What You Can Learn From the Most Successful Virtual Employers

What You Can Learn From the Most Successful Virtual Employers From starting small to protecting IP, heres what virtual employers can teach small businesses.Being an entrepreneur can be an incredible adventure as you trek down a path that few have traveled promoting an innovative service or product. However, while your ideas may be fresh and unique, the entire process doesnt have to be. Many businesses have and are outsourcing jobs to grow their businesses on a virtual level. In fact,research by IBMfound that 27% of companies outsource to cut costs, 36% are innovators and 37% are growth-seekers.Regardless of your reasons for outsourcing, its not an easy task to narrow down the right professionals for your needs and manage them from an offsite location. Here are some valuable tips from a few of the most successful virtual employers who have been using this resource for many years.1. Virtual Employees Offer a Larger Talent PoolGE has been the worlds largest outsourcer and offshorer of I T and when GE Digital was launched in 2015, they built three offices around the world (in California, Paris, and Bengaluru, India). According toJim Fowler,chief ingestaltation officer of GE , We are not as concerned with partners who give the lowest cost per unit as with partners who are embedded together with my teams and driving the outcome. We have changed our mindset on why we are outsourcing. Its not for the lowest cost. I want better productivity and outcomes for the business.2. Invest in AccountabilityCisco Systems has embraced offshore outsourcing since the early 2000s to expand its engineering/product development and IT capabilities. Like any company that sends work out, it can be a calculated risk to trust another company with such valuable information. This caused Cisco to form a governance team to ensure that the projects were being addressed to their expectations.While its probably not feasible to hire your own governance team, here are some guidelines thatWatson Murthy , a senior manager who has been involved with research and development for Cisco, explained concerning categories that are managed by their governance team. These include partner selection, contract negotiation, partner relationship management, overall finance management including PO and invoice management, equipment purchase, and mora.3. Protect Your IPMany tech companies outsource their projects and countless startups have used freelancers and offshore employees to launch their companies (including Slack, AppSumo, and UpWork). Solix, the leading provider of enterprise data management solutions, decided to take the similar path as well, explains IT solutions companyGrossum. The main rule in outsourcing do not outsource your core business. Everything else is up for discussion.4. Start SmallThe Ford murl Company originally sent just their back-office work (such as accounting) to India. After a trial period and great results, they trusted the overseas firm with more responsibilities. As Ford Motor Company was pleased with the high level of quality and reliable services in India, it also set up a software development center to manage its e-commerce solutions, statesNancy Paisof outsourcing company 31West. One of the directors at Ford stated that Ford was extremely pleased with the fast and efficient services handled by Indian professionals.5. Focus on What Youre Great At, Outsource What Youre NotBasecamp is a web-project development tool that helps companies handle project development more efficiently. However, in the beginning, they were unorganized and werent able to project the polished image they wanted to their customers. To move development of the app further, Jason Fried founder and CEO of Basecamp and his teammates outsourced it to remote developers to optimize their cost-opportunity gain, describesMatteo Duof web development company Codeable. Thanks to implementing outsource development into their product development strategy, they quickly started seeing Basecamp generated more revenue than their current consulting work and opted to focus exclusively on working on it as their core business. Today Basecamp employs 50 people around 32 countries worldwide.Starting and running a business is incredibly challenging, so its helpful to learn from those who have failed and succeeded before us. Knowing what tools to use and how to use them can also make all the difference in the world. Is it time for you to consider outsourcing some of your projects?EleonoraIsraeleisaBusinessManageratClutchresponsible for business process outsourcing and voice services.ClutchisaWashington,DCbasedresearch,ratingsandreviewsplatformforB2Bservicesandsoftware. Connect with Eleonora onLinkedInandTwitter.This article originally appearedon My Corporation.