Outsourcing – 10 Learning Points From The Last 2 Year

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I compiled this list to look back on the last two years of outsourcing.

Though I have outsourced for longer than that it has been much more strategic after I read the 4 hour workweek. I thought that it was long overdue to take a look on some of the stuff learned and try and sum it up.

• It is hard to motivate people sitting on the other side of the world. Therefore it’s better to choose tasks that do not require people to go through hoops and jumps to complete.
• Trying out new ideas is alot easier when you don’t have to do everything yourself
• Even though there are alot of people providing outsourcing services, you need to search alot to find the right people who are both professional and competent.
• People from India cannot do wedesign (I know I’m insulting like a billion people here, but in my research I have only found one I really wanted to hire). It could also be that we just have a different design style here in Denmark.
• Process is everything. If you can define a great process for working with your outsourced team, you are half the way. A clearly defined process gets you fewer questions from your team. This leads on to…
• Task description is also everything . Remember that if the person doing the work does not understand a task, it is not his fault. It is yours for not describing it well enough.
• Outsourcing really don’t have to be that hard. Just start small and scale up as you go along
• There is never a perfect time for starting with outsourcing, and yes you can probably do the task better yourself. But start today anyway.
• Surprise… full time employers need to be motivated in order to do a great job.
• Once you’ve found a couple of freelancers/companies you like working with, you probably want to go back to them again and again. Finding good people takes a while so if something works, don’t fix it

Hope it helps you in your own ventures…