How You Feel About Outsourcing?

[kushmoney]

I just got done reading an article Yaro wrote on his blog. It's pretty long but he put his heart into it. I personally have no problems with outsourcing. As I always say, if you can find someone who knows how to do the work and willing to do it for $2 an hour. Please send them my way.

Here's the link: Is Outsourcing Exploitation? - Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

What are your thoughts?

[PokerFelts]

Personally i feel that outsourcing is a great method for increasing your work output, using others who offer their services at a rate that they are happy with.

I do outsourcing work and write content for a number of members here but should never offer my services for $2 per hour... I offer my services at a rate that my work quality can justify as well as a price i am happy to work at.

Exploitation is having small kids create clothes and trainers for less than 70 cents per day...

[kushmoney]

Maybe I should have worded that better. I meant outsourcing to "third world countries" like India, Philippines, etc.

[PokerFelts]

Maybe I should have worded that better. I meant outsourcing to "third world countries" like India, Philippines, etc.

Personally i have no issue with outsourcing to these countries as long as the quality of work is as good as what i would receive if i offered the job on here.

India is well known for having a huge amount of graphic designers (from my experience anyway) and they are more than capable of delivering a finished product for almost 20 times less than the price i would get a UK/US based designer to do it for.

At the end of the day, we aren't holding a gun to their head and telling them to reduce their prices, they are offering a service at a cost that they see fitting and we can either take it or not.

Put it like this...

If you could by a car for $20,000 but saw the same model and everything for $1,000... which would you purchase?

Its the same with business and outsourcing, the only way to generate a health profit is buy cheap and sell big.

That's my personal experience and opinion though.

[kushmoney]

PokerFelts we are on the same page my friend. My reasons may go beyond that but we are surely on the same page.

[Planet Mark]

Interesting and throught provoking article... for me the 'way above average wage for their country' trumps all the exploitation type arguments in one go.

Not comfortable with the guys use of the term '3rd world countries' to be honest - that is dated and condescending and should be replaced with 'emerging economies' (at worst!). Ah well, just a term I guess.

Hiring locally is a lovely sentiment on an individual level, on a national scale that kind of protectionist thinking historically leads to retaliation and everyone ending up worse off in the long run... specialisation has done the world economy proud so far in history - shame the banks had to go and mess it all up!

I'm going to be growing my team virtually at some point soon, probably a bunch of pitfalls to avoid... according to my better half we do not have any need for a Phillipino maid at the moment though, damn

Mark

[Laurence]

In my opinion there's nothing wrong with outsourcing. Simple supply and demand that has no connection with third world kids making sneakers. Since I have a fair amount of experience in the field, please consider the following pro's and cons that I've experienced;

pro's

- Cheap expenses in comparison to commercial companies
- Great way to go through a trial and error learning curve as an affiliate, as most of them can create (read: recreate) pretty much anything that is available on the web
- Quick results - Some of these companies seriously have up to 54 workers that can all be steered towards one project. I've had sites up in 2 days.

Con's

- The majority of these companies use outdated coding / scripting work, which causes security issues - That's not what you want if we're talking about large scale projects.
- They are great to recreate stuff for you that you customize to benefit your own project, but they hardly think for themselves or with you
- Their offices are all but high tech. Their equipment is usually outdated, as is their software.
- You will often have communication problems if your english is too fancy, or just correct for that matter

I'd suggest you give it a try and see how it works out for you. I believe there are webdesign agencies in India in the same frequency as there are hot dog stands in New York so good luck.

[Lovina]

Can you please give me examples of what you outsource to these countries?
I have had really bad experiences when it comes to coding but good in terms of design/mascots.

[kushmoney]

In my opinion there's nothing wrong with outsourcing. Simple supply and demand that has no connection with third world kids making sneakers. Since I have a fair amount of experience in the field, please consider the following pro's and cons that I've experienced;

pro's

- Cheap expenses in comparison to commercial companies
- Great way to go through a trial and error learning curve as an affiliate, as most of them can create (read: recreate) pretty much anything that is available on the web
- Quick results - Some of these companies seriously have up to 54 workers that can all be steered towards one project. I've had sites up in 2 days.

Con's

- The majority of these companies use outdated coding / scripting work, which causes security issues - That's not what you want if we're talking about large scale projects.
- They are great to recreate stuff for you that you customize to benefit your own project, but they hardly think for themselves or with you
- Their offices are all but high tech. Their equipment is usually outdated, as is their software.
- You will often have communication problems if your english is too fancy, or just correct for that matter

I'd suggest you give it a try and see how it works out for you. I believe there are webdesign agencies in India in the same frequency as there are hot dog stands in New York so good luck.

Good pros and cons. One thing I have learn from those who outsource to other countries is avoid agencies. I don't know why but they always say rule number is avoid agencies.

I plan on outsourcing in the future. I know I will outsource to Philippines because I read about how hard it is for them to find a job, a lot of them finish college, and they are very loyal. Which I totally respect.

Can you please give me examples of what you outsource to these countries?
I have had really bad experiences when it comes to coding but good in terms of design/mascots.

Personally I would and have outsource design, social bookmarking, article marketing (I provide the articles, if I can find someone that writes ok articles that is readable. I would gladly fully outsource article marketing), link building via blog comments, forum posting, answering questions on yahoo answers, and more. I mean the list is endless. If you can find someone willing to do the work and a quick learner then teaching isn't a problem.

[Laurence]

I forgot the most important con that is relevant with the 'avoid agencies' rule;

On several occasions I've heard of affiliates getting websites built by groups of people. The downside of this is that it's fairly unusual to have a group of Indians keep their head above water financially within the web building business. When down the road you have issues with your website that need fixing or you simply want to tweak it to go with the times, your project might have been rendered useless by the builder's absence.

Try to at least have your guy work within control management systems that everyone can work with if you're looking to get something built. For design work and small jobs, outsourcing is very beneficial.