.  And if he did a good job, then I gave him more complex jobs.  

I think outsourcing is in its infancy and is just now becoming a viable option for small business owners. You can train a virtual assistant from the Phillipines who will work fulltime for $300 dollars a month. Craigslist is a good place to help you find overseas workers. Outsourcing is a great option. I have only outsourced tasks so far haven't reached the point where I can employ a full time worker but expect to. Robert --- commercial link removed

When you don't have money for outsourcing you have 2 options:   - You work harder until your income can wellcome the outsourcing.   - You find a partner(s) who is motivated enough to work with you even for free until the business becomes profitable. hardwood wrote:I think outsourcing is a great ideal if you have the money to do it. Most small business like mine donot have the money to do it.  I have a lot to do every day and I would love to outsource but don't have the capital to so.  I had many people working for me but I found out it is easier to go with a smaller sized company because others do not have your intrest at heart in it. If I could find a list of company that I could outsource my website to I would love that. I takes up alot of my time where I need to focus on my core business. i am wanting to sell more products online but the core business for the time is locally.  but thanks for the info. I will keep it in mind. Message Edited by NicoleD on 09-09-2009 01:23 PM  

Outsourcing is a good method for small company,  but has boundaries.   

Outsourcing have a lot of companies specially in time of economic crisis, by providing cheap labor. There is always a risk in hiring employee and outsourcing is no different. I suggest that you take time to get to know your freelancer by giving him test project to see if he is a good fit or his skill level is to your liking. I myself is managing a team of freelancer and had some up and down when dealing with them but if I do find a gem I surely keep them on my team and provide incentive.

All work needs to be passed through copyscape. I always make sure that this is done and even check a few paragraphs myself to make sure that it just hasnt been copied from somewhere.   There are some really talented and legitimate writers out there on the big freelance job sites. I also attended a conference recently where the speaker said that he posted a lot of jobs on Craigslist in the Phillipines where there are some very talented workers. I believe that their education system is primarily in English which helps.