In this second part, Outsource Fitch will explore some of the obvious and less obvious benefits of outsourcing web development.
How Outsourcing Works, from the Philippines to the world
Outsourcing simply means that you are hiring a person who’s not a direct employee (and often lives out of your country) to complete a web development project for you. Instead of simply referring your client to a new company or individual, you’re actually hiring a staff who works for your business and seats remotely in a Philippines’ office. You still make a profit, the person hired gets paid for their work, the client gets a completed project – and you get to keep your client!
Benefits of Outsourcing Web Development:
- Significantly lower staff wages cost.
- The outsourced staff becomes a remote member of your local team.
- You communicate directly with the remote staff, without middle man.
- There is a fixed hourly (or monthly) fee for the staff member.
- There are no hiring or firing costs.
- The staff works follows your processed and standards.
Even though your skill set might not cover all the required areas of web development, or programing skills such as PHP, Magento, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Drupal, Laravel, Ruby, Java, Angular, WordPress etc you can easily outsource the work to someone who is skilled in that area.
Outsourcing Your Difficult Projects
Every web developer understands that clients can be easily swayed when working on a project. As an example, your client may hire you to begin developing the website in JavaScript, which is your area of expertise, but suddenly at midstream, the client has been convinced by an outside influence that PHP is the “way to go” with their website.
If this happens (and it does happen), you have three choices:
- Tell the client that you’re going to have to continue in JavaScript, or you won’t be able to complete the project. You lose both the client and the remainder of your pay.
- Try to convince the client that PHP is NOT the way to go – good luck!
- Confidently discuss with your client the time frame, additional costs, and what types of changes will need to be made to redesign the site in PHP. Once you reach an agreement on a PHP direction, you can outsource the work to your remote staff.
Obviously option number three would be best for you and the client. The client won’t have to start over with a new web developer. You’re already familiar with the client’s website needs, goals and business.
You’ll benefit because you get to keep your client and build a good reputation of being a problem solver. You don’t have to tell your client all the details of your outsourcing plans. You can, however, explain that you have a professional team member who is experienced in PHP, so the client will understand that you’re not working alone on his/her project.
Outsourcing Your Overflow, the Philippines outsource advantage
Another way to use outsourcing to your advantage is when you are so busy that you must turn clients away. If you’re turning clients away, it might be better to keep the clients and outsource the projects instead. You may feel that you don’t need the extra business, however, remember that there are always slow times in any business. The more faithful clients you have, the better! Also, you may offer additional services which can build a monthly income such as web hosting, site updates, etc. Wouldn’t it be great if you never had to turn away another client?
Back to Part 1 or Continue to Part 3.
Outsource Fitch – your web developer outsourcing partner in the Philippines.