by Rebecca Button on January 7th, 2008
This is a great article in the New York Times highlighting how outsourcing can be beneficial for small businesses.
"Outsourcing — the practice of using outside firms to handle work normally performed within a company — is a familiar concept to many entrepreneurs. Small companies routinely outsource their payroll processing, accounting, distribution, and many other important functions — often because they have no other choice. Many large companies turn to outsourcing to cut costs. In response, entire industries have evolved to serve companies’ outsourcing needs.
But not many businesses thoroughly understand the benefits of outsourcing. It’s true that outsourcing can... Read more »
by Carrie Hinkel on December 5th, 2007
Whether you’re outsourcing a call center, IT professionals, an accounting staff or web designers, you want to make sure that the vendor you choose is the best fit for your company. Otherwise, once you sign a contract and begin work it will be costly and difficult to switch to a different outsourcing company.
Be forewarned, the evaluation process should be lengthy and detailed. Not only should the outsourcer interview each of the outsourcing candidates according to the requirements of your company, a thorough research online should be done as well. That’s important, as you should not assume the word of... Read more »
by Carrie Hinkel on November 19th, 2007
More U.S. companies are working with Chinese vendors because of the discounted price on a variety of products. Some of these business relationships will work out, and others will not. Just like when dealing with American companies, there are Chinese companies that are good, and others that are in the business of taking your money and giving you shoddy merchandise in return.
To ensure that the Chinese vendor you’re interested in doing business with is trustworthy and reputable, you need to do an extensive background check as well as some online research before you place an order or give them... Read more »
by Carrie Hinkel on October 12th, 2007
As e-commerce and home-based businesses continue to flourish, more and more companies are turning to outsourcing to reduce costs and make certain aspects of their businesses simpler. Outsourcing, either domestically or internationally, is the subcontracting of work to another company.
There are a variety of services that can be outsourced to another company, such as:
*Warehousing and fulfillment services
*Order taking and customer service
*Data entry
*Website design and management
*Payroll and accounting
In general, the benefits of outsourcing certain services can be great:
*Save on training costs
*Reduce overhead costs
*Gain access to specialized skills
*Eliminate staffing problems during... Read more »