What is Outsourcing Services?
Outsourcing Services is a business practice in which a company hires another company or an individual to perform tasks, handle operations or provide services that are either usually executed or had previously been done by the company’s own employees.
Companies today can outsource a number of tasks or services. They often outsource information technology services, including programming and application development as well as technical support. They frequently outsource customer service and call service functions. They can outsource other types of work as well, including manufacturing processes, human resources tasks and financial functions such as bookkeeping and payroll. Companies can outsource entire divisions, such as its entire IT department, or just parts of a particular department.
Outsourcing business functions is sometimes called contracting out or business process outsourcing.
1. Upwork
How it works: Pay only for verified time spent working for you – Upwork’s Work Diary software allows you to see each of team members activity levels (keyboard and mouse activity), and feedback, as well as web cams and screenshots of their computer to make workers more accountable.
Payments: based on hours worked, or completed jobs.
Fees: The fee is 10% of the employer’s payment to Upwork which equates to 11.11% on top of the amount paid to the contractor.
Our experience: Upwork is great when you have a task where you’d prefer to pay by the hour. Also, note that Upwork is formerly oDesk, which merged with Elance in 2013.
How it works: When you hire a worker you need to create payment milestones, as milestones are completed, payment is released.
Payments: based on milestones, or completed work.
Fees: Here’s where it gets messy:
Posting a project – $5, refundable, fully refunded on selecting a Service Provider.
Selecting a Service Provider – $3 or 3%, whatever is higher
Posting a Featured Project – $19
Hide Project from Search Engines – $3
Optional Hide Bids from Other Users – $3
Gold Membership – $24.95/month, 0% project commissions
Posting a Full Time Project – $99.95
3. Guru
How it works: Pay for completed work.
Fees: Memberships are available from $29.95 to $99.95 per quarter.
Project Fee – Either 5 or 10% of the Invoice or Escrow amount, depending on your membership level.
Escrow Fee – 2% of the escrowed amount. Only charged when SafePay Escrow is used.
Employer Payment Method Fees – Up to 4% for a credit card payment and 2.5% for Withdraw Method Fees – $3 to receive funds by check and $9 to receive funds by wire transfer.
4. Fiverr
One of my favorite outsourcing website for many reasons. Not only are amazing designers and virtual assistants available for a starting price of $5, but turnaround time is always fast. So, if you need a quick designer for a project and don’t really have a large budget, Fiverr is for you.
Entrepreneur Tip: use Fiverr as a marketing tool for your services. Offer the first project for $5 and charge your usual fees for future projects with Fiverr‘s new personalized offer feature. Percentage taken out of your pay.
This is a great tool to find projects and outsource work. People Per Hour used to be free, but now it costs a few bucks per month to have more options available as a freelancer and hiring manager. There’s also a percentage taken out of your pay, as a PPH commission.