Small businesses are increasingly open to outsourcing ongoing processes in addition to projects. While task outsourcing involves one-off projects, process outsourcing requires an ongoing relationship and responsibility on the vendor to understand the client's business. Small businesses are also maturing in their evaluation of various factors like time zones and cultural awareness before deciding what to outsource locally versus offshore. Bringing clarity to tasks and tracking progress plays an important role in project success.

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Trends in Small
Business Outsourcing

2. SMALL BUSINESSES ARE ALSO CONTINUING TO PUSH THE
ENVELOPE ON WHAT CAN BE OUTSOURCED.
•THEY ARE DISCOVERING ELEMENTS THAT CAN BE
OUTSOURCED EVEN IN PREVIOUSLY “CORE” ACTIVITIES.
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

3.  Re-examine what you consider to be activities only you or your employees
can do.
 If not the entire activity, can some parts of this at least be outsourced?
 Be prepared to invest some time up front in training your outsourcing
partner.
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

4. A DECADE AGO YOU MAY NEVER HAVE THOUGHT
OF OUTSOURCING TO SOMEONE OUTSIDE OF
YOUR LOCAL CIT Y OR REGION.
NOW IT IS COMMONPL ACE TO FIND VENDORS AND
INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS ACROSS THE
COUNTRY OR EVEN ACROSS THE WORLD.
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

5.  If you are a vendor, establish a presence on the networking sites
of your choice –LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc. to create an
online brand presence.
 Make it easy to be found and for customers to get to know you.
 Evaluate which mode of communication gives you the best results.
 Also take into consideration where your customers are located
and how they prefer to be contacted.
 Sign up with Skype, or other email and Internet marketing tools.
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

6. W E ’ R E SE E IN G P R I C I N G S T R U C T U R ES T H AT CO M B I N E T H E B EST O F
B OT H . FO R E X A M P L E , W E B PAG E D ES I G N W I L L B E F I X E D AT A P R I C E
P E R PAG E .
S U B S EQ U E N T C H A N G ES REQ U EST E D BY T H E B U Y ER A R E PA I D FO R
U S I N G A N H O U R LY R AT E FO R T H E E F FO RT.
T H E CO M B I N AT I O N P R I C I N G C A N SAV E T HE B U Y E R A S M U C H A S 3 0 % O F
T H E TOTA L CO ST A N D AVO I D CO N F L I C T S . I T A L S O A L I G N S I N T ER ESTS
O F T H E B U Y E R A N D T H E V E N D O R .
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

7.  Split your project into 2 parts:
 the part that is well defined and unlikely to change
 the part that needs to change as you see results of each
phase.
 “Fix Price” the well defined part, while agreeing upon
an hourly rate for the rest.
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

8. SMALL BUSINESSES ARE OPENING UP TO OUTSOURCING
ONGOING PROCESSES, IN ADDITION TO PROJECTS.
• Task (or project) outsourcing (e.g., file my taxes) is primarily a one-
off activity while process outsourcing (e.g., manage my accounting)
requires a relationship approach.
• Process outsourcing also places greater responsibility on the
vendor to become closely familiar with the client’s business and the
client’s customers.
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

9.  For the projects you are outsourcing, see if some of the
activities you do before and after the project can also
be done by your outsourcing partner.
 When outsourcing processes, evaluate providers for a
strong understanding of the legal and regulatory issues
associated with the process they would manage.
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

10. SMALL BUSINESSES ARE MATURING TO LOOK AT A
VARIETY OF FACTORS BEFORE MAKING THE
OUTSOURCING DECISION.
•TASKS THAT REQUIRE PRESENCE IN THE SAME TIME ZONE
AND A CULTURAL AWARENESS ARE BEING HOMESHORED.
•TASKS THAT ARE NOT TIME SENSITIVE OR HEAVILY
INFLUENCED BY CULTURE ARE BEING OFFSHORED .
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

11.  Evaluate if your outsourcing partners can train themselves on
some of the cultural aspects if they belong to a different
geography.
 Offshore only those tasks that are well defined. For tasks that
need your input several times a day, choose a provider who
can work in your own time zone.
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

12. SMALL BUSINESSES APPRECIATE VENDORS WHO CAN SUPPORT
THEM THROUGH THE PROJECT EXECUTION PROCESS.
SMALL BUSINESSES ARE INCREASINGLY REALIZING THAT
BRINGING CLARITY TO TASKS, DEFINING MILESTONES AND
TIMELINES, TRACKING PROGRESS ETC. PLAY A PIVOTAL ROLE IN
PROJECT SUCCESS.
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential

13.  Evaluate how much time you and your employees are
ending up spending on finding providers and on
assigning and tracking their tasks. This could be another
service you could outsource to an outside agency.
 Look for strong communication skills and experience in
setting up processes that produce results.
2013 IO Marketing – Proprietary and Confidential