Category Archives: Business

Outsourcing Your Work Online to Increase Productivity

As a busy professional, corporate officer, or entrepreneur, you need all the time and effort you can devote to the kind of decision-making and planning that will determine the direction of your business. However, you can easily be bogged down by a multitude of routine tasks or projects that are essential but outside your expertise, relatively minor, or too time consuming as to hinder the development of other business areas that need your full attention.

Outsourcing Work Online to Solve Problems

This predicament would greatly benefit from outsourcing to a firm or hiring a virtual assistant, depending on your particular circumstances such as the complexity of the tasks, your compensation budget, and the like. Offshore outsourcing, or hiring an online worker assistant who resides in another country, will allow you to save considerably on wages and bonuses, while maintaining the quality of work that you require.

Outsourcing, or delegating tasks to workers from an independent company or to freelancers, leads to more productivity and higher profits. By outsourcing your business and work, individuals and companies can save great amounts of time and resources. Marketers, medical coding and billing, and customer service agencies are just a few businesses that gain a lot from outsourcing. In addition, outsourcing makes it easier to find specialized workers who are experts on a particular task. Nowadays, online outsourcing and the hiring of virtual assistants are common business practices.

What are Online Virtual Assistants?

Online virtual assistants do exactly the same tasks that conventional or actual assistants perform. Thus, once you provide appropriate instructions through email or a VoIP system, he or she can accomplish tasks such as correspondence, research, editing and proofreading your documents, filing, scheduling, and many more. This delegation of work will increase your productivity because you will not be deluged with menial work but instead can focus on the bigger goals.

There are several outsourcing and freelance jobs websites where you can seek out, interview, and select a suitable individual or team from among numerous capable applicants for full-time or part-time work. Some popular online workplaces are oDesk, Freelance, ProFreelance, and Freelance Switch.

Currently, the top sources for freelance workers, outsourcing firms, and virtual assistants are India, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe. Of course, freelancers from the United States, United Kingdom, and other first world countries are just as capable, but if you happen to reside in the same geographical location, then you would not be saving money as much money.

Saving Money By Outsourcing Online

Typically, an excellent virtual assistant from any of the top sources mentioned would require not more than $4-5 an hour. Getting this low price on an excellent virtual assistant will require some screening and will involve rejecting many unqualified or overpriced workers. Once you find one that suits your needs, the savings are phenomenal. On the other hand, one from the same location where you live would require at least the minimum wage in your particular area. Similar to overseas assistants, finding the right one that meets your price range will take some time.

If you feel overwhelmed with certain tasks such as content writing and programming code, then outsourcing work online is the best option for minimizing costs and maximizing productivity and profits. By sticking to
reputable freelancing and virtual assistant companies, it is easy to find the right offshore applicant for the right price.

Understanding Your Credit Report in Bad Economic Times

If you are a in a bad financial and economic situation, there is no better time to look at your credit. Good credit can get you out of scenarios where you lack the hard money funds. Since credit is hard to obtain when lending institutions are in turmoil, you have to prepare. The first step is to look at your credit report. You must understand how it works, how it is reviewed and what each item means. By learning these very important facts, you guarantee yourself the ability to control your credit report and credit scores in the future.

Credit reports are used to make many decisions in your life. The ability to get a good job, rent an apartment, buy a home or car and even your insurance rates will be affected by your credit history.

Your credit report reflects all your financial activity. These reports contain good and bad information about you. The information is retained on the report for 7 to 10 years, depending on the type of item it is, such as a mortgage loan or credit card debt.

  1. The first part of your report will list all your personal information. Verify if this information is correct. One slip of the hand on the keyboard and you can have a new middle initial. This can damage your credit report because it is interpreted as using an alias to obtain credit. Correct any mistakes with the credit agencies.
  2. The next section will be a listing of any judgments or civil suits you have against your record. If someone sues you for nonpayment of a debt it will remain on your record for 7 years. Bankruptcies, Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, will remain on your report for 10 years. Verify that these accounts have not passed their removal date.
  3. Next you will find any adverse accounts against your name. Here you will be able to dispute any inaccurate information. This is the most important section of your report. Any information that is incorrect must be disputed immediately.
  4. Afterwards, your report will list all your accounts in good standing. This is the section that you wish to keep the most entries in.
  5. Finally, the very last section of your report will be a list of anyone who has requested your credit report in an effort to issue credit. Too many inquiries can damage your score.

It is also very important to understand that these reports will contain errors. The credit bureaus are not error free and if you do not verify the information on your reports, bad items could remain on their affecting your score.

Pay Attention To Reported Credit Card Limits

One particular thing on your credit report to pay attention to is your credit card limits. These numbers are often misreported and missing. If you have any balance on your credit card, there is a chance that they will use this balance as your credit limit, thereby creating a false impression of maxing out your credit.

For example, you have a balance of $500 but your actual credit limit is $1500. In actuality, only 30% of your credit is used up. However, if the credit bureaus forget to add your limit, that $500 balance can end up being 100% of your credit. This can and will affect your credit scores.

The first step in any debt problem is to identify what you have to deal with and then make a plan with that information. Take advantage of all the knowledge you can gain about your credit report and start preparing for the rough economic events ahead. If you have not gotten a free credit report yet, then perhaps you should start to control your financial future.

Thriving Businesses That Survive Bad Economic Times

It is a tough economy for most businesses today but what are some of those strategies and characteristics that help some businesses thrive and others merely survive? There are several value-added things that your business can do to insure that you are thriving and not merely getting by.

Customer service in any business, whether you are product or service oriented, is the heart of the matter. Simply insuring that your customers get the very best customer service at all times can be an essential factor in guaranteeing business success. If you do not have the best customer service at all times, your customers will seek out those companies that are providing it. You can hire a call center worker to answer the telephone and take customer orders for minimum wage or you can increase the salary, hire a professional and get a quality person with a proper skill set who will provide exemplary service with a smile. The return on the investment could result in building lifetime business relationships instead of order-entry. You just can’t put a price tag on that return-on-investment.

Characteristics of Thriving Businesses in a Bad Economy

  • Able to realize the long term trends that will provide stable work. Businesses involved with healthcare and elderly care is thriving in this bad economy and will continue to thrive because of the aging and retiring baby boomers. They can hire nurses and certified nursing aides to take care of the rising demand. In addition, coupon businesses are doing better than ever simply because everyone is saving the money in their wallets and clipping coupons.
  • Those who can ignore the daily bad economic news. We get that the economy is having problems but to hear it on a constant basis will create a negative aura and stifle your own potential for growth. Next time someone tells you the economy is rough, just say “Yeah I know” and continue chugging along while doing the right things such as providing great customer service.
  • Cut overhead costs. This is basic business 101 but cannot be underemphasized. Are you paying rent in a location where you are not taking full advantage? Consider moving the business to your home or basement instead. Are you marketing to a wide audience without getting the returns? Switch over to the internet search engines and pay for highly targeted keywords and demographics. Cutting overhead costs is how you survive bad financial times.
  • Network with optimistic and knowledgeable people. Similar to ignoring the daily bad news, by putting yourself next to people who are on the same path as you, this will also make you successful.
  • Most thriving businesses know their customer needs thoroughly and deliver exactly what they need and want without giving them more than they require and never less than they deserve. You should be constantly in touch with your customer base to insure that their needs are being met. Anyone can tell you, a faithful customer mailing list is the single most important thing any business can have. Every time you introduce a product that meets the needs of your customer base, a sale is not far along.

A tough economy does not have to translate into a cut-throat economy. Simply lowering your price points does not mean you will grow your customer base or your business. Constantly search out ways to educate your customers and potential business contacts on the fine points as to why your business makes good sense for the money. Do you have quality products or services? Document the advantages and spell out the benefits that will convince them that your business is a better choice.

In the end, those businesses that survive and thrive in bad economic times are those who can continue working hard, thinking positively, surround themselves with useful people, and have built a reputation of delivering quality goods and services with exceptional customer service.