Anyone have any experience outsourcing?

The Free For All Lounge
#1

I’m looking at outsourcing support for a business of mine to India and was wondering if anyone had any experience or tips?

Thanks in advance!

#2

I have a lot of outsourcing experience. My best advice would be to have a robust hiring process so you don’t end up hiring people that don’t know what they’re doing.

Here’s what I do, feel free to adapt it for yourself:

  1. Post a job/project
  2. Review the applications for experience and good writing/communication.
  3. Email/message each applicant I’m interested in with a few questions about the specific project.
  4. When I get replies, I want to see they have good English I can understand and good answers backing up their experience. I also want to see that they reply quickly and answer my questions in detail. Anyone that is too sow to respond, doesn’t answer each question or that doesn’t provide much detail is out.
  5. I’ll message the best ones back with a few more detailed questions.
  6. I’ll look for relies that again are prompt and detailed.
  7. Out of the second set of replies, I’ll schedule 3-5 video calls on Skype to interview them.
  8. During the video interview, I want to see that they can communicate well, that I understand what they’re saying and that they know what they’re talking about as it relates to the project.
  9. After the interviews, I’ll give the top 1, 2 or 3 candidates a very small project/task to work on to see how their actual quality of work is. I do pay them for this.
  10. Whoever returns the best results on the small test project gets more work.

This definitely isn’t a fast process, but it ends up saving you hours and days of frustration in that you avoid a lot of bad hires from the start.

Overall, I want to see that people that will be on me team are detail oriented, can communicate well, are organized, are available and quick to reply, and most of all can deliver quality work.

I do also provide detailed training and instructions with each project, especially at the start. This helps set expectations for the ongoing relationship and makes sure I get what I want back the first time with minimal revisions needed.

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#3

Very good advice @goodtimes, thank you for taking the time to write this!!

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#4

Glad to help!

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#5

Thank you, I’m just beginning with this topic :slight_smile:

#6

Thank you so much for the detailed process, I will definitely follow this! Next step would be to look for some outsourcing companies

#7

I’m using the platform freelancer.com. It’s pretty good and has some tutorials to make your outsorcing easier.

#8

Great post bro :clap::clap::clap:

I recommend:

• fiverr.com
• upwork.com
• instagram search keywords (that’s how I found my copywriter)

#9

If you want to go pro I’d recommend onlinejobs.ph as well. (upwork too but upwork has more random and inexperienced people people applying)

You have to pay to use the platform but the people I’ve found there for 200-400 usd per month have literally been smarter than me. All great English and super motivated, disciplined and hard working.

Also, one small thing I always do when posting a job is that I ask them to start their application with something like their favourite food or superhero just to make sure they’ve read the post thoroughly.

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#10

I do digital marketing for local business (only have 3 clients), but some of my friends with multiple drop shipping stores use this and they say they love it…

if you know how to teach them to do the job you want and care for them as you should a real employee they will be grateful to do pretty much everything you ask of them

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#11

Wow man incredible. So do recommend paying employees hourly or fixed?

Here in Europe, atleast where I am, the job has to be wellpaid for people to even consider going through so many steps to be hired. This is how major companies paying a decent portion would do.

#12

I tend to stick with hiring Filipinos. I’ve tried other countries several times and some have worked out, but the Philippines has been the best overall in my experience.

When you’re hiring Filipinos, the best ones will go through that many steps. I’ve tried shortening the process but that has led to too many headaches later on from not getting the right people.

I pay on an hourly basis, but it might make sense to do it another way depending on the type of work your looking for.

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