Outsourced IT

The constantly changing and maturing playing field of search engine optimization (SEO) and internet marketing can be quite confusing to business owners. With all the overload and hype of information on the world wide web, it can be a daunting task to determine the best avenue to invest your time and resources in. Here you’ll find my compiled list of the top 20 internet marketing weapons that are a “must-do” for any business owner concerned with serious growth and brand awareness.

1. Advanced internet marketing knowledge and mindset. Trying to wrap your head around all the ins and outs of internet marketing can be quite overwhelming. Start with a solid foundation, learn the basics and you’ll ensure you’re using more time, knowledge and imagination, and less money.

2. A well researched, written plan for marketing on the internet. Your odds for achieving your business goals will increase substantially.

3. A professional looking and easy-to-navigate website. Higher browser-to-buyer conversion rates, generating income online, offline, or both.

4. Keyword-rich domain name. A keyword rich domain name makes it easy for people and search engines to find, and remember, your website.

5. Effective search engine optimization (SEO). SEO moves your website closer to the top of the search engine results pages. (SERPS) It’s the most powerful and cost effective path towards sustainable, long-term internet marketing results.

6. Compelling and well written direct response sales letter. Makes it more likely that prospects will act as invited.

7. Ad tracking software to measure opt-in and sales conversions. Tells you what’s working well and what isn’t so you can earn, and save, more money.

8. Blogs. Search engines, and people, love these affordable, flexible, self-publishing additions (or replacements) to traditional websites.

9. Email autoresponders. Follow up and stay in touch with large, and diverse, groups of people without lifting a finger.

10. All-in-one shopping carts. Eliminates the need to purchase and set up separate payment, communication, and tracking automation software and ensures that all elements work in harmony with each other.

11. Email campaigns. Highly effective and a free way to get more people to visit your website. Consider adding video elements for higher response rates.

12. Email list-building strategies that combine opt-in opportunities with compelling offers. Increases the pool of interested prospects and begins the relationship building process.

13. Multimedia: Audio and video to enhance communication. Enhances visitors’ experiences by engaging multiple senses and makes product demonstrations more effective.

14. Joint venture and strategic alliances. Allows business owners to share the work and wealth by joining forces.

15. Podcasts and nanocasts. Cost effective vehicles for repurposing and repackaging existing products and increasing brand awareness and visibility.

16. Teleseminars, teleconferences, and webinars. Offers many of the same benefits as face-to-face communication far less expensively while allowing global participation in meetings and classes.

17. Involvement Devices: wikis, surveys, polls, forums, blogs. Enhances the relationship building process by transforming traditional one way web conversations into two way dialogues.

18. Affiliate programs – Yours and others’. Allows business owners to hire an army of sales people without hiring employees and allows business owners to earn money on other people’s products and services.

19. Web 2.0 Social Media. Provides everyone the opportunity to expand their personal and business networks globally.

20. Outsourcing. Cost effective to outsource routine administrative duties to ensure that business owners are free to spend time where it counts most.

The fundamental question when talking about outsourcing is, does it work? For an average person who understand the idea of outsourcing on a shallow level, outsourcing is not a worthed investment. He may think that it is completely a waste of time, money and resources. He may be reluctant to try other people to do his back office work because of several presumptions such as why work with others when he feels he is on top of everything and why do you need to let other people offshore work for your business when you are completely in control of everything in your own territory? For a politician, outsourcing is just another long political debate within Congress walls and newspapers. Politicians will just be skeptical about outsourcing as it is seen as something that will touch the issue of unemployment in his country and is an unpatriotic act. This may win him some vote in the next election but he still would be one of the many reluctant-to-change people. On the other side of the water, it is the businessman who does the outsourcing not the layman nor the politician. Outsourcing for the businessman is a modern day boon. Tons of businessmen are fully aware that outsourcing brings them the time freedom of non-core yet important back office work of their business and delegating this work to an individual or group offshore would give justice to their work and themselves. Thus, outsourcing gives a businessman freedom from all surface business work and they can concentrate more on the most important aspects of their business. Outsourcing works mutually because they can focus on the work delegated to them in a cost-efficient agreement. This is one major advantage of outsourcing. Another convincing advantage of oursourcing is its cost-effectiveness. Businessmen are quite updated with the advantage of using information technology as an asset of their business, they quite know how to exploit the power of the internet to maximize the results of their business efforts. Added to that, they also know that services and human resource is expensive in the US and Europe and that impedes them from gaining the desired results they are aiming for. In result, they outsource offshore in countries such as India and the Philippines because of its cheap labor. Take for instance, an ordinary American or European will be quite disatisfied earning an income of $ 300-500 per month but for Indians and Filipinos, this amount is above the average income. Thus, outsourcing offshore is not only a wise investment but a win-win solution as well. Also, one great advantage of outsourcing is, businessmen are able to save huge amount of money and they know that they can get quality work from their workers offshore. In addition, they are also able to update their business information technology infrastructure and stay up to date of the latest trends in Information technology. Businessmen are also able to full advantage of their money. Consequently, they recruit less and training costs are reduced wisely. The purchasing of essential technology will be taken care of by the outsourcing company, saving money, resources, effort and time in the long run. There are tons of advantages of outsourcing, presented above are one of the mant. Do not allow yourself to be misled by rumors, misconceptions, and rumors about outsourcing. You are the business owner and thus the architect of the destiny of your business.

Time. Tick, tick, ticking away. This moment … gone. Never to return, never to be experienced again. The next moment … coming up and soon to pass by.

When you take a few moments to contemplate the moments, you suddenly realize that there really isn’t any way to get them back. We can renew energy, paper, plastic, glass, even money! But not time. Which begs the question: How are you spending the one thing you can’t get any more of?

There are myriad “systems” to help you organize your time. Day planners, day runners, Outlook, Act, Goldmine, Teatime, online calendars, off-line calendars, PDA calendars, clocks, alarms, GPS-PDA-NFL-miracle watches! Regardless of which one(s) you use, I’ll bet you $100 that you are spending WAY too much time on “low value-low return” activities.

What do I mean by that? Well, let’s do a little exercise first. Let’s find out how much your time is worth. Now you may have done this calculation, but you haven’t done it my way.

First, the “now.” Take your annual earnings and divide them by 52 to get your weekly earnings. Don’t divide by 40 or however many hours you think you work per week. Think about how many hours per day you actually work. Is it 5 hours? 4 hours? Think about it and use an honest number for your daily activity. Multiply by 5 and divide that into your weekly number. That’s what your current time is worth. Now do this: Do the same calculation with the income that you want to be making. Now you have two numbers and a difference between them. How are you going to get from “now” to “where you want to be?”

One way is to increase the number of effective hours that you work. To get more of those, you need to offload those tasks that can be done by someone at a lower cost per hour than your time is worth! Here are some quick strategies for doing just that:

1. Manage Your Phone. Set specific times to either take calls or to return them. If you have voice mail … use it! And let people know when you’ll be calling back. If you have an assistant, have him or her schedule your return phone calls with the caller. You’d be surprised how well this works and how little we really need to be “instantly available.”

2. Get A “Virtual Assistant.” What’s a virtual assistant (VA)? An assistant that you use on demand and only have to pay for the actual hours worked. A VA can do just about anything that an in-person assistant can do, but you don’t have to pay wages or worry about employment issues. Here’s a link for you to get a free report on all of the really cool ways that you can get a VA to work for you: Team Double-Click, Inc. – 41-Page Free Report – 101 Ways to Work With a Virtual Assistant

Close The Door To Your Office. And leave it closed for long periods of time so that you can work on an uninterrupted basis. If people knock, don’t answer. If they come in, stare at them and say that you’re busy. Just like the phone, schedule times for people to speak with you and ask them to bring up all of their issues then.

3. Respond to Emails Once Per Day. Nowhere is it written that you have to respond to emails immediately. Let them accumulate until you can close your door, turn off you phone, and have your VA go through all of the junk. THEN respond to ones that really need attention.

4. Turn Off The Cell Phone. OK, this is really a blend of #1 and #4. If you don’t manage your time, then other people will! Again, call back when you have time, can focus on the call, and have all of the resources you need for that call at hand.

I hope that you find these useful. Since I’ve been using them my productivity has increased dramatically. Try them for a week and let me know how it goes for you!

Silicon Valley is the capital of Startup Nation.  When most people think about startups, they picture mom and pop hanging a sign outside their new widget shop and working behind the register.  The Silicon Valley image of a startup can be very different.    That difference comes mostly from the financial foundation of the new business.  Is the business a true bootstrap operation or are they funded?  In a bootstrap startup, the key ingredients are will power, work ethic and a decent idea.   In a funded startup, the company must choose how to most effectively spend their funds to achieve success.  Given the present economic environment, funded companies should watch their pennies, but when they do spend their resources they need to hand pick the best options to achieve success.   For a funded startup, what are the essential tools to get started?  Here are some ideas to help get off the ground.

Freebies
Amazingly some very useful business resources come free of charge.  From networking to collaboration, freebies are hard to pass up, especially when you are working in a startup environment.  Here are some great freebies offerings to help get your company organized:

DropBox
DropBox provides a user-friendly web application to transfer and share large files.  Save a boat load of money on external hard drives and USB flash sticks all while improving your ability to share information.  The DropBox system provides a public folder to easily drop in group files to be shared with employees across the networks and the web.  Imagine never hearing the excuse “I don’t have the file” ever again.

Google Documents
For anybody who doesn’t already know, Google offers a web-based complete office software suite.  The software includes applications from word processing and excel style spreadsheets to presentation applications.   While some would claim that the best part of the service is the fact that it is offered for free, the real power comes from the ability to easily collaborate with other users at will.  Imagine being able to run marketing projection calculations on a shared spreadsheet in real-time.   Users are not required to be on-site and the information is instantly available.  Forget printing or sending a file, Google Docs lives in the cloud.  This product is perfect for startups that might have certain employees working off-site.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is like Facebook for business professionals.  This free social network enables you to easily peruse resumes for people in your field and share corporate information with other interested parties on the web.  The service is an absolute must have for technology recruiters.  In a tech startup think about all the skilled positions you will have to fill to stay competitive.  With LinkedIn, your talent acquisition team will have access to key players in your space.  Remember, when it comes to recruiting, LinkedIn works both ways.  So when you do land talented people, make sure to covet them.

Affordable Resources that are Plain Worth It
In most cases there is no such thing as a free lunch.  This same rule applies to many of the more useful business resources available to the startup market.  The trick is to choose the tools with the most return and also make sure the prices are more than reasonable.  Remember, we are pinching pennies here people.  Here are some ideas to get started:

Odesk
Odesk is an online market place for all manner of web development and general outsourced offerings.  For a small percentage, the service allows you access to a global market place where outsourced organizations compete for your business.  Imagine scoring a PHP developer for a small fraction of the cost that a stateside developer would cost.  The available services range from frontend web design shops to full mobile java development.  Because Odesk is so open, be careful to take care of your due diligence.  The site offers the ability to check each outsourced vendor for certification requirements as well as previous user review.  In a startup, your core technology is critically important to your success.  Think of the Odesk outsourcing service as a way to supplement your in-house team and you will probably get the most out of the service.

Newton Applicant Tracking Software
Newton Software offers web-based applicant tracking software to help facilitate communication across your hiring team and decrease your overall cost per a hire.  The service is completely scalable and it provides best in class features for a very reasonable price.  Newton’s hiring software focuses on intuitive systems to allow recruiters and hiring managers to easily collaborate.  While smaller tech startups might not be in the market for a dedicated hiring platform, you should always remember that human capital is the most critical component to the success of a new startup.  Emphasize hiring the most talented people and you will help ensure your company’s success.

Quickbooks

Intuit’s well known accounting flagship, Quickbooks, is a staple of the accounting software market.  Counting the beans is just as important for the little guys as it is for the big companies.  After all, if acquisition is a possible exit strategy, having your books in order is critical to any potential offers.  Quickbooks Online is web-based accounting software that allows you to easily connect with your corporate bank accounts, issue invoices and manage your balance sheet.  This affordable software is a great way to start you small accounting department off on the right foot and help ensure your records are in order in case of a tax audit.

Overall, achieving success with a startup is 75% people, 5% a solid idea and 20% good luck.  These tools can help you get off to an organized start, but the bulk of the work comes down to the people in the organization.   Once you are in ship shape, the rest is up to the people driving the innovation.  Hire the best and watch your pennies.  With a little luck your hard work might pay off.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad book series, has said more than once that you don’t have to have money to make money. In “Cash Flow Quadrant” however, he reveals how much money he paid for his first investment condo. What if you want to buy a condo but you don’t have a few thousand spare dollars lying around to make it happen?

You can still make your purchase. The trick is, you just have to think about things a little bit differently.

If you have not seen the movie “Schindler’s List,” you probably should. Not only is it a great bit of social consciousness, its writers did a good enough job on Schindler’s character to give you a glimpse into his business know-how. The man wanted to build a factory because he knew it could make him a lot of money during the war. Thing was, he didn’t have the capital to build that factory.

But the Jewish community did.

He went to them and presented his idea about how, in return for their investment capital, they could take some of the goods produced and sell them on the black market. He talked to a lot of investors. He raised a lot of money.

You can do the same thing, and indeed a lot of people do. If you see a good deal on a building and you haven’t the spare millions lying around to purchase it, put together a cooperative to buy the property. Even if you receive only 10 percent of the property’s earnings, that will be a nice, tidy sum if it’s the right property.

That is why you shouldn’t content yourself with starting too small.

According to Ken McElroy, who authored Rich Dad’s “The ABC’s of Real Estate Investing,” there is nothing wrong with small bits of real estate. He simply says that there is no reason to relegate yourself to them out of fear that you don’t have the skills to go larger, because it doesn’t really require more skills. You wind up outsourcing a lot anyway.

What a larger chunk of real estate will do, however, is allow you to interest more investors, as they stand to make more money off the deal. A larger piece of real estate will also be very unlikely to slump into zero occupancy.

As McElroy says, if you rent out a single-family unit and that family moves out, you have an occupancy rate of zero, and the property becomes a liability until you can rent it again. If you own interest in a 50-family building and 10 families move out, you still have an occupancy rate of 80 percent. The property is still an asset. You’re still making money. And you know you stand to make more again when you get those 10 units refilled.

All of that doesn’t even begin to take into account the relative ease of getting a bank loan for the purpose of purchasing an investment property. The bank knows they can make money off that property if you default, regardless of your credit history.

Whatever you are trying to do in this life, you owe it to yourself to put aside your assumptions and find out how to work around potential barriers. Real estate investing is no exception. Just stick your nose in and start learning. There is a way for you to do it.

When people hear I am a home-based business owner, their first comment is usually a funny remark about working in my pink fuzzy slippers (actually, they’re purple). I must confess, many winter days would find this to be a true statement. Coming from the corporate environment, there has been a drastic change in my wardrobe.

The clothing, though, is the least of the issues. I asked fellow entrepreneurs what they found to be the biggest hurdle for them as home-based business owners. Many stated that their business seemed to consume them because work and home were one and the same. They lack the discipline to keep the two separate.

Every waking moment at home is spent in their office pounding the keyboard. If they do leave the office, they find themselves constantly “stopping in to check emails” or remembering they needed to do just one more task. Then 2 hours later, they are still working. Often, attention to the family, friends and the house suffer. Whether it’s a lack of discipline to stop working or a compulsion to continue to focus on the business, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that relationships with family members and friends suffer, social life suffers, the upkeep of the house suffers and ultimately health becomes a factor. So what can someone do when they find the dishes piling up, the laundry isn’t done, the grass is now 10 inches long, they can’t remember the last time they had a family meal together – and they still can’t walk away from the business?

The first step is to admit it’s a problem. I would venture to guess that your spouse and other family members have already discussed this with you. Take an eyes-wide-open look at your daily routine and ask if this is absolutely how you want to spend the rest of your life. Sometimes just being honestly aware is enough to create the discipline needed to stop spending so much time in the office.

Give a true assessment of your work habits. Are you really being productive, or just doing busy work? Are there things that you can stop doing that won’t affect your customer service? Is there something you can reduce or eliminate that won’t affect the quality of your work? Can you outsource some of the daily routine?

If you had even a few hours a day away from the office, think of the things you could do instead. Spending time with family members, friends or even business associates on a social level would begin mending and creating life-long relationships. Start a hobby that helps you relax. Read a book, watch a movie or go out to dinner on a regular basis. Create a daily routine of walking or working out. Have you always wanted to have a beautiful lawn? Now might be the perfect time to focus on your landscaping. Decide what you want to do, then begin doing it, even if you need to schedule it. Without filling in the hours you just freed up being in the office, you’ll just fall back into the old habit of continually working.

If all of this still isn’t enough to get you out of the office, create some physical barriers for yourself. If you find you’re ‘stopping in’ to check emails every time you walk by the office door, there are a few things you can do to eliminate this. First, just close the door; lock it if necessary and put the key on the opposite side of the house. Even if you have the key, you still have to make the effort to get the key and unlock the door. Put a sign on the door announcing (to yourself) your office hours. Turn off your computer. When you think about turning it back on, it reminds you why it’s turned off! These seem simple, but they work!

Knowing you can serve each equally well (personal and work) will provide a sense of balance, plus you’ll probably be better at both of them. And you’ll be able to do it wearing your fuzzy slippers.

Right now, things might be looking really bad to you.   Every day, the economic news gets worse. Unemployment has been creeping up. The service sector is shrinking for the first time in half a decade. Consumer confidence is declining. Jobs are still migrating overseas. They are laying off at your company and you were the lucky one who was able to keep their job and do the job of two. The price of gas continues to go up. How am I going to make it? And to top it off, your house isn’t worth what it used to be worth just a few months ago – by a huge amount.  Seems like you don’t want to open a newspaper, watch TV or listen to the radio just to make it go away.

Things look so bad that you might think that the crisis has just begun. Then we hear the problem is really us and the values we have decided to take on. But how bad could it get? If there is a recession, Goldman Sachs, a large investment house thinks prices could fall by 30%. That’s a heck of a lot more than the current 8.4% decline. So as a consumer, head of household, mother, father, neighbor or friend – what should you do?

I don’t think you should panic, but at times like these, you should be very aware of what is going on and the current trends. Instead of focusing on what’s not working let’s look at what is working and growing like crazy – Personal Franchises. Did you know that business, and more specifically home businesses, are one of the fastest growing industries?

Why? Well for one all the reasons that were mentioned above. Corporations no longer can afford to care for their employees the way they used to and still provide the returns that shareholders demand. The general public has been so bombarded with marketing campaigns that they don’t trust or believe many of them and after a while these messages just become noise. So what are the smart corporations now looking at – peer-to-peer (word-of-mouth) marketing. The old trusted network of integrity based information shared from one person to the next. Great concept that has been rediscovered in a world of MySpace and Facebook communities, but nothing really new since the concept started in the late 1950’s.  Sometimes what is new is old, but that does not make it any less exciting than it was when it first was developed, in fact the concept has had some time to run the course and perfect itself.

Most people see “Home Business” as “Get Rich Quick” and stop right there. The industry began migrating from “a hosted business concept” to a business which was sold with bling and pictures of mansions and rented lifestyles.  While those sales tactics were being employed by people who thought “empty calorie” marketing would build their business, the successful people in the industry were building their operations on business substance which turned them into true millionaires.  The industry has changed a great deal since those days of instant gratification promises and get-rich- quick schemes. But still beware! If a program promises wealth without work or education, in every case we have reviewed, it is a scam. There is currently no program on the web that we have seen where you can just set up a website and earn money. As the old adage says, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is! These programs are all over the place, often sold in spam email next to other empty promises of body enhancement. Unfortunately, most people run into these and other scams before they find the sites where they can safely learn how to operate a work at personal franchise or home business.

Truth be told, the peer-to-peer marketing business model is very similar to the corporate business structure. The main difference is that main corporation focuses on what they do best, develop and distribute products and they simply outsource the sales and marketing functions as a choice of how to most effectively market their products to loyal channels. This is where you have a great opportunity! You have the real opportunity to make $500 – $1,000 a month pretty easily under the right conditions. What are these conditions?

Simple – follow your passion! If you were to purchase a hot dog stand on the street corner, would you do so if you hated hot dogs? You might for the money but history has shown that your chance of success is very limited at best.  Eventually the next mustard stain or smell of hot dog steam would drive you screaming from the cart! If hot dogs were your passion – what would you do next? If you were a business-minded individual you would evaluate the business, find information on the leadership of the company and find a mentor who knows the hot dog business to help you have a better chance of success. The same is true for a personal franchise. The legit personal franchise is usually built around a great product and program that has proven success.

Deep in the back of your mind you distrust the industry because of the empty promises and shysters that presented it to you in the past.  Or you heard that guy or gal you know ramble on about how “how they got into one of those businesses and they don’t work”.  Funny thing is that if you opened up a new burger restaurant or clothing store they probably would not react the same way, but yet restaurant and clothing store have one of the highest failure rates in the country.    Who is to say what industry is really good or bad – maybe it has something to do with your research, marketing, the concept, timing, location or your personal drive, passion and desire to be successful.  What we do know is that highly successful business leaders like Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet and Sir Richard Branson all have had something to do with the industry in the past few months.  Do these successful people go after “one of those businesses” or does it look like a trend that is being rapidly adopted by people who see a good investment opportunity?  I would probably put my money on them instead of that guy still driving a duct taped car and bad attitude about “how that thing didn’t work”. 
So what is a person to do who is rapidly becoming a victim of a bad economy, souring job outlook, higher prices, foreclosures and increased concerns about financial viability?  Take control and refocus your negative energy into the possibility that you can leverage your skills and personality and build a financial and personally satisfying business that will give you access to other people who have turned in their worry and refocused on meeting energized and successful people who have decided to leverage their passion into a business they could thrive in.

Get up, get out and use your passion to find extra cash in a personal franchise.

With the conception of the personal computer in the early eighties, the business sector has experienced a complex evolution, giving birth to a new breed of entrepreneurs – the home-based workers. Technological advancements in the converging fields of computing, telecoms and the net further added to the explosion and success of doing business from the home.

All of a sudden, there are no more physical boundaries that limit individuals from working out at home.

Furthermore, changes within the business structure due to retrenchment, farming out and business process outsourcing makes telecommuting more active.

A lot more home-based aspiring individuals worldwide are suddenly finding out the immense benefits of running their businesses at homes.

Here are the reasons why individual are becoming more absorbed in working from home:

1. Employment from home gives you unmeasurable freedom from traffic over-crowding, office politics, and best of all no more boss to watch over you. An added inducement is that you can wear anything you desire because you are working from the comforts of your home.

2. A work at home business grants you additional opportunity to save money since you don’t have to commuting to work.

3. Embarking on your own business means you have all the time to set-up your own income-generating opportunities either by merchandising goods or offering services.

4. Conducting a business from your home is more affordable as there is no extra expense of operating and maintaining a separate business location.

5. A home business come with a lot of tax advantages because you can deduct a part of your operating and depreciation expenses on your home as a legitimate business expenses,

6. A home business affords you more quality time for your family. One of the persuasive reasons to set up a home based business is the reality you work your own hours – you are own BOSS! You get to set your own hours you would like to work.

7. Running your own business providing you first-hand experience in different areas of operation: marketing, promoting, sales, strategic planning, business growth and research. You don’t have to cease your present job, as long as the business does not intervene with it.

8. Home businesses are the Modern way to create money making opportunities today. You are able to now use your creative thinking to come up with niche products or services for money making. This is how many of today’s big businesses get started; they were at the right place at the right time with the right business opportunity.

9. Having your own business means you never have to worry about receiving your walking papers from your employer. The onus of worrying about job security vanishes since you are now in business for yourself.

10. It feels good to be in control of your own life and circumstances. Being an entrepreneur is sufficient motive to strive for excellence in his or her business. Confidence and pride is a great inducement, the more successful you get the harder you will want to work in order to achieve your goals.

11. Financial gain is the most conspicuous reason why people start their own business. The corollary gain, however, is the sense of security financial gain bring into your life and the things you enjoy doing.

12. However, if your home based business proves to be a runaway success, retiring early is not a bad idea at all.

These are just many of the compelling reasons why it is advisable to commence on your own business, home based or otherwise. Instead of laboring away on a 9 to 5 job, there are numerous opportunities of earning money and at the same time allow you with freedom and resources to enjoy life with your family and friends.

For a layman (or an individual who understand the concept of outsourcing in a sea-level understanding), outsourcing is a complete waste of time and financial resources, which can end up with unwanted complications.

Why assign work to other individuals if you know what will be good for your business? Why delegate the work to outsourcing professionals abroad if you can do much better right at your own territory? You know what is best for your business, and you don’t need other individuals to deal with things that you can handle by yourself, or with the help of in-house personnel.

For a politician, outsourcing will just be a political subject that can be argued on debates within the walls of Congress and newspapers. The issue will serve as a fortified objections to take away jobs from your own countrymen, making your business unpatriotic.

Politicians sympathy with regards to the outsourcing issue may win him a few votes in the upcoming election, nothing more than that.

However, it is the businessman who will be using the outsourcing process; not the layman, and definitely, not the politician. Thus, outsourcing for businessman is a modern day boon. Many businessmen are aware that outsourcing provides them the freedom of dumping all of their non-core yet important aspects of their business and delegating the work to an individual or group of individuals who can give justice to the process. Thus, it will leave businessmen free from additional responsibilities and focus instead on the core of their business.

On the other hand, the outsourcing firm can also focus on the specific work delegated to them, thus a cost-efficient business operation. That is one of the primary advantages of outsourcing.

Another enticing advantage of outsourcing is being one of the cost-effective measures that you can take for your business. Businessmen are aware that information technology (IT) services and human resource in United States or in Europe are expensive, which can affect the way they hire additional manpower in case of business expansion. Outsourcing provides an option in getting highly-productive manpower in a cheaper rate.

For instance, offshore outsourcing (delegating the work to off-shore destinations such as India and Philippines) is popular to U.S.-based businesses because of the cheap working rate. An ordinary American who will earn an average of $300 to $500 per month is just a small sum, but for Indians and Filipinos, they would be quite happy with this salary range considering the currency conversion rate. Thus, this is a win – win solution for the company you are outsourcing to as well as for your business.

Another convincing advantage of outsourcing is saving substantial amount of money in terms of the development of some aspects of your business (such as IT development). Since outsourcing involves reduced expenditures on your part, you will be able to maximize the value of your money to have your IT services developed into the latest and most powerful modern information tool.

In addition, you will avoid recruiting new personnel who will handle the development as well as training them, thus reducing the recruitment and training cost for your business. The purchase of necessary technology will now be handled by the outsourcing company, thus saving money in the long run which you can use on other important business aspect.

There are other advantages of outsourcing, yet the aforementioned advantages are the most noted ones. Do not be misled by rumors and gossips about outsourcing. You are the business owners and you know what is good for your business.

Every large design company whether it’s a multi-national branding corporation or a regular down at heel tatty magazine publisher needs to fill holes in the workforce. If the canny freelance designer plays his or her cards right, he can earn a tidy sum while essentially loafing at home. Here’s how…

Have a handy repotoire of excuses lined up
Everyone has heard of the line ‘the dog ate it…’ or ‘I left it in my jeans when it went into the wash’ to avoid handing in an assignment but how often do we actually use them? Some of these old well worn excuses are due for a renaissance period. A boss is far more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt when you use one of these old dogs as they will question your sanity for attempting to use such an audacious excuse. Reverse psychology. Use it to your advantage

Backstabbing – Is it so wrong?
A favourite trick to pull on another member of staff is to sow the seeds of doubt in the rest of the full-timers minds about your chosen fall guy. Office politics can play a huge role in screwing with their heads. Why not try surreptiously planting somebody elses scissors or staplers in the victims drawer and asking to borrow them. When they can’t find them say you saw so and so using them earlier. Sit back and watch the tension build.

An apple a day…
Being a teachers pet can sometimes work wonders when you haven’t bothered to layout those pages that were given to you 3 weeks ago. Coming into the office armed with a nice rich chocolate gateau for everyone will smooth over any resentment for your tarde lackadaisacal attitude to work. Another good idea is to be the coffee gopher at regular half hour intervals. When you’re gone they’ll really miss you and because of the caffeine withdrawal will be snapping at one another.

Outsource and reap the rewards
Everybodies doing it so why not you? If you’ve landed a hefty long term design job that is a regular payer, why not bump your rates up and get somebody in India or China to knock out the work for you. Unethical? Perhaps but since when did you consider the plight of individuals in far flung places? You can explain away the discrepances in language and grammar by claiming you’ve been working all hours

Getting away with murder
There comes a time and place when despite your best efforts to cover your ass and blame others for your laziness and ineptitude, you are going to be found out. At this stage with disgruntled colleagues lining up to put in a bad word about you, there may be no other option left but to use the failsafe rear guard action of killing someone. This will have the effect of distracting attention from your less than honest approach to handing in graphic designs on time. It’s probably best to avoid murdering the boss as questions are likely to be raised and you may find the new apointed editor will not see you as part of the new team format. No, go for one of the more replacable members of staff such as Ian the sub-editor, the resulting fracas will buy you enough time to work on some new scams at another organisation

So there you go, use these tricks as and when you feel they may benefit you. But be careful the cops are sometimes pretty keen to clamp down on office genocide – only use this last option under extreme duress.