Is Outsourcing Destroying Our Local Economy?

Is Outsourcing Destroying Our Local Economy?

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When you talk outsourcing there are definitely mixed opinions around the subject.

I have been fortunate time and time again to see outsourcing help businesses grow and in this video I answer whether or not outsourcing can grow or shrink an economy.

Watch while I walk you through a client case study and break down the exact cost savings and how they managed to employ 4 new people and double the turnover of their business.

 

Time Stamps

1 – What It Means To Be In Business – Time: 00:27
2 – Why Are Business Owners Working So Many Hours? – Time: 1:30
3 – Working Smarter Instead Of Harder – Time: 2:03
4 – The REAL Result Of Outsourcing – Time: 2:59
5 – Saved 50k, Employed More Skilled Workers And Went On Holiday – Time: 4:46
6 – How VAs Give You Back Your Life – Time: 5:29
7 – In The Next Video – Time: 6:09

Transcript

Hello and Welcome, David Judge here and in my last video I spoke about How much you should pay a Virtual Assistant.

In today’s short video I’m going to answer whether outsourcing is destroying our local economy?

Now that’s a big question and as I have been asked that question a few times I thought I would answer it head on and give you my real opinion on what I think, along with a real life example.

What It Means To Be In Business

Lets start by talking about what it’s like to be in business today and a few interesting stats.

According the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of hours employed people (full time and part time) has actually decreased by approximately 1 hour every decade. For example in the 80’s the average hours worked 35hrs a week, then in the 90’s 34 hrs a week, the the 2000’s 33hrs and according to trends by 2020 it will be 32 hrs a week..

On the flip side the average hours for Business Owners is going up, with over 23% of self employed working 70+ hours with an average of 52 hours a week.

That’s an extra 20 hours per week that a self employed person is working.

Why Are Business Owners Working So Many Hours?

So why do you think employees weekly hours are going down whilst business owners hours are going up?

The short answer, Business owners are carrying more of the work to cut costs.

And the style of tasks they’re doing in many instances don’t offer a direct Return On Investment but are still critical to keep the business alive and afloat.

To make it even more challenging the hours a business owner needs to work (to be profitable) will just keep going up, unless they either go out of business or simply find another way of doing business.

Working Smarter Instead Of Harder

I know this sounds all doom & gloom but the reality for a number of our clients that approach us, is they understand they need work smarter rather than working harder.

And this my friends, is one of the many reasons businesses outsource work to VA’s (virtual assistants).

VA’s give business owners back their time and the ability for another person to perform these tasks at a much more affordable rate.

That’s how outsourcing Free’s up the time of business owners and allows them to start living a lifestyle.

But what about employing people locally and the fact that we’re sending those jobs overseas?

Based on the statistics alone, business owners are reducing the hours they’re paying to employ people locally as they’re doing more themselves.

But lets flip this around and think about the REAL RESULT of outsourcing.

The REAL Result Of Outsourcing

Now, I’m going to do this by example.

A client of ours, was employing 2 receptionists in his office that were completing a number of tasks that included answering the phone, booking appointments, contacting other team members, preparing reports and more.

He was paying these 2 people approximately 100,000 a year (including tax and super contributions).

He would also pay sick leave and holiday pay and was having a number of issues working together, so he would have to performance manage them a lot, which meant he would have to work extra hours to pick up the slack.

When we spoke we looked at all of the tasks we realised we could change his processes and have 1 VA replace one the receptionists in his office which would save him approximately 30,000 a year in staff costs.

ok, now hear me out cause something very interesting happened next.

The team members that worked off-site would hand write a report, which would then be transcribed by a person in the office and the average turnaround time for a report was 3 business days.

Because he was outsourcing he changed what he was doing and bought all of his offsite team iPads and had them prepare the reports while they were on site. They would then email them to the VA to look over and compile into the report and the report would be sent within 24 hours to the client.

What had effectively happened was he saved money and reduced the delivery of his product from 3 business days to 24 hours.

Saved 50k, Employed 4 More Skilled Workers And Went On Holiday

This then made him stand out from the crowd and he got busier and I mean real busier. Before I knew it, he called me to get a second VA (as the first one was maxed out) and he had employed 4 more people locally to handle the workload.

During all of this he went on an overseas holiday for 3 weeks(which was the first he’d taken in a very long time).

Lets summarize:

He employed 2 VA’s (which were both tax deductions, as they were a business expense), let one person go from his business, employed 4 more people (so he was 3 people up), doubled his turnover and finally went for an overseas holiday for the first time in over a decade.

So lets wrap up?

How VAs Give You Back Your Life

VA’s free up the time of the team members to focus on tasks that offer a direct ROI and in many instances the employment of a VA have allowed businesses to continue to grow and employ additional locally skilled people.

This has a direct benefit to the local economy, supporting the education of skilled & trained workers and allowing businesses to grow and flourish.

So in Reality, Outsourcing does the opposite and in fact shows time and time again to HELP the local economy and more importantly, gives a business owner back their life.

In The Next Video

Ok, the next video we’re going to talk about –

The pros and cons out outsourcing

If you have a question you would like me to answer make sure you get in contact and I love to hear from you.

As always this is David Judge talking outsourcing and showing businesses how to get more done, keep your costs down and Enjoy your life.

You May Also Be Interested In:

  1. How to identify what a VA can do for you
  2. What are the best ways to communicate and stay in touch with a VA
  3. The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing
  4. How much should I pay for a VA?
How much should I pay for a VA?

How much should I pay for a VA?

in /by

There is a lot of speculation around how much you should pay when outsourcing and I have to admit at times this can be a ‘How Long is a Piece of String’ question.

With over 86,000 hours of outsourcing experience I’ve come to understand the right amount to pay and what you actually get in return.

In this video, we delve deep into this subject and cover the concept of getting what you pay for.

 

Time Stamps

1 – Outsourcing and My Really Bad Mistake – Time: 00:54
2 – How To Gain Reliability and Consistency in Outsourcing – Time: 2:07
3 – The 3 Reasons Outsourcing Fails – Time: 2:33
4 – Why To Invest In Your People and Infrastructure – Time: 4:27
5 – How Much Do You Pay to Outsource? – Time: 5:08
6 – In the Next Video – Time: 6:02

Transcript

Hello, David Judge here and welcome. In todays video we’re going to cover a very important question…

How much should I pay for a VA and/ or outsourcer.

Ok, I can’t handle it, this music is far too heavy.

I know this is an important subject but what’s say we keep it a little bit lighter, yeah?

Yes, yes much better.

Now this is actually a subject which is really close to my heart and it sort of frustrates me when I speak to a person that tells me they can get a V.A. for Peanuts.

This is why I think it’s important to cover this idea in a little more detail and the concept of you getting what you pay for.

So, without further adieu, let’s jump in…

Outsourcing and My Really Bad Mistake

Everybody loves a bargain and when I think back at the beginning of my outsourcing journey I’d have to admit that was my approach.

I would employ people all over the place looking for the person that could get the work done at the “Right Price”.

My first bad experience was years ago when I was looking at getting social interactions for a clients facebook account.

They promised to build 1000 genuine likes for $50 and I was excited at the interaction and business I could get for that client. 4 days later the task was complete and the client saw the increase and was happy until…

They looked in their analytics and they saw all of the likes were from Banglasdesh and the accounts with the likes… They were all fake people.

To top it off, their facebook page was suspended 5 days after that and I lost the client (and they were using multiple of my services which cost my hip pocket).

I thought to myself, what did I expect? I got what I paid for…

How To Gain Reliability and Consistency in Outsourcing

It took a few more hard lessons just like this one and I realised this was actually affecting the reliability and the consistency of my business.

I could keep going here with examples of clients that have come to me that had that style of VA and the sort of damage it’s done to their business and reputation, but I want to move on to why this kept happening to them.

The 3 Reasons Outsourcing Fails

I levelled these consistent issues into 3 reasons:

The Right Skills – People would say they could complete the job, but they either didn’t possess the skill level or they wouldn’t complete the task the way I wanted, which impacted how I looked with my client.

Due to some of the cultural differences I even had a person once post something totally inappropriate on a client’s facebook page as they figured we found that sort of thing acceptable.

Constant power – Issues with power losses which impacted the ability to get jobs done with consistency and not delivering on time..

Issues with internet – Same deal as constant power, especially if they didn’t have a backup connection (which you can’t get if you’re getting paid peanuts)

This really hit home with me that certainly I could find people for really cheap prices but I realised the quality of person that you get is a reflection on the nature of business you run.

This relates to all parts of business from data entry to social media (and I tell you I could share a few stories on things that have gone wrong for clients before they came to me in these areas).

So the result for me?

Why To Invest In Your People and Infrastructure

I realised the more time I invested in getting people and setting up an infrastructure (power and internet) meant I could get a more reliable person that would become an incredibly valuable member of my business.

We’re talking people that are better, smarter and more efficient than I am, which means I can confidently delegate and know the JOB WILL GET DONE!

Does this cost more than $2 an hour? Heck yeah, but here’s how I look at it outsourcing…

How Much Do You Pay to Outsource?

I don’t compare my team (and my clients I get VA’s for) with $2 outsourcers. I compare them to a person that I would be paying 3 times the price for locally and my outsourcers are just as good, more educated, constantly upskilled and Damn Loyal!

So the answer to the question is – ‘a third of the price you would be paying someone to do it locally’.

Sure this costs more, and In my mind there’s no comparison.

Last question, how often do you buy from a bargain shop and what do you think of the quality of what you’re going to get?

Ask yourself, how does apply to your business and the sort of results you want to achieve.

Ok, cool. Lets wrap up and talk about what’s next.

In the Next Video

In the next video we’re going to talk about –

The pros and cons of outsourcing

I’ve made a heap of mistakes in my outsourcing journey and have come across some stories that would curl your toes and you’ll hear all about it in the next video.

If you have a question you would like me to answer make sure you get in contact and I love to hear from you.

As always this is David Judge talking outsourcing and showing businesses how to get more done, keep your costs down and Enjoy your life.

You May Also Be Interested In:

  1. The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing
  2. What Are The Exact Costs Of A VA?
  3. How to identify what a VA can do for you
  4. Work Hours, Holidays And The Best Time For A VA To Work
How do I make sure my VA is performing?

How do I make sure my VA is performing?

in , /by

One of the most common complaints I get when I talk to people about outsourcing is it’s too hard to understand if my outsourcer is actually performing.

In today’s video I’m sharing the top tools a guy that has over 86,000 hours experience uses and how you can gain complete CLARITY on your outsourced team and how well they’re performing.

If you’ve never Outsourced then this is an important video for you to watch as I cover the Foundational ways you should use to make sure your VA is performing.

 

Transcript

Hello and Welcome, David Judge here and in my last video I spoke about the top tools you can use to stay in touch with your VA.

In today’s short video I’m going to take it to the next level where I discuss and answer How do I make sure my VA is performing?

Now if you haven’t had a VA before I want to you keep watching as you’ll gain valuable insights on a couple of Do’s and Don’ts around outsourcing.

The 2 Extremes of an Outsourcers Performance

When we look at the question ‘How are they performing’ you can actually interpret this in so many different ways and in my experience this comes from 2 totally different extremes.

From the one extreme it’s cause they’re outsourcing and they want to make sure they’re taking good care of and upskilling their person (this is how I work with my team).

On the other extreme (and more commonly) it’s because they’re not totally confident that their VA is getting the jobs done and they think the whole promise of getting a outsourcer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

So, lets get into this and really delve deep into how you can make sure your outsourcer is getting the work done and how you can measure their performance.

The Top 5 Ways to Track Your VA’s Performance

First things First… when you looking at outsourcing you need to first of all invest a little time in understanding the tasks you would like them to perform.

1 – Identify the Tasks

In a previous video I actually cover in detail how to identify what a VA can do for you so make sure you check out my website for that post.

In all honesty this is a critical step as it helps establish the foundation for your entire relationship and makes sure you’re getting total value from the outset.

So make sure you invest the time in laying out those tasks at the beginning.

2 – Lay Out the Expectations

Ok, second… Lay out the Expectations.

What’s really funny is when I’m approached by a person that already has a VA and asks me to help bring them inline with the tasks guess what.. they haven’t laid out the expectations.

The common issues here are:

1 – No NDA signed (so they’re not protected)

2 – They don’t have a set start or finish time (what’s called flexi time). I very rarely allow this as I find most people work best under a repetitive structure

3 – They make friends, which then allows room for the outsourcer to take advantage of you (now this isn’t just outsourcing, if you make friends with most employees it can go pear shaped and this is again another reason we manage VA’s for clients)

4 – They don’t ask the tough questions. I always want to know if there are any reasons I may have issues down the track and I ask!!! For me and my clients we outsource overseas, so I want to have that peace of mind and ask at the beginning

5 – You don’t make it clear that they can’t work with other clients or stuffing around on my coin. When you’re working for me, during my hours and I’m paying you, work for me, only!

The reason I actually follow this model now, is in the beginning I made these exact mistakes and paid for them every single time.

Now I’m not a total dictator as my team needs to own and grow, but I do keep these simple rules in place.

3 – Break the Tasks Down into Manageable Bites

Next, I break the teams tasks in weekly buckets. Ok, so this next one is a bit of work and is the reason I have supervisors who oversee each VA for me.

It does help keep your team member on track, highlights any important tasks for that week and gives them a worksheet to refer to when you’re too busy handling other stuff (and I’m telling you that will happen and it’s cool to know they’re being productive and ticking away while you’re handing what you need to).

4 – Track The Results

Ok, the last point. Watch their performance and track their results.

I always mention to VA’s that we’re watching their performance and I offer feedback.

How do I do this?

There are many softwares you can use to do this, and the 2 I use are Hubstaff and Google Drive.

Hubstaff lets me see snapshots of their screen and measures their keyboard strokes and mouse movements and Google drive is where you can place your weekly tasks.

They can also put how long it takes for them to complete a task and you can look an guage based on your own experience. Again this takes a small amount of time at the beginning but will make them almost totally independant down the track.

5 – Outsource Your Outsourcing

A bonus is to put a supervisor above them to grow and monitor their performance which is what I offer when you employ a VA through me 🙂

Ok, so that’s it and I tell you if you implement these key areas you’ll have an airtight method to getting your Outsourcer to perform.

In the Next Video

Ok, the next video we’re going to talk about –

How much should I pay for a VA and / or Outsourcer

This is a really interesting question as the prices totally vary and we’ll discuss the concept of getting what you pay for.

If you have a question you would like me to answer make sure you get in contact and I love to hear from you.

As always this is David Judge talking outsourcing and showing businesses how to get more done, keep your costs down and Enjoy your life.

You May Also Be Interested In:

  1. How Do You Performance Manage an Underperforming VA
  2. What are the best ways to communicate and stay in touch with a VA
  3. How To Integrate A VA Into Your Team
  4. The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing
What are the best ways to communicate and stay in touch with a VA

What are the best ways to communicate and stay in touch with a VA

in , /by

When people approach me about outsourcing the most common comment I get is “I didn’t get the result I expected from outsourcing”.

Outsourcing is like any other business process and needs to be approached from a systematic approach if you’re going to get the best result.

I cover off 5 tools I use to get the most from my VA’s.

Transcript:

Hello and Welcome, David Judge here and in this short video I’m going to answer an important outsourcing question:

What are the best ways for me to communicate and stay in touch with my VA

When I’m talking VA, I mean Virtual Assistant more commonly known as an outsourced team member.

We’re going to discuss the different tools you have available to you to communicate with an outsourced team member and more importantly how you can keep on eye on what and how they’re doing their job.

Before that…

The Problem with Outsourcing

I talk to a lot of people about outsourcing as it’s my passion.

And you know it’s really common when I’m talking to people that have outsourced before that they feel like they weren’t getting real value from their outsourcer.

They would say a task that took them 5 hours to perform would take their VA 25 hours to complete, or their VA would disappear for days without responding, or even worse they employed and paid a person to the job and they totally dissapeared.

What’s even more interesting is some of the people that had these bad experiences that I’ve spoken to were using one or two methods, but none of them were using all 5!

The Top 5 Methods to Get The Most From Your Outsourcer

Ok, so lets cover the 5 methods every business should use to communicate and stay in touch with their VA

1. Time Tracking and Screen Shots

Number 1 – A way to capture what they’re doing. The best way to do this is through screen capturing software like Hubstaff (which is my personal favourite).

You want software that will take random snapshots of what they’re doing as well as their level of interaction.

There are other tools similar to hubstaff and what I love about hubstaff is they use a benchmark to measure (in a percentage) how effective my team member has been throughout each day.

I tell my team we are using this tool from the beginning and if I have a performance issue, I can address it directly by referring back to my software.

This really removes a massive amount of guesswork

2. Instant Messaging

Number 2- A method to instant message and potentially voice chat.

I personally use skype for all of my team members communication and I let them know when they need to be online every day so if I need to contact them I know they’re there.

With skype you can create an account on the behalf of your VA and add a local number to skype and credit so they can perform outgoing calls on your behalf or you can even redirect your number to them if you want them to handle your calls when you’re in appointments or fishing on the beach.

3. Cloud Based Document Sharing

Number 3 – A way to share documents

There are services like Dropbox, box but my personal favourite is Google Drive as it lets me create a folder and share tasks and docs with my team.

We can also work on word documents at the same time, I can watch what they’re doing LIVE and I can even create and assign tasks that they can refer to and work on every day.

Ah yes. It’s also FREE for 90% of businesses.

4. Screen Sharing and Remote Computer Access

Number 4 – A way to share screens so you can delegate and train people. This is literally giving you the ability to see their computer screen live or they can see your screen.

You can use Skype to do this, but my personal favourite is ‘Team Viewer’.

Team viewer allows You to either connect directly and control their computer (or they can control yours).

You can give a temporary password for once off access or set up a permanent password if you have a spare computer you want to sit near you and you can watch what they are doing at all times.

You can even set up a meeting where you they see your screen without interacting.

It really is very flexible and with over 200 million users they must be doing something right

5. Making Payments

Finally number 5 – A way to pay them. If you’re using sites like oDesk or eLance you would normally pay direct through their service, but remember you and you’re employee normally pay a 10% premium.

This means if you employ someone for $7.70 that they take .70 cents from you and then .70 cents from the outsourcer, meaning they only get $6.30

Unless you’re like me and you have bank accounts in your VA’s country then my favorite would be PayPal. Paypal also charges fees for transactions but they are no where near as steep as some and it makes it possible to deal with nearly any country worldwide.

Ok, those are our 5 methods which I know if you use will be of massive value to you.

In the next video…

Ok, In the next video I’m going to discuss another great question …

How do I make sure my VA is performing?

If you have a question you would like me to answer make sure you get in contact and I love to hear from you.

As always this is David Judge showing businesses how to get more done, keep your costs down and Enjoy your life.

Resources:

https://hubstaff.com/ – We use these guys to track all of our team. You can connect Hubstaff to several project management softwares allowing you to connect really advanced features never before thought possible.

http://www.skype.com/en/ – Skype can run on a desktop, laptop, tablet and phone allowing you to stay in touch with your team at all times. You can even add a local phone number and have you VA making outbound and receive inbound calls

www.teamviewer.com – Teamviewer allows you to share screens, have your VA control your screen and vice versa. This is a really flexible software and has over 200 million users worldwide

www.paypal.com – PayPal is an alternative way to pay your team and if you make your payments correctly you can save massively on transfer costs

You May Also Be Interested In:

  1. How do I make sure my VA is performing?
  2. How and when you should upskill a VA
  3. How Long Should It Take To Integrate A VA Into Your Business
  4. How Do You Performance Manage an Underperforming VA

How to identify what a VA can do for you

in , , /by

When talking to people about outsourcing the biggest concern in the beginning is ‘how will I fill up a VA’s time’.

When you go through this exercise you’ll understand there’s a massive opportunity to outsource and grow your business.

Transcript:

Hello and Welcome, David Judge here and in this short video I’m going to answer one of the most common questions I get asked around outsourcing:

How do I know what tasks I can outsource that another person (like a Virtual assistant) to do for me.

Now this is a really interesting question and in just over 4 years of outsourcing i’ve employed over 300 people with over 68,000 hours of experience and I’ve worked out a simple formula on what tasks I can delegate to a VA.

My oDesk Outsourcing Historical Snapshot

My oDesk Outsourcing Historical Snapshot

The 4 Step Formula to Outsourcing

Before I answer this, I want you to think about how long 68k hrs really is and that it would take 1 person almost 33 years to get the same level of experience I’ve managed to gather in a short time..

Lets get into that special formula

Ok, Step 1…

Take a piece of paper and create 3 columns. We do that by drawing 2 lines down the middle of the page, like so.

Step 2… At the top of those 3 columns I want to write the following 3 Titles

1st column

My Weekly tasks – This is where you write down what you do every single week. Really think hard about this and break down what you do every week. It could be making calls, support emails, social media, other marketing and general activities.

2nd column

How I get them done – There may be special software you use for different tasks, a process you follow, a phone to make calls, a computer (if you answer emails). List out exactly what you need and be as detailed as possible

Finally 3rd column – Hours each week – How many hours you think you spend on each one. If you’re not totally sure, just use a guestimate

You don’t have to share this with anyone so make sure you’re totally honest with yourself and really look at that list.

Draw a line at the bottom of your list.

Ok once you’ve done that, I want you to move onto step 3

Creating The Ultimate Picture Of Your Business

This is where I want you to list underneath your original list (where you’ve drawn that line) the things you should be doing in your business right now that would to take it to the next level.

This is like you imagining the ultimate picture of your business and reverse engineering the tasks you would complete to make that a reality.

This could be getting out to make more sales calls (face to face or over the phone), staying in more regular contact with customers, getting your data entry up-to-date.

Really go to town and write down as many tasks you can think of, along with what you think you’d need to complete the tasks and how many hours (as a guess) you think it would take to complete them.

Ok, last step. Go back through that list of tasks and look at the ones that take the most amount of time that you could get someone else to do.

Examples of Tasks you can Assign to a VA

So Many VA’s manage clients social media. The client understands how important Social media is for their business, but they generally don’t know the best way to set it up, where to get the best information, how to post, interact and they also understand Social Media can be a huge time suck!

We have several clients that have their VA’s sort their emails and appointments. If you’re like me you know how much time you can lose everyday going through emails, confirming appointments and prioritising tasks.

I even have clients that get their Virtual assistants connect to their computer, complete a whole lot research which they then mail merge and print out and then the client simply folds and posts the letters when they get back to the office.

This saves them hours every week on tasks and helps them to maintain their competitive advantage.

The Totals and How They Could Be Holding Back Your Business Growth

Ok, stick with me here, we’re on the home stretch…

Now you’ve circled those tasks you could get others to perform and now work out 3 totals.

1st Total is the number of hours you’ve circled. Add that up…

The 2nd total is the number of hours left… Add that up too

Then the 3rd total is to add the 1st and 2nd added together.

You should now have 3 sets of numbers.

A few questions…

The grand total… How long would you be prepared to work that many hours every week by yourself to achieve this result and… how would this impact your personal life?

Years ago in another business I worked 100+ hours every week for over 4 years and it nearly destroyed my life.

Also…

The tasks you circled…

If you were to employ someone to do these tasks would you have the time and can you afford to advertise, interview, train and employ someone locally to help you out?

If that’s yes, awesome, if not… Then those are the tasks you can outsource for a VA to perform.

Finally, the hours left for you to work. Are these hours going to give you the best return or should you re-review what you can outsource?

The main point is when you look at outsourcing the opportunities are endless but you do need to perform this exercise first to understand how they will fit in best and how you and your business will benefit the most.

In the next video…

Excellent, In the next video I’m going to discuss another question I get asked a lot…

What’s the best way for me to communicate and stay in touch with my VA

If you have a question you would like me to answer make sure you get in contact and I love to hear from you.

As always this is David Judge showing businesses how to get more done, keep your costs down and Enjoy your life

You May Also Be Interested In:

  1. Specific Tasks You Can Get A VA to Perform in your business
  2. How do I make sure my VA is performing?
  3. How To Integrate A VA Into Your Team
  4. Specific Tasks A VA Cannot Perform