The nature of your relationship with your outsourcing company has the potential to change drastically from the beginning of the project life cycle towards the end. This Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde routine is best modeled by what I like to call the Landlord Effect.

When you first meet with a prospective landlord they are usually as sweet as pumpkin pie. If they like you as a tenant (a.k.a. they think you have money, and are not likely to total the place) then they will do everything in their power to charm you, and to assure you they are reasonable and easygoing people.

By the time that the brutal, no-holds-barred battle for the security deposit takes place however, there is a decent chance that the image that your landlord initially painted of himself is now burned in effigy.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that an overseas project manager with a Masters in Computer Science, or a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, is pleased as punch to be working for you, for 35 cents on the dollar. More…

When it comes to outsourcing web development and programming , there are advantages and disadvantages to using one company for an entire project. As we mentioned in our last article on the subject, Dangers of Outsourcing Part 2, in order to limit potential losses we would advise your first several projects to be small in scale. There are two main reasons for this… first, it is often the case that work gets paid for that does not get completed and second, projects frequently wind up costing more to complete than the original agreement price.

Let me describe to you one of the really strange phenomena that occurs in the field of outsourcing. To describe this effect it is best if I use an example, our example will have three characters. More…

Wow…100% positive feedback with rave reviews and $100,000 worth of transactions completed! Getting a reasonable bid form an overseas outsourcing firm with those kind of credentials certainly puts the minds of most first timers, seeking to outsource programming or web development, at ease. Considering that outsourcing your programming needs overseas can cost you as little as 25 cents on the dollar compared to using a U.S. based firm, peace of mind is very important to those looking to outsource one of their first projects. I mean who wouldn’t be weary… “You get what you pay for”, right?

But with a “perfect” feedback record and so many transactions completed successfully maybe I really am getting a great deal. If seeing a reasonable bid, from a company with credentials like the above mentioned example, would cause you to have the same feelings of ease, all I can say is… let the buyer beware! More…

Let’s say that your small business needs some programming work done and you have heard that outsourcing your programming needs overseas will cost you only a fraction of what it would in the U.S. So you go to one of the more popular outsourcing sites like www.elance.com or www.scriptlance.com and you start to look for the programmer of your dreams.

First off, some outsourcing sites give you the option to keep your specification requirements private as opposed to making them public for everyone to see. If the project you are working on is sensitive there is no sense announcing to your competitors and the world what you are doing. I highly recommend making your profile private and then inviting those firms that you are interested to bid on your project. More…

Over the last few years small businesses have been engaged primarily in two forms of over seas outsourcing. The first type of outsourcing to hit the seen in a big way was the outsourcing of programming and web development. Initially India was the destination of choice but soon after countries like Russia, Pakistan, Ukraine, Romania and others began to offer competition in the bottom dollar programming market.

The next advance in outsourcing has been the outsourcing of products to factories in China. Medium and Large sized companies have been outsourcing there products to China for years. Companies like Wal-Mart depend on China for the majority of their products. For these reasons China has become known as “the world’s factory.”

Small businesses are now learning that there are advantages of following in the footsteps of the big boys and more and more American entrepreneurs are catching flights to China to shop factories for the best possible deal.

The latest development in outsourcing is the development of engineering projects, and once again Indian firms have been the first to land on the scene in a big way. So if you have an idea for a doohickey the requires electrical, mechanical, or some other form of engineering, one option is to outsource the prototype design oversees. Once you have a working prototype you’ll have to consider your options and figure out the best location to mass produce you’re your masterpiece.
Beware that while outsourcing can offer cost saving advantages it can also offer significant pitfalls. Before you attempt to outsource any work oversees you owe it to yourself to do your research before hand, and to watch your step through every step of the production cycle.