If you’re considering outsourcing jobs for your business, you must know the disadvantages of outsourcing.
Many Internet gurus recommend outsourcing to lessen the many tasks that Internet marketers have to complete in order to be successful. However, few discuss the disadvantages of outsourcing.
This two-part article series covers seven disadvantages of outsourcing. You need to consider all seven before assigning any job to an outsource service. Part 1 covers the first three of the seven disadvantages of outsourcing. The remaining four are covered in part 2.
Disadvantages of Outsourcing 1: You Can Spend As Much Time On Outsourcing As It Takes To Complete The Job
Outsourcing requires that you do considerable planning before you post your job for vendors. You also have to review bids, eliminate the bids you don’t want, investigate the ones that interest you, and select the winning bidder.
You also have to establish benchmark deadlines and a final deadline. Then you have to log into the outsource service in order to communicate with your selected vendor.
Once your selected vendor completes your job, you still have to review the work, assure that it meets your specifications, is free of errors or works properly. Then you have to approve payment for the vendor.
These tasks take a lot of time. If you have the skills to do the job yourself, you can often do it in the amount of time you spend on the above tasks. Plus you don’t have to wait for the outsource vendor to do it, and you save money.
Disadvantages of Outsourcing 2: You May Experience Communication Problems
If your selected vendor doesn’t speak English as a first language, you may find it difficult to communicate instructions, to answer questions, and to determine the progress of your job.
Add to this the fact that the outsource services don’t want their vendors to communicate with you except through their site, and you have a real communication problem.
Disadvantages of Outsourcing 3: It’s Difficult To Keep Outsource Vendors On Task
Because you don’t have direct access to the outsource vendors, it’s difficult to keep them working and making progress on your job. All you can do is leave a message on the outsource service site.
It doesn’t matter if your vendor is intentionally not responding to you because the job isn’t going well, or if he just hasn’t seen your message. Either way, you don’t know how to proceed with the rest of the project.
To read about the last four disadvantages of outsourcing, don’t miss part 2.