You don't have to be a big corporation to outsource. In fact, you don't even have to be a company. As Timothy Ferriss outlined in his 2008 book “The 4-Hour Workweek”, you can just be a guy who wants to hit the beach while someone else does your work.
That's the dream, anyway.
There’s a lot of companies and countries you can choose to outsource with, but you have to be very careful about what you need.
Here’s a list of Pros and Cons of hiring a virtual assistant or a remote team.
PROS.
1. You’ll have access to more and better talent, faster.
When you are a startup, or even a small company looking for the right employees can be very difficult.
You only have access to people in your area, and people with a few skills willing to go to an office for an interview.
But when you work remotely, you have access to a lot of talent, specific skills and experience.
The ideal outsourcing company, will provide you with profiles so you can choose your own team, and make the hiring process faster.
2. You can respond to "oh shit" situations faster.
When you have a remote employee or a remote team, you don’t have to deal with servers going down, or any IT issues.
Storms and power outages are not a problem.
Even if you have a problem at your real office, your virtual employees can do anything while you fix it.
3. You save a lot of money.
Office space isn’t cheap.
Neither is furniture, or electricity, or business-level internet access (at least in the US).
The costs of running a virtual team are minimal in comparison.
Especially when you hire a company with “all inclusive” fees so your "office" expenses will only be for subscriptions for the SaaS tools you need to function.
Every dollar you save on rent is a dollar you can reinvest in the growth of the business and your employees.
4. You can focus on what is important.
Time and energy are precious but limited resources.
Take a moment to think about how you would like to be remembered. It can provide you with a real perspective on life. What would you like to be remembered for?
- The amount of time you spent in work?
- The size of your bank balance?
- The car you drove?
- The number of friends you had on Facebook?
- If the answer is no, then you need to make time and outsource anything you can so you can start having a life.
CONS
1. Communication gets harder.
With team members in different time zones and on different schedules, there are very few times when everyone is available.
Sometimes, you need an answer now.
That is why you need to have your team in your same time zone, working your same hours so you work the same hours and communication is not a problem.
2. Company culture takes a hit.
Culture is about shared values and goals and having everyone in one place makes it a lot easier to build that culture.
Simply by virtue of being remote, that exposure is necessarily limited.
You need to find an outsourcing company that shares some if not all of your cultural values and becomes your partner.
3. You feel you don’t have control over a lot of things.
Sometimes you just ask “what are they doing all day”, and that is normal.
You feel that because they are not under your roof, you can’t control their tasks and time so you might be wasting money.
The key is to have effective project management.
Find a company that manages your employees for you, and make sure they are doing their job.
4. Will my team work for another Company at the same time?
Most of the bad reviews that you read about virtual staffing say that they had problems because the virtual assistant was working for 3 different people at the same time, so work got mixed up.
The right company will give you dedicated people that will be a part of your team and will embrace your company’s culture and knowledge.
Having a remote team doesn’t have to be a challenge if you work with the correct company.
You need to decide if remote is the right way to go for your business.
And as soon as you do, you can contact us to help you start.
