HOT OUTSOURCING

The Philippines, has over the last few years, bloomed as a key player in the global offshore outsourcing market. The Philippines has been undergoing a Business Process Outsourcing boom which is due primarily to the demand for offshore web staffing, customer contact services, finance and accounting, human resources and call centers.

The outsourcing industry is considered one of the world’fastest growing industries and International investment consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. predicts the demand for outsourcing suppliers will reach $170 billion by 2010. Many companies outsourcing are more and more considering the effectiveness of skills and not just cost savings in their decision making which means with The Philippines offerings it is now emerging as a global leader in the BPO industry.

In particular, The Philippines has become a global hub for corporate backroom operations such as financial services including accounting and bookkeeping, accounts receivable collection, account maintenance,inventory control and purchasing, payroll processing, financial analysis, management consulting, expense reporting, financial reporting, tax reporting, credit card administration, factoring, stock brokering, financial leasing, cargo shipment management and logistics management.
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In order to gain this rapid growth The Philippine government has offered significant incentives in order to attract direct foreign investment into the country specifically in the BPO sector.

The vast majority of the BPO facilities are located in the central part of Metro Manila as well as Cebu City although other regional areas within the country are starting their own thriving centres.

Many international companies already have outsourcing operations in The Philippines including Accenture, Convergys, Siemens, NEC Telecom, Caltex, Fujitsu, Alitalia, Unisys, IBM, Intel, Procter & Gamble, AOL, Barnes & Noble, Chevron, Citigroup, Dell, HP, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase and Motorola,

Usually the key players (vendors) are co-owned and managed by expats combined with local managers.

Over the 2006-2007 financial year the Philippines has earned over $2 billion from offshore outsourcing service provision which makes it the 3rd largest supplier behind India and China. And for good reason, The Philippines has a low cost of wages is one of the main reasons for this trend. The Philippines has the 2nd lowest hourly wage for outsourcing professionals and 95% of the citizens speak fluent English.

It is clear that the Philippines is positioned to become a key player in the South East Asian Business Process Outsourcing industry. This outsourcing sector will keep on track to become a primary part of the Philippine economy as more and more Filipinos youth move into the game. Currently the Philippine BPO industry is forecasted to earn US$10 billion and be employing appriximately 1,000,000 people by the year 2010

About the Author

For more informations visit Outsourcingto.us

Experts say that there are societal trends in play that are precipitating a return to pre-industrial era ways of survival. In the face of changing economic realities and disillusionment, many people are questioning the ways they currently make money and are seeking alternate means of income. But, instead of simply getting another job, or opening a fast-food franchise, many are instead asking, “What am I good at?” “What’s my passion?”

Today’s trends are all pointing to a move back to the way things were. At the very least, as the economic landscape becomes more uncertain, people need to look at options for increasing their streams of income. It may be only way to survive.

However, there is also a new awareness developing among those who are seeking to flex their entrepreneurial muscles. The question this time is: What sort of business does it make sense to start in these times of global change?

To lay the foundation for my response, I’d like to introduce you to a term with which you’re probably already familiar. The term is “catalyst.” As you may remember from high school chemistry class, a catalyst is a substance that ignites, sets in motion, or speeds up a reaction without itself being affected. In life as well, every experience is a potential catalyst. Your flat tire, the argument with your spouse, your unhappiness at your job–all are potential catalysts. Because of the free will inherent in our experience here on the planet (we have the freedom to choose our responses), the reaction that a catalyst can spark is entirely under your control.

THE PURPOSE OF CATALYSTS

All catalysts are designed to offer a challenge or lesson.

There are only two possible paths one can choose from in response to a catalyst: It can be accepted or it can be controlled. The path you choose will be determined by your orientation. If you are oriented towards service to self (your own comfort), you will make one set of choices. If you are oriented towards service to others, you will see and choose from a different set of choices.

When faced with a catalyst it is important to understand that we are here to evolve in the direction of our orientation, and without life’s catalysts, the desire to evolve and the faith in the process do not normally manifest and thus evolution does not occur. So don’t rail against the changes and situations. Accept them as a natural part of the experience designed to help you grow.

Life is really that simple. Things happen. You choose your response based on your orientation. You evolve in the direction of your choice.

When neither path is chosen, the catalyst fails in its design and you proceed through life until some other catalyst appears which causes you to choose again towards acceptance and love or toward separation and control.

HOW TO PREDICT THE FUTURE

It’s a basic law of this dynamic, ever-changing universe that there’s no such thing as something “staying the same.” Things are either expanding or contracting, increasing or decreasing, getting better or getting worse. Even the metal or hard plastic computer or sheet of paper on which you are reading these words, as solid and as stable as they seem are all slowly decaying and deteriorating. Come back in a few dozen years, and you’ll see the effects of decay over time. If you know this, then you can look at everything from business phenomena to romantic relationships a little bit differently, and can perform what some might consider fortune-telling simply by asking, “where is this heading?”

Every business, every situation, every relationship is either getting better or getting worse, growing or shrinking, going up or heading downhill. Therefore, as long as you can honestly assess what you observe or experience over a given time frame, you can “predict” where something is heading and take any evasive or remedial actions as necessary.

Now having said that, let’s examine some observable facts and trends that are catalysts occurring right now and that will affect the future, and to which we have a choice of response. 1. The earth is going through changes. Global warming is a reality. Temperature fluctuations are affecting access to water, arable land and other resources for a growing segment of the world’s population. These and other physical, climatic, and cataclysmic changes are observable.

2. “Peak Oil” is a reality. The term “peak oil” refers to the peak in the world’s oil production. The amount of oil available on the planet is finite. There is a point in oil production whether within a single oil field or the entire planet, when a maximum is reached. Once that maximum rate of production is reached, the rate of oil production (as well as the profitability of extracting it) on Earth will enter a terminal decline. The challenge this presents is that while the SUPPLY is declining, the DEMAND for oil (and the plastics, electricity, etc, which are oil-dependent) continue to increase as population and industrialization continue to grow. It’ said that US oil production peaked in 1970. World oil production, it is said by some, peaked in 2005. After a peak, production slows, profits decrease, and prices rise. You can already see the effects of this as gas prices start creeping upwards.

3. Corporate downsizing persists More and more companies are outsourcing, downsizing and offshoring in an effort to cut costs. Companies, particularly public corporations, are bound by their charters and by law to seek first the profitability of their shareholders. That’s why the decisions these companies make often seem less humanitarian and more profit-inspired. That’s because they have to be.

4. Global power and focus is shifting China and India are growing economic forces. They represent sources of labor, consumers, as well as increased oil and energy demand. Companies the world over in Europe, (Romania and Poland most recently made news) and the US, are importing laborers from China, or outsourcing skilled jobs to India.

DON’T SLEEP

As a potential entrepreneur, indeed as a nation, the opportunity exists to predict, anticipate, prepare for and position oneself for the effects of these trends. Don’t wait for mainstream news broadcasts to confirm this. Don’t expect politicians to make it part of their agendas in time. They are operating from a different agenda. Those who seek to rule the world are by nature unlike those of the world they seek to rule.

THE CHALLENGE

As I said, there is always either a lesson or a challenge.

Within the context of these trends, the economic condition, and by extension, your unique situation is a catalyst that provides an opportunity for you to respond in search of a lesson or a challenge.

As potential entrepreneurs, if we choose to rise to the challenge, using what we know about predicting the future, the question becomes first: What’s going to happen as these trends and catalysts continue? And then more importantly, what shall I do in response to these happenings? Where should I look for the opportunity? What sort of business would I start? And finally which business path offers the most opportunity for service to others?

Now there are those who would ask, ‘which path offers the most profit?’, but that’s a service-to-self orientation. We need a new paradigm. I suggest, as motivational speaker Zig Ziglar is credited with saying: that if you help enough people get what they want, you automatically get what you want.

MY THOUGHTS ON A COMING SHIFT

There’s another important trend that I believe is important to factor into this equation, and it is this: The continued growth upon which the current economic model is based cannot be sustained indefinitely. Infinite growth based on finite resources is unsustainable. Growth based on the exploitation of others is unethical and untenable.

Yes, China and India are both ideal sources of labor as well as the next great frontier for consumerism. The rest of the world’s industrialized, market-driven, capitalist, consumer-oriented companies and entrepreneurs know this as well, and are rushing to position themselves.

However, the gold watch-sporting, cola-drinking, junk food-eating, luxury car-driving, soap opera-watching, video game-playing lifestyle upon which these companies rely to support their spiritually vapid, environmentally-depleting and mindless products, while exploiting the poor as the labor source, is on an inevitable decline. Global consciousness of a more serious nature is actually on the rise (it’s just not being reported).

So if as a result, you see, as I do, the potential crash of the entire economic system upon which this model hinges, then you might agree that basing a new industry or business idea on such shifting sand, while perpetuating a soon-to-be outdated business model that separates and destroys the family structure, enslaves communities, while perpetuating indentured servitude is not a desirable course. So, here is the challenge in a nutshell. The current model is unsustainable. We need to survive. However, our survival is based on buying into a definition of success which perpetuates the very model which is threatening our survival. What then, should be our best course of action?

THE ETHICAL PARADOX OF SELLING SURVIVAL

How do you survive in an economic system that is threatening your and its own survival. Answer: You sell survival. That’s right, the game is changing to one of selling survival.

Right now others in the know are mobilizing to prepare to offer you their solutions. But what they offer won’t be real solutions. They will offer products, services and a paradigm which perpetuates their control and their individual survival. In some parts of the world, companies are already charging the population for access to clean water, and some are selling seeds which have been genetically altered to produce single-generation crops forcing farmers into a cycle of having to purchase new seeds every season just to survive.

But how do you survive in good conscience by profiting from what others need to survive. Therein lies the paradox of selling survival.

But that sort of response is not the best option. Selling altered seeds or clean water is not the survival I wish to sell. If I were starting a business, I would follow the experts who predict that the stated trends will favor business models that:

1. anticipate coming global shifts in social interaction and lifestyles (i.e. tribal living in larger social families that are self-supporting; ones that engage in more efficient means of creating energy, obtaining food, and supporting the common welfare)

2. offer people the means of survival given the “peak oil” phenomenon (i.e. alternative fuel sources, power generation capacities, solar, wind, insulating technologies)

3. utilize technology in ways that empower and free the exploited from the manual labor which keeps them at the lower rungs of the totem pole

Why not start your own brainstorm session to come up with some unique business ideas based on the suggestions above?

Wouldn’t it be nice to jump ahead of the entrepreneurial curve and start or join an industry, or launch a new business idea that helps the most people, prepares for coming earth changes, empowers rather than exploits the labor pool, reduces dependence on diminishing energy resources, offers the consumer real alternatives, while at the same time offers the world a new paradigm and consciousness as it relates to survivability, sustainability, adding our voice and actions to the very change in consciousness and alternate paradigm that our very survival necessitates?

Yep, that would be pretty cool. And that’s what I would do if I were starting a business.

About the Author

Walt F.J. Goodridge is known as the Passion Prophet. He is author of 15 books including Turn Your Passion Into Profit, and helps people discover, develop and profit from the pursuit of their passions. Take his Passionpreneuer test at www.passionprofit.com

A June 23, 2005 news release from the Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration, states that home computer owners are slightly more likely to be business owners than non-computer owners. This report reveals that technology and computing has become an inseparable ingredient in the business world today.

The Computer Trend - A Brief History

The last two decades have marked an enormous increase in the number of home computers. With it, computer owners have invariably taken to entrepreneurship in many varied fields. Thanks to the growth of technology, computers and the Internet, new methods have been developed for processing everyday business activities easily. Without the advent of technology, routine tasks would otherwise have taken and enormous amount of time and specialization. Undoubtedly, the computer represents the top technology development in the last century as it relates to businesses today, both large and small. Advances in the field of technology have created a vast number of business opportunities.

Some Statistics

In 2003, the U.S. Small Business Administration produced a report/survey that established conclusively that more than 75% of small businesses owned computers and had heavily invested in new technology. Let us try to understand what the computers mean to businesses and how they contribute to increase their productivity.

USE OF COMPUTERS IN BUSINESSES

The fundamental reasons for the popularity of computers with small businesses are their efficiency, speed, low procurement cost and more than anything else, capability to handle multiple tasks with little chance for error.

Office Routines: Almost invariably, businesses loaded with the burden of increasing workloads and the pressures of being lean and mean, fall back upon technology for most of their administrative tasks. This work includes, among others, bookkeeping, inventory managing and email. The advent of the Internet has also substantially contributed in bringing down the costs of communication and marketing. In a nutshell, technology has reduced the overall cost of business operations.

New Business Opportunities: The explosion of Internet and e-commerce has opened up a plethora of opportunities for all types of businesses. New management methodologies, such as Six Sigma are easier to implement due to statistical software. Also, companies are able to train their own employees using in-house Six Sigma software programs, and as a result, save money on labor costs.

It is now possible to have many business functions operate on autopilot. This has opened up new opportunities for software development companies and business consultants. Another business trend that has opened up as a result of advancing technology is outsourcing. It is now possible for a company in America to have its data entry and customer service centers in overseas countries such as the UK. In this way, companies can service their customers 24/7.

Indispensable Components of Small Businesses

It is difficult to think of a situation where businesses can do without technology and computers today. It is extremely difficult to say whether businesses depend on computers or computers created business opportunities.

Software Specific To Small Businesses

Certain powerful, yet simple software has come to the rescue of small businesses in reducing their tasks and opening up new channels. Simple applications like spreadsheets and word processing helps them maintain accounts, finances and keep track of correspondence. These applications allow the users to customize reports and other functions to suit their particular business.

Drawbacks

Both men and women in business have adapted successfully to new technology. But the SBA report cites the general decline in skill levels of people, which may eventually result in an overall reduction of income levels. It seems that people get used to technology doing all the work and tend to neglect their skill development. It is up to individual companies to make sure that their employees are still able to do crucial tasks without the assistance of computers, if necessary.

About the Author

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

There are new competitors emerging who can take advantage of new facilities, new technology and lean organizations. These organizations are competing with established organizations that have an established network of business relationships, an established infrastructure and associated overhead costs. What industry is this? it pertains to your business.

The Even Playing Field

Access to information and technology, ease of going to market and the simplicity to create an e-commerce sales channel have changed the playing field. Factories are being built in geographic regions that can sustain low labor costs and mass production. Programming and application development is being conducted with global access to negotiate low rates and take advantage of shared modules or common templates. Access to raw materials has been greatly simplified. Commercial and professional services can be accessed by email or phone just as effectively and efficiently as a face to face dialogue, but with more convenience. In all cases, the geographic location is continually adjusting based on market conditions and demand. With a little planning, organization and creativity these resources are equally available to everyone.

The Emerging Players

The new organizations and individuals entering the market have a distinct financial advantage of being lean, with limited overhead costs or infrastructure to support. The emerging players may take advantage of new equipment, new technology and the latest applications. There is no cost to migrate old processes, data or facilities to a new ones. Everything is new, and presumably state-of-the-art.

As a result of the lack of overhead or existing infrastructure, the new organization can offer products or services at a significantly lower price. This places extreme pressure on the established competitors to reduce price and compete. Quite often the lower prices of the emerging players are complimented by a new strategic feature, special offer or unique benefit. This creates even more pressure on the established competitors to respond with new features at lower prices.

The initial rush is exhilarating to the emerging players as they experience success and rapid economic growth. The newness of the offering and the compelling lower prices will gather an immediate fan base of curious customers. The sales increase, the market share grows and the future looks promising. If the emerging player can sustain this profitable growth long enough, this tide of enthusiasm leads to the inevitable consequence that infrastructure is required to support the growing install base of customers.

Without proper infrastructure, the emerging player will not be able to support customer demands and customer service. In the absence of customer support and operational infrastructure, the emerging player risks severe damage to brand reputation, loss of loyal customers and potentially severe government or legal intervention. The emerging player is eventually saddled with investing in the development and maintenance of overhead to support consumers. The emerging player must evolve by creating structure and internal support to manage external requirements for sustained success.

The Established Players

If an established organization has nurtured the satisfied customer base, it has the benefit of a potentially loyal consumer base. It is less expensive to maintain a satisfied customer and earn repeat business than it is to market to new customers or be forced to compete merely by adding features and dropping prices. Marketing to a loyal customer base can reduce support costs and generate new sales in advance of competitive intervention.

Established organizations have the benefit of leveraging installed infrastructure. When used properly, the installed infrastructure and experienced resources can expedite processes, reduce valuable time to expedite response and sustain repeatable processes. Equipment and associated administrative investments are amortized over time and use to provide a measurable return on investment.

Established organizations are more aware of regulatory and compliance issues, and should be more aware of customer requirements. This awareness reduces risk. Regulatory and compliance issues pose the obvious risk of costly government or legal intervention. Customer requirements can be a more subtle, but equally costly financial risk. Customer requirements are not limited to consumer protection, but also include consumer buying cycles, consumer return habits and costs to sustain customer support. It is important to know these costs at the time of the consumer purchase so appropriate reserves are established for future support.

Despite the advantages of speed and amortized investment associated with an established infrastructure, the established organizations must add features and reduce prices to compete with the emerging competition. The most common methods of achieving lower price points are associated with reducing internal costs, eliminating external costs and cutting overhead. Sometimes this is accomplished with investments that improve performance, drive out costs or expedite results. Quite often this is achieved by slashing infrastructure overhead in the form of reducing manpower. In this case, the remaining manpower is tasked with developing new lean processes to sustain the business and compete with streamlined or substantially reduced operational designs.

The Race to the Middle

Emerging players can enjoy lean organizations and lack of infrastructure for a measured period of time. If the emerging players are successful, they must eventually build an infrastructure to sustain the customer base and the growing business. To compete with these emerging players, the established organizations must continually shed layers of complexity, procedures and often people. As emerging players are forced to grow the infrastructure in proportion to success, so too the established players must shrink the overhead to compete and remain successful. From two ends of the spectrum it is a race to the middle.

So, where exactly is the middle? How did established organizations arise as emerging organizations, and what keeps them from collapsing? The secret to sustained success is the realization that the definition of the middle is always changing. Both emerging organizations and established organizations are creating new strategic features or benefits for customers. The economy and consumer demand have as much impact on pricing as the addition or success of new features. As the market drives demand for features, benefits, advancements or customer loyalty, then the middle ground requires greater infrastructure to sustain it. Sometimes the demand for greater infrastructure is the result of changes in regulatory, compliance or environmental protection requirements. Such demands and requirements impact the whole market and all players evenly, driving the demand for infrastructure overhead to manage these issues. Then the market will correct itself with emerging players, new solutions and lower prices, once again moving the middle as the definitions of either end of the spectrum are redefined.

Outsource Solutions

One of the most common methods of achieving a flexible and adjustable solution to win the race to the middle is outsourcing the solution. Emerging organizations can take advantage of outsourcing the appropriate portions of the business to established partners that specialize in that part of the business and can amortize the infrastructure over multiple clients. This enables the emerging player to immediately reduce risks associated with regulatory, compliance or environmental issues. It creates an immediate structure to sustain business growth and support a growing base of consumers, without risking internal investment on technology, people or processes that may become obsolete when other new emerging competitors enter the market.

For established organizations, outsourcing appropriate business solutions can reduce internal overhead and immediately create competitive flexibility. When transferred properly, the experience and internal process designs can be absorbed by the external resource to maintain strategic advantage while reducing internal overhead. Additional benefits are continually realized as the outsource partner invests to keep up with new technology, new processes and cost competitive enhancements while simultaneously meeting environmental, regulatory and compliance requirements.

Quite often, the outsource solution partner is the middle point between emerging and existing organizations. Adjusting as necessary, the outsource partner must adapt to changes in the marketplace and the needs of the emerging or established clients.

You do not need to look very far to see examples of outsource partners. Outsource partners exist in manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, returns, refurbishment, repair, call centers, distribution, sales, extended service plans, third party administrators, commercial and professional services. Virtually every business relies on an outsource solution or a hired expert for some portion of the competitive solution. Which industry does this pertain to? It pertains to yours. Do you use an outsource solution or a third party administrator, or should you? That depends on who is winning the race to the middle.

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Words of Wisdom

“Established organizations need to shed overhead to reduce cost. Emerging players need to invest in infrastructure to sustain the acquisition of consumers, manage increased volumes and meet environmental, regulatory and compliance requirements. It is a race to the middle.”
- John Mehrmann

“You don’t need to outdo the competition. It’s expensive and defensive. Underdo your competition. We need more simplicity and clarity.”
- Jason Fried

“The infrastructure of the industrialized world is increasingly based on software, experience and new ideas.”
- John Mehrmann

______________________________________________________

John Mehrmann is a freelance author and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital.

About the Author

John Mehrmann is an author, speaker and industry expert with Executive Blueprints Inc.
http://www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com

Payroll outsourcing companies deal with outsourcing of payroll activities. They do the actual work of tallying hours and creating the paychecks for all the employees of a client. Payroll means a sequence of accounting transactions dealing with the process of paying employees for service provided, holding money from employees for payment of payroll taxes, insurance premiums, employee benefits, garnishments and other deductions. The payroll outsourcing companies provide the processing of non-core activities of a company. Payroll outsourcing companies usually have a group of experts, who can complete jobs quickly and efficiently, giving the management more time for development activities. Shifting the payroll burden to another firm means less work for in-house staff, eliminating the need for them to learn new, specialized duties.

Outsourcing companies undertake the burdensome responsibilities of administration, payroll record keeping, tax duties and claims, printing and delivering checks, and providing management reports. The experienced personnel in the outsourcing companies guarantee that your payroll files and details are accurate, prompt and professional. When there are problems regarding payroll activities the professionals in the outsourcing company can offer you reliable advice and rapid resolutions.

Signing up with a payroll outsourcing company saves time, resources and money for any small or big business establishment. The payroll outsourcing company will need to be given updated information once a week or once a month, depending on how often the employees are paid. An ideal payroll outsourcing company is one which is aware of all state and federal regulations. It should have credibility and sufficient facilities to handle the job undertaken.

Payroll Outsourcing provides detailed information on Payroll Outsourcing, Payroll Outsourcing Companies, Payroll Outsourcing Services, Payroll Tax Outsourcing Services and more. Payroll Outsourcing is affiliated with Payroll Processing Services.

Time is money, especially for a home based business. A data entry operator in a cubicle can slack off, play a game on their cell phone, and chat for an hour at the water cooler. The home based business owner does not share this luxury. Every minute they are not actively generating income, is a minute they are not earning money. No one will deposit a check into their account once a week, whether they earned every penny of it, or not.

This is why managing becomes vitally important. A little disorganization, or some poorly planned days, can cost a substantial amount of money.

Daily Planner

Plan a day or two ahead, a week if possible. Do not worry about listing each job with a time period. Just make a list. As each job is completed, strike it off the list.

After making the list, prioritize the list. First, put the jobs that will earn the most money. Second, list the jobs with deadlines.

Pay attention to the little things. There will be small tasks that do not get finished each week. These will accumulate, making it impossible to do the bigger things. Set aside some time to do these tasks, even if it only one hour, once a week.

Maximize Downtime

It is not necessary to purchase a blackberry, but a laptop can let you spend an afternoon outside, while still working. It also gives an alternative to doing nothing while the power is off, while the Internet is slow, or when your away from the office.

There are many times when you must wait an hour for an appointment, or something didn’t go as planned, use these times for business. A cell phone is a great tool.

Outsource

Most business owners have no problem outsourcing their advertising, management, marketing, and programming tasks.

However, suggest that they should outsource the laundry, house cleaning, and even taking out the trash, and most will laugh hysterically. But, that is exactly what many successful business people do.

How much money can you make in one hour? Divide up your monthly income by the ‘actual’ hours worked. This does not mean the hours spent in the office, or the hours sitting at the computer. It means the actual hours you are actively engaging in earning revenue.

Now, add up all the time wasted taking out the trash, doing the laundry, picking up the children from piano lessons, and walking the dog. These things can take 15 hours a week. A business person who earns $20 an hour is losing, $300 a week because they will not outsource the mundane tasks.

A house cleaner costs $70, a dog walker, $50, laundry $25, and a taxi will cost about $10.00, all totalled that is $155.00.
This means that the business owner is losing $145 a week, $7 500 a year, because they refuse to outsource the mundane tasks.

Separate Work at Home

To manage your time efficiently, delegate what hours are to be invested in work, and which belong to home life. Teach the family not to disturb you until you are finished working - but then when your day is done - stop working. You’ll never run a successful business, or build wealth, if you burn out, or face a family crisis.

All together, these tips form a plan of action that will help you succeed, and help you learn how to manage your home business successfully.

About the Author

Mark Walters is a third generation entrepreneur and author. He offers free training and investing videos designed to speed you towards financial independence at http://www.cashflowinstitute1.com/Articles.html

Experts say that there are societal trends in play that are precipitating a return to pre-industrial era ways of survival. In the face of changing economic realities and disillusionment, many people are questioning the ways they currently make money and are seeking alternate means of income. But, instead of simply getting another job, or opening a fast-food franchise, many are instead asking, “What am I good at?” “What’s my passion?”

Today’s trends are all pointing to a move back to the way things were. At the very least, as the economic landscape becomes more uncertain, people need to look at options for increasing their streams of income. It may be only way to survive.

However, there is also a new awareness developing among those who are seeking to flex their entrepreneurial muscles. The question this time is: What sort of business does it make sense to start in these times of global change?

To lay the foundation for my response, I’d like to introduce you to a term with which you’re probably already familiar. The term is “catalyst.” As you may remember from high school chemistry class, a catalyst is a substance that ignites, sets in motion, or speeds up a reaction without itself being affected. In life as well, every experience is a potential catalyst. Your flat tire, the argument with your spouse, your unhappiness at your job–all are potential catalysts. Because of the free will inherent in our experience here on the planet (we have the freedom to choose our responses), the reaction that a catalyst can spark is entirely under your control.

THE PURPOSE OF CATALYSTS

All catalysts are designed to offer a challenge or lesson.

There are only two possible paths one can choose from in response to a catalyst: It can be accepted or it can be controlled. The path you choose will be determined by your orientation. If you are oriented towards service to self (your own comfort), you will make one set of choices. If you are oriented towards service to others, you will see and choose from a different set of choices.

When faced with a catalyst it is important to understand that we are here to evolve in the direction of our orientation, and without life’s catalysts, the desire to evolve and the faith in the process do not normally manifest and thus evolution does not occur. So don’t rail against the changes and situations. Accept them as a natural part of the experience designed to help you grow.

Life is really that simple. Things happen. You choose your response based on your orientation. You evolve in the direction of your choice.

When neither path is chosen, the catalyst fails in its design and you proceed through life until some other catalyst appears which causes you to choose again towards acceptance and love or toward separation and control.

HOW TO PREDICT THE FUTURE

It’s a basic law of this dynamic, ever-changing universe that there’s no such thing as something “staying the same.” Things are either expanding or contracting, increasing or decreasing, getting better or getting worse. Even the metal or hard plastic computer or sheet of paper on which you are reading these words, as solid and as stable as they seem are all slowly decaying and deteriorating. Come back in a few dozen years, and you’ll see the effects of decay over time. If you know this, then you can look at everything from business phenomena to romantic relationships a little bit differently, and can perform what some might consider fortune-telling simply by asking, “where is this heading?”

Every business, every situation, every relationship is either getting better or getting worse, growing or shrinking, going up or heading downhill. Therefore, as long as you can honestly assess what you observe or experience over a given time frame, you can “predict” where something is heading and take any evasive or remedial actions as necessary.

Now having said that, let’s examine some observable facts and trends that are catalysts occurring right now and that will affect the future, and to which we have a choice of response. 1. The earth is going through changes. Global warming is a reality. Temperature fluctuations are affecting access to water, arable land and other resources for a growing segment of the world’s population. These and other physical, climatic, and cataclysmic changes are observable.

2. “Peak Oil” is a reality. The term “peak oil” refers to the peak in the world’s oil production. The amount of oil available on the planet is finite. There is a point in oil production whether within a single oil field or the entire planet, when a maximum is reached. Once that maximum rate of production is reached, the rate of oil production (as well as the profitability of extracting it) on Earth will enter a terminal decline. The challenge this presents is that while the SUPPLY is declining, the DEMAND for oil (and the plastics, electricity, etc, which are oil-dependent) continue to increase as population and industrialization continue to grow. It’ said that US oil production peaked in 1970. World oil production, it is said by some, peaked in 2005. After a peak, production slows, profits decrease, and prices rise. You can already see the effects of this as gas prices start creeping upwards.

3. Corporate downsizing persists More and more companies are outsourcing, downsizing and offshoring in an effort to cut costs. Companies, particularly public corporations, are bound by their charters and by law to seek first the profitability of their shareholders. That’s why the decisions these companies make often seem less humanitarian and more profit-inspired. That’s because they have to be.

4. Global power and focus is shifting China and India are growing economic forces. They represent sources of labor, consumers, as well as increased oil and energy demand. Companies the world over in Europe, (Romania and Poland most recently made news) and the US, are importing laborers from China, or outsourcing skilled jobs to India.

DON’T SLEEP

As a potential entrepreneur, indeed as a nation, the opportunity exists to predict, anticipate, prepare for and position oneself for the effects of these trends. Don’t wait for mainstream news broadcasts to confirm this. Don’t expect politicians to make it part of their agendas in time. They are operating from a different agenda. Those who seek to rule the world are by nature unlike those of the world they seek to rule.

THE CHALLENGE

As I said, there is always either a lesson or a challenge.

Within the context of these trends, the economic condition, and by extension, your unique situation is a catalyst that provides an opportunity for you to respond in search of a lesson or a challenge.

As potential entrepreneurs, if we choose to rise to the challenge, using what we know about predicting the future, the question becomes first: What’s going to happen as these trends and catalysts continue? And then more importantly, what shall I do in response to these happenings? Where should I look for the opportunity? What sort of business would I start? And finally which business path offers the most opportunity for service to others?

Now there are those who would ask, ‘which path offers the most profit?’, but that’s a service-to-self orientation. We need a new paradigm. I suggest, as motivational speaker Zig Ziglar is credited with saying: that if you help enough people get what they want, you automatically get what you want.

MY THOUGHTS ON A COMING SHIFT

There’s another important trend that I believe is important to factor into this equation, and it is this: The continued growth upon which the current economic model is based cannot be sustained indefinitely. Infinite growth based on finite resources is unsustainable. Growth based on the exploitation of others is unethical and untenable.

Yes, China and India are both ideal sources of labor as well as the next great frontier for consumerism. The rest of the world’s industrialized, market-driven, capitalist, consumer-oriented companies and entrepreneurs know this as well, and are rushing to position themselves.

However, the gold watch-sporting, cola-drinking, junk food-eating, luxury car-driving, soap opera-watching, video game-playing lifestyle upon which these companies rely to support their spiritually vapid, environmentally-depleting and mindless products, while exploiting the poor as the labor source, is on an inevitable decline. Global consciousness of a more serious nature is actually on the rise (it’s just not being reported).

So if as a result, you see, as I do, the potential crash of the entire economic system upon which this model hinges, then you might agree that basing a new industry or business idea on such shifting sand, while perpetuating a soon-to-be outdated business model that separates and destroys the family structure, enslaves communities, while perpetuating indentured servitude is not a desirable course. So, here is the challenge in a nutshell. The current model is unsustainable. We need to survive. However, our survival is based on buying into a definition of success which perpetuates the very model which is threatening our survival. What then, should be our best course of action?

THE ETHICAL PARADOX OF SELLING SURVIVAL

How do you survive in an economic system that is threatening your and its own survival. Answer: You sell survival. That’s right, the game is changing to one of selling survival.

Right now others in the know are mobilizing to prepare to offer you their solutions. But what they offer won’t be real solutions. They will offer products, services and a paradigm which perpetuates their control and their individual survival. In some parts of the world, companies are already charging the population for access to clean water, and some are selling seeds which have been genetically altered to produce single-generation crops forcing farmers into a cycle of having to purchase new seeds every season just to survive.

But how do you survive in good conscience by profiting from what others need to survive. Therein lies the paradox of selling survival.

But that sort of response is not the best option. Selling altered seeds or clean water is not the survival I wish to sell. If I were starting a business, I would follow the experts who predict that the stated trends will favor business models that:

1. anticipate coming global shifts in social interaction and lifestyles (i.e. tribal living in larger social families that are self-supporting; ones that engage in more efficient means of creating energy, obtaining food, and supporting the common welfare)

2. offer people the means of survival given the “peak oil” phenomenon (i.e. alternative fuel sources, power generation capacities, solar, wind, insulating technologies)

3. utilize technology in ways that empower and free the exploited from the manual labor which keeps them at the lower rungs of the totem pole

Why not start your own brainstorm session to come up with some unique business ideas based on the suggestions above?

Wouldn’t it be nice to jump ahead of the entrepreneurial curve and start or join an industry, or launch a new business idea that helps the most people, prepares for coming earth changes, empowers rather than exploits the labor pool, reduces dependence on diminishing energy resources, offers the consumer real alternatives, while at the same time offers the world a new paradigm and consciousness as it relates to survivability, sustainability, adding our voice and actions to the very change in consciousness and alternate paradigm that our very survival necessitates?

Yep, that would be pretty cool. And that’s what I would do if I were starting a business.

About the Author

Walt F.J. Goodridge is known as the Passion Prophet. He is author of 15 books including Turn Your Passion Into Profit, and helps people discover, develop and profit from the pursuit of their passions. Take his Passionpreneuer test at www.passionprofit.com

There are new competitors emerging who can take advantage of new facilities, new technology and lean organizations. These organizations are competing with established organizations that have an established network of business relationships, an established infrastructure and associated overhead costs. What industry is this? it pertains to your business.

The Even Playing Field

Access to information and technology, ease of going to market and the simplicity to create an e-commerce sales channel have changed the playing field. Factories are being built in geographic regions that can sustain low labor costs and mass production. Programming and application development is being conducted with global access to negotiate low rates and take advantage of shared modules or common templates. Access to raw materials has been greatly simplified. Commercial and professional services can be accessed by email or phone just as effectively and efficiently as a face to face dialogue, but with more convenience. In all cases, the geographic location is continually adjusting based on market conditions and demand. With a little planning, organization and creativity these resources are equally available to everyone.

The Emerging Players

The new organizations and individuals entering the market have a distinct financial advantage of being lean, with limited overhead costs or infrastructure to support. The emerging players may take advantage of new equipment, new technology and the latest applications. There is no cost to migrate old processes, data or facilities to a new ones. Everything is new, and presumably state-of-the-art.

As a result of the lack of overhead or existing infrastructure, the new organization can offer products or services at a significantly lower price. This places extreme pressure on the established competitors to reduce price and compete. Quite often the lower prices of the emerging players are complimented by a new strategic feature, special offer or unique benefit. This creates even more pressure on the established competitors to respond with new features at lower prices.

The initial rush is exhilarating to the emerging players as they experience success and rapid economic growth. The newness of the offering and the compelling lower prices will gather an immediate fan base of curious customers. The sales increase, the market share grows and the future looks promising. If the emerging player can sustain this profitable growth long enough, this tide of enthusiasm leads to the inevitable consequence that infrastructure is required to support the growing install base of customers.

Without proper infrastructure, the emerging player will not be able to support customer demands and customer service. In the absence of customer support and operational infrastructure, the emerging player risks severe damage to brand reputation, loss of loyal customers and potentially severe government or legal intervention. The emerging player is eventually saddled with investing in the development and maintenance of overhead to support consumers. The emerging player must evolve by creating structure and internal support to manage external requirements for sustained success.

The Established Players

If an established organization has nurtured the satisfied customer base, it has the benefit of a potentially loyal consumer base. It is less expensive to maintain a satisfied customer and earn repeat business than it is to market to new customers or be forced to compete merely by adding features and dropping prices. Marketing to a loyal customer base can reduce support costs and generate new sales in advance of competitive intervention.

Established organizations have the benefit of leveraging installed infrastructure. When used properly, the installed infrastructure and experienced resources can expedite processes, reduce valuable time to expedite response and sustain repeatable processes. Equipment and associated administrative investments are amortized over time and use to provide a measurable return on investment.

Established organizations are more aware of regulatory and compliance issues, and should be more aware of customer requirements. This awareness reduces risk. Regulatory and compliance issues pose the obvious risk of costly government or legal intervention. Customer requirements can be a more subtle, but equally costly financial risk. Customer requirements are not limited to consumer protection, but also include consumer buying cycles, consumer return habits and costs to sustain customer support. It is important to know these costs at the time of the consumer purchase so appropriate reserves are established for future support.

Despite the advantages of speed and amortized investment associated with an established infrastructure, the established organizations must add features and reduce prices to compete with the emerging competition. The most common methods of achieving lower price points are associated with reducing internal costs, eliminating external costs and cutting overhead. Sometimes this is accomplished with investments that improve performance, drive out costs or expedite results. Quite often this is achieved by slashing infrastructure overhead in the form of reducing manpower. In this case, the remaining manpower is tasked with developing new lean processes to sustain the business and compete with streamlined or substantially reduced operational designs.

The Race to the Middle

Emerging players can enjoy lean organizations and lack of infrastructure for a measured period of time. If the emerging players are successful, they must eventually build an infrastructure to sustain the customer base and the growing business. To compete with these emerging players, the established organizations must continually shed layers of complexity, procedures and often people. As emerging players are forced to grow the infrastructure in proportion to success, so too the established players must shrink the overhead to compete and remain successful. From two ends of the spectrum it is a race to the middle.

So, where exactly is the middle? How did established organizations arise as emerging organizations, and what keeps them from collapsing? The secret to sustained success is the realization that the definition of the middle is always changing. Both emerging organizations and established organizations are creating new strategic features or benefits for customers. The economy and consumer demand have as much impact on pricing as the addition or success of new features. As the market drives demand for features, benefits, advancements or customer loyalty, then the middle ground requires greater infrastructure to sustain it. Sometimes the demand for greater infrastructure is the result of changes in regulatory, compliance or environmental protection requirements. Such demands and requirements impact the whole market and all players evenly, driving the demand for infrastructure overhead to manage these issues. Then the market will correct itself with emerging players, new solutions and lower prices, once again moving the middle as the definitions of either end of the spectrum are redefined.

Outsource Solutions

One of the most common methods of achieving a flexible and adjustable solution to win the race to the middle is outsourcing the solution. Emerging organizations can take advantage of outsourcing the appropriate portions of the business to established partners that specialize in that part of the business and can amortize the infrastructure over multiple clients. This enables the emerging player to immediately reduce risks associated with regulatory, compliance or environmental issues. It creates an immediate structure to sustain business growth and support a growing base of consumers, without risking internal investment on technology, people or processes that may become obsolete when other new emerging competitors enter the market.

For established organizations, outsourcing appropriate business solutions can reduce internal overhead and immediately create competitive flexibility. When transferred properly, the experience and internal process designs can be absorbed by the external resource to maintain strategic advantage while reducing internal overhead. Additional benefits are continually realized as the outsource partner invests to keep up with new technology, new processes and cost competitive enhancements while simultaneously meeting environmental, regulatory and compliance requirements.

Quite often, the outsource solution partner is the middle point between emerging and existing organizations. Adjusting as necessary, the outsource partner must adapt to changes in the marketplace and the needs of the emerging or established clients.

You do not need to look very far to see examples of outsource partners. Outsource partners exist in manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, returns, refurbishment, repair, call centers, distribution, sales, extended service plans, third party administrators, commercial and professional services. Virtually every business relies on an outsource solution or a hired expert for some portion of the competitive solution. Which industry does this pertain to? It pertains to yours. Do you use an outsource solution or a third party administrator, or should you? That depends on who is winning the race to the middle.

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Words of Wisdom

“Established organizations need to shed overhead to reduce cost. Emerging players need to invest in infrastructure to sustain the acquisition of consumers, manage increased volumes and meet environmental, regulatory and compliance requirements. It is a race to the middle.”
- John Mehrmann

“You don’t need to outdo the competition. It’s expensive and defensive. Underdo your competition. We need more simplicity and clarity.”
- Jason Fried

“The infrastructure of the industrialized world is increasingly based on software, experience and new ideas.”
- John Mehrmann

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John Mehrmann is a freelance author and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital.

About the Author

John Mehrmann is an author, speaker and industry expert with Executive Blueprints Inc.
http://www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com

As companies seek greater ways to find cost savings, the lure of contracting cheap labor overseas continues to grow. Outsourcing overseas is becoming increasingly common in the banking, financial services, retailing, insurance, and telecommunications sectors. But when companies choose to outsource the processing of sensitive personal information, are they losing control of security as well?

Securing personal data within our own borders seems to be challenging enough. On February 7, 2006, one of Massachusetts’ largest hospitals, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that it mistakenly faxed sensitive confidential patient information to an incorrect business fax number and is conducting an internal investigation into the matter.

Last year, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina inadvertently printed Social Security numbers on envelopes it recently sent to 629 of its members.

Sending data processing tasks overseas doesn’t appear to relieve security concerns. Not long ago, a woman in Pakistan recently struck fear among executives who outsource. She had obtained sensitive patient documents from the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center through a medical transcription subcontractor that she worked for, and she threatened to post the files on the Internet unless she was paid more money. The transcriber ultimately rescinded her e-mailed threat, and the UCSF Medical Center fired the contractor who hired the subcontractor who was ultimately responsible for the Pakistani woman’s work, but this incident exposed the fact that the hospital wasn’t keeping track of exactly where its medical records were going or who had access to them.

To put the risks in perspective, India’s National Association of Software and Services companies reported recently that India’s outsourcing industry is creating jobs at the rate of nearly 100,000 a year, and its revenue is growing more than 40% annually. Analyst first Gartner Inc. estimates that global spending on offshore outsourcing services will top $50 billion by 2007. Many of these outsourced operations involve handling and processing customer transactions and sensitive personal information, and most U.S. companies aren’t ramping up security measures at these locations to manage that growth.

The United States has never enacted a comprehensive data protection or privacy law, and even highly-regulated data (such as healthcare information subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations and financial information subject to the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA)) are not subject to any trans-border regulations. However the lack of a data privacy law dealing with outsourcing does not mean that a company’s use of off-shore vendors is without risk. The U.S. laws do impose various obligations on companies to maintain the privacy and security of its U.S. databases, and these obligations necessitate that the company ensure the requirements of law are met.

But just because a company transfers the performance of a function to a third party, it does not mean that the company can also transfer its legal compliance obligations with respect to the performance of that function. In fact, despite transferring the function, the firm may well remain legally responsible to interested third parties (such as government entities, customers, employees, other vendors) for the successful performance of the function, and in some instances, the company may be responsible for ensuring that the processes used to perform the transferred function conform to applicable regulations. Of course, in addition to legal troubles, the public relations fallout for a company who falls prey to a data security breach can be devastating.

So what steps should a company take to secure their outsourcing operations abroad and protect customer data?

First and foremost, a strong and well-understood security policy must be put in place and followed vigorously before any data is outsourced overseas.

In addition:

Visit the outsourcing site, and require the outsourcing vendor to provide proof of a security audit by a reputable third party or industry group. The vendor should demonstrate policies, procedures and technical safeguards are equal to or better than the company’s.

Conduct a remote vulnerability scan to determine what internal information the company can access from the outside.

Require the outsourcing vendor to encrypt all data in storage and in transit, and physical security controls should be in place to mitigate the risk of data leaving the facility via any media, recording devices, cameras and hard copies.

Provide only partial information about a customer - not the full profile.

When executing a written contract with the outsourcer, the following provisions should be included:

? A prohibition on the service provider from disclosing or using data or information for any purpose other than to carry out the contracted services.

The service provider should provide a copy of all customer data in its possession or control upon request.

Never grant any subcontractor access to the outsourcer’s data unless the company has approved the subcontractor and assumes all security provisions of the outsourcing agreement.

The outsourcer should be precluded from holding data hostage in the event of a dispute.

The contract should be reviewed by counsel experienced in the outsourcer’s country’s laws to determine the enforceability of all aspects of the contract.

Finally, a company should develop a formal plan for responding to “worst case scenario” type events, such as misappropriation of personal data. It would identify both local legal resources that could be called upon quickly as well as the legal recourse that would be sought in the event of a security incident or breach of contract.

Daniel A. Pepper is the founder of Pepper Legal Consulting Group, LLC, a law firm based in Somerville, New Jersey focusing on representing e-commerce businesses, and users and providers of technology. More information on the firm can be found at http://www.informationlaw.com or by telephone at 908.698.0330.

Following are some myths and their facts connected to outsourcing which are very famous in corporate world and why companies from U.S fear from outsourcing.

MYTH: the process of outsourcing gives profit to companies and they will reinvest that amount to invent more jobs for American workers. The myth is that if outsourcing is stopped it will hurt them in future.

FACT: It is not so that the companies that increase their profits by outsourcing will use that profit for the benefit of the working class in America. It has been found in study done by McKinsey that if five cents or every single dollar comes back to America, 95 cents are still less in getting invested in America if the company had not outsourced the work.

MYTH: Only low-profile work is outsourced and this outsourcing sets workers free to look for a more innovative job. This forces the companies in U.S to look to higher value added activities and invent new techniques. All this are advantageous for economy

FACT: Absolutely no limit is there to the type of work that can be outsourced but the condition is that the data should be transferred on phone or internet. The trend of outsourcing has changed its way and moving more towards engineering, research and designing from call centre and tele-calling. As per CEO of Intel Mr. Craig Barret “Unless you are a plumber, or perhaps a newspaper reporter, or one of these jobs which is geographically situated, you can be anywhere in the world and do just about any job”.

MYTH: The myth is that companies outsource work when there is a shortage of workers in America. These companies should take advantage of skills of millions of people in Asia and if Americans want to compete they have to get more brain rather than trade restrictions.

FACT: This is a myth that there are no able workers in America and that’s why work is outsourced. The fact is that by outsourcing, companies can find workers who will work in fewer amounts rather than charging high price. Skill is still in America and the only point is it is not used by companies as they are taking advantage of lower wages in India and china.

MYTH: Restrictions on outsourcing by public contractors end up and costs the tax-payer more money. The government of every state must be permitted to look for the best value of tax-payers each and every dollar doesn’t matter, if it is done by sending work to other counties.

FACT: It is not very clear in America that savings of any private company is passed to the government. Companies that outsource their work can keep their entire profit and give a small amount to tax-payers. The other thing is that even if government pays more for contracts, this process can be a very clever decision.

MYTH: The government is not trying to legislate on issues regarding international trade. Corporate in America think that this issue is serious enough to be solved by federal government as state governments may violate trading rules.

FACT: the fact is that under the constitution of America state governments have lots of freedom and sovereignty over the way they spend their money. This is the reason why these states are not bound to follow any international laws or rules of government procurement. States that have agreed to follow the agreements do not come under that rule, individually and international trade tribunal cannot penalize them or force them to change their laws of procurement.

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About the Author

Mr. David Gomes is content writer for http://www.projectbidz.com/. Visit the site http://www.projectbidz.com/ to explore vast Marketplace for Outsourcing Projects to Offshore Companies