Open book outsourcing

Here at Outsource Accelerator, we believe that outsourcing to the Philippines is one of the best business strategies that a company of any size or industry can adopt. The benefits of doing so are tangible and immense and the cost is very affordable – there’s really no reason why anyone would turn it down. It is a great and economical problem-solver. That’s the truth of it.

We also believe that the only way to truly and genuinely promote something is to also believe in it and stand by it no matter what. And to do that, we must be able to prove that the strategy works. Otherwise we’re just like any other advertisement campaign.

That is why as Outsource Accelerator’s founder, I feel that it’s my responsibility to present how outsourcing can be utilized to effectively and efficiently run this company. I guarantee nothing but absolute transparency when it comes to our operations and how outsourcing is effective in keeping things moving. I’ll also be sharing a bit about what I have planned for Outsource Accelerator’s future.

Let’s get right to it.

Outsourcing: not a magic bullet, but close to it

There are no guarantees in business. All businesses, no matter their product or service, must contend with the risk of failure. Outsource Accelerator is no exception to this and I’ve long since come to terms with it, as difficult as it may be. However, I’m more than positive that failure will not be in the cards for the company anytime soon, as I am not only very confident in our mission and purpose, I also have a lot of faith in the fantastic product we provide to our clients. This, as well as our judicious use of outsourcing itself, will help us succeed and reach our goals.

As a business owner myself, I’ll be the first to admit that it was tough for me, personally, to go with outsourcing. Not because I didn’t have faith in how outsourcing can help when it comes to running the company, but because I wanted to do all the hard work myself.

After all, it’s not uncommon among business owners or leaders to take responsibility for the important tasks in their companies. While this may seem like an ideal trait to have – and it is – it also makes it hard for an entrepreneur or a company owner to delegate tasks to other people. Unfortunately, this can cause us to neglect the critical duties that business owners must perform to foster growth in their company: leading, meeting with investors, charting out the new company direction, and so on.

This habit also makes it challenging for me to let someone else take over a process that I created and have grown accustomed to carrying out—even if that someone is more than qualified to do so. However, in the interest of proving that outsourcing is as effective in business as we here at Outsource Accelerator keep saying it is, I’ve committed myself 100% in allowing other qualified personnel to take up the reins.

What I’m not having any trouble with is this: exploring how outsourcing can be applied beyond just backend tasks, and how it can be used beyond backend functions like customer support or payroll management but also in the front end as well. It’s one of my passions to build entire companies in healthy but cheaper economies to sell or hire out to investors and businessmen in the West.

If this idea works and catches on, then it has the potential of revolutionizing the way we look at and do business, as it obviously turns many business models on their heads— especially those that rely mainly on human resources to provide their service or product.

It could be a while until we know for sure, but until then, this is how I’m going to run Outsource Accelerator as a company: by outsourcing as many elements as possible.

The backend becomes the center

As mentioned earlier, I will be as transparent as possible in how Outsource Accelerator is being run. I plan to keep to that promise. However, in the interest of protecting people’s privacy, no identities or salaries will be revealed.

So, in running the company, I planned on using as many turnkey and outsourcing solutions as possible. While this does mean a higher overhead cost, it also means a lot less busywork for me to do and worry about. This gives me back all the time and energy I need in order to focus on more business-critical tasks for Outsource Accelerator.

The solutions I’m using include the following:

• Coworking spaces: Coworking spaces are essentially shared offices. These spaces offer a suite of office amenities like private desks, meeting rooms, and even a kitchen. Coworking spaces serve as a work-conducive environment for my employees so I don’t need to lease an entire floor for a permanent office.
• BPO desk leasing: BPO desk leasing is similar to coworking spaces, but bigger: it refers to renting an entire workstation. That means I only have to lease—and not purchase— the tools that my employees need to work.
• Recruitment: Filling a position can take time and money, so I outsourced this to a BPO that specializes in HR functions.
• Virtual Assistant: There’s a lot of work that need to be done to keep things running smoothly so I need someone else to assist in making phone calls, writing emails, scheduling appointments and so on. Virtual assistants can do all these things. Even if they’re not physically there, they’re always online—which means I can reach them whenever and wherever I am.
• Upwork: Upwork is a website that connects business owners to freelancers and vice versa. I use it extensively to find the freelancers I need to perform roles in Outsource Accelerator on a contractual basis.

You may be thinking right now about how I could be overdoing it. After all, wouldn’t outsourcing so many tasks and functions at once actually cost more money?

The answer to that, of course, is no. I can actually afford to use all these outsourcing services simply because of the fact that this is all taking place in the Philippines. Due to the affordable cost of labor in the country, I can expect to get high quality work for much less than I originally would be spending, had I gone the traditional route or did this experiment anywhere else.

Besides this, I’m also outsourcing my own role as manager to someone else—namely, a pioneer. A pioneer in this exact context is not just someone who’s managing the company in my stead, but also someone with experience in managing a business and who is capable of envisioning new plans and building them for the company, just like the owner of the company would.

Why go to such an extent, to have someone else basically take control of the company for me? Isn’t that a bit excessive? Again, it isn’t. From my experience, if I simply let someone else take on the role of operational manager after I’ve set up every process and mechanism of the company, then I still have to take care of various administrative and operational concerns. Because I’m responsible for all the systems and processes in the company, it also means I own those systems and processes. As such, I’m the only one that my substitute can rely upon if something happens that they can’t handle on their own—I’m still the subject matter expert that gets called up in the middle of the night for answers and help, so to speak. I’d much rather not be that person.

So that I can let go of that role, I need to get someone competent and persistent enough to pick up my role: someone who has vision and the drive to set things up in the company on their own without having to rely on anyone else. A true pioneer in every sense of the word.

This allows me to leave the bulk of the operational responsibility of Outsource Accelerator to someone else while I focus on delivering and improving the educational content on the website that BPOs and client companies rely upon. I can also use the time to take care of other business-critical details. These include:

• Creating more content related to consultation
• Brainstorming and planning content
• Conducting interviews and editing videos and podcasts
• Maintaining social media marketing efforts

The gentle sales cycle starts now

With everything else settled and done with, the focus then goes to driving traffic towards the company website. This traffic is to help build interest and familiarity to those who haven’t heard of outsourcing yet, or those who have no idea what outsourcing is.

I need to emphasize here that we must make this marketing effort as slow and as gentle as possible. Remember, the bulk of our customers are made up of the 2 types I mentioned earlier: unfamiliar or those who have no idea what outsourcing is and are curious about it, and disinterested or those who do know what outsourcing is and what it offers but still have no desire to know more. These people have nothing to lose by walking away from us, and if we browbeat them into availing our services, we can end up scaring them off or irritating them to the point of leaving.

On the other hand, by being slow and gentle with our marketing and by consistently posting high quality content for both BPO providers and client companies, Outsource Accelerator gradually converts them from onlookers and observers to enthusiasts and fans. Eventually, they’ll slowly consider becoming paying clients.

To be completely honest, however, marketing really isn’t something we should be worrying about too much, especially in Outsource Accelerator’s case. Our biggest marketing hook—namely how outsourcing allows businesses to save up to 70% on staffing costs—will always draw the interest of business owners and investors. We’re also highlighting the great benefits that companies can enjoy from outsourcing, which also helps a lot in drawing interest. Once the clients are interested, they can simply read the wealth of information we have about outsourcing, which are all easily accessible on our website. Things should fall into place after that.

Conclusion

I truly and honestly believe that outsourcing isn’t just a business strategy. Rather, it’s a positive source of change and opportunity, not just for wealthy investors and entrepreneurs in the West but also for developing nations. It empowers business leaders and managers so that they can focus on what truly makes their product good, as well as provides competitive labor and creative, lucrative jobs to developing countries. No other solution can do that.

I also believe that outsourcing is inevitable. As the internet continues to reach more people and as technology keeps on advancing, the demand for services and products will rise—and so will the demand for new employees and workers. By then, outsourcing will prove to be a mandatory strategy to keep companies afloat and thriving.