I run an outsourcing site called www.staff.com and am an expert on business process modelling for remote teams. I'd love to talk about how to get people started on remote labour and scaling teams.
I'm co-founder at staff.com an online staffing agency for remote workers. I can help you understand how to find, manage and scale outsourced teams and implement a remote working environment within your business.
Instead of outsourcing development, take those people on directly as remote employees. If you're doing anything more than a multi month project the costs are significantly cheaper (2-3 times cheaper than outsourcing it to a firm) in comparison to taking those developers on full time. I personally would not 'outsource' core development as you'll need them for years afterwards. Let them stay remote but take them on full time.
Staff.com runs on a completely remote model. We don't have any outsourced employees, only remote employees (I define a subtle distinction between the two). Outsourced employees usually work through a firm or work on a project by project basis. Remote employees are like regular brick and mortar employees except they aren't in your office. You need the later not the former. Only hire people who want to work on your project. You may still have to do some outsourcing (i.e. if you don't need a full time designer but only need a few hours a month done then that's fine to outsource) but anybody that works more than 80 hours a month for you should be hired on full time and commit. This is cheaper, more efficient and usually faster to scale then the office model.
I would ask a few questions up front.
1. Is this a one time project? 2. Will this project need updating in the future? 3. Have you done any outsourcing before? 4. Are you sure you can manage the project within that 4 month period.
You can definitely get a firm to outsource your project for you at between 20-40 dollars an hour. However, if you just hire remote employees full time it will usually cost you half the price of the firm and you'll be able to manage the people yourself, won't be abandoned when the project is 'done' and can have them refine features as your needs change.
Liam was extremely engaged instead of being the preaching business coach. Before giving us any advice, he made sure he fully understood what we're doing and what the goals were. Liam was insightful and helped us understand new markets and verticals. He gave us some aha moments. We wanted to understand how to strategically acquire new customers and gave us great tips.
My call with Liam was very giving. Liam understood my situation clearly and had lots of suggestions I had never thought of myself. I now have concrete steps of how to go about finding, evaluating and hiring for my virtual team.
Best call yet on Clarity! Very knowledgeable, strategic, and really practical. I've had a lot of calls with people on this topic, and Liam provided a unique perspective that also seemed very accurate/correct.
One of the best calls I've ever had on Clarity in terms of insight-density, thanks Liam!
Liam has a deep understanding of outsourcing, and systemitizing a business. He not only answered all of my questions in detail but also helped me think differently about the business. Best of all, he's just fun to chat with. Thank Liam!
Brilliant call. Liam's advice was specific, practical, and well-informed by his years of experience. I have every reason to believe that his suggestions will take my business to the next level.
Very knowledge on remote staff and was able to give some actionable advice. Thanks so much Liam. Great first experience on Clarity for me. Cheers and continued success to you!
It was a great pleasure having the opportunity to chat with someone so knowledgeable like Liam. He answered my questions very detailed and in an easy to understand context. Above all, I feel I have saved a lot of time looking up the questions myself. Again, thanks a lot for sharing your wealth of expertise.
Gets right to the point with detailed info., would definitely recommend Liam.
Liam was instrumental in providing a clear direction for me. Not only did he make it easy to action for now and to line up for the future, but also provide deep insight and a few 'tricks of the trade'. Clarity.fm is now my life coach.
I'm taking the bet that Liam is the most generous person on Clarity. Clear, concise, practical advice mixed with encouragement and suggestions. Since our last call, I've implemented most of Liam's previous advice and our revenue is more than 5x what it was. Thank you!
