Outsourcing my work dilemma

StereoSound

I've come under pressure and cant cope with the amount of work I am getting in. I need to outsource or risk loosing business. Im in the IT industry, I provide security services for companies and private users. Im pretty deep in some of my jobs and cannot break away enough to provide adequately for new clients.

I want to outsource to a company in ireland somwhere so I can keep a better check on things. It's kinda scarey giving your work to someone else since they represent you and if they fck up then I'lll get a bad name.

Should I do up a contract before outsourcing? I dont want to risk having my clients snatched out from under me by a third party that could end up being abit rogue. This is one of my reasons why I want to keep the outsourcing to ireland since I can chase them if they screw me. I probably could not do this with a company outside of ireland.


Thanks

Nika Bolokov

Could you employ someone yourself directly ?

mrawkward

You need to start thinking and behaving like a business owner rather than a one man band self employed service provider. This requires you to manage the work, operatives, billing etc etc.
If you are not up for the job of managing it, pass on the excess work and concentrate on the clients you can service yourself.
If you want to keep it all, you will need to come up with a proper structure and operating plan supported by a fully worked financial model.

Gangu

StereoSound wrote: »

I've come under pressure and cant cope with the amount of work I am getting in. I need to outsource or risk loosing business. Im in the IT industry, I provide security services for companies and private users. Im pretty deep in some of my jobs and cannot break away enough to provide adequately for new clients.

I want to outsource to a company in ireland somwhere so I can keep a better check on things. It's kinda scarey giving your work to someone else since they represent you and if they fck up then I'lll get a bad name.

Should I do up a contract before outsourcing? I dont want to risk having my clients snatched out from under me by a third party that could end up being abit rogue. This is one of my reasons why I want to keep the outsourcing to ireland since I can chase them if they screw me. I probably could not do this with a company outside of ireland.


Thanks

Whether an employee or contractor, you should have a contract. Be careful to include non-solicitation and non-compete provisions if subcontracting.

zig

If you're serious about keeping all the clients and also want to keep control in terms of quality and your brand/name then maybe its time to work out if you can afford to hire someone.

If you can't then perhaps your business model isn't working and you are undercharging?

I think outsourcing works well for manufacturing and other rince and repeat type work but I would definitely say its more risky in the IT/security industry. And I totally agree about keeping it in Ireland.

There is too much to think about and too many consequences if they don't do it properly. Last thing you want is to be draining the same amount of time into making sure the subcontracters are doing as good a job as you want.

Would it really be a bad thing if you simply handed off some of your clients to competitors?

onedmc

I understand your problem as I have tackled the same issue. As mrawkward said you need to turn this into a business not just you.

Create a commodity not a person doing a job. That is to say make the process more important than the individual. I see that you are in the IT security business so you need an IT security process that your employee or agent must be followed. That's yous and the customer buys the process not you. The process could be a checklist or set of steps. That is your intellectual property, hey you could even stick it on the web so the other guy has to follow it online not on paper.

This is what I have done, I do project management training, I own the course material and the process around certification. I find good people to deliver it. They cant really steal my business because I own the material, I print it etc. But most importantly the customer knows that I have put "intellect" into devising a methodology that delivers results. They could copy it but its less likely that they can steal my business.

This is what business is about. Any numpty can make a burger better than McDonalds but MacDonald have created a process that is unique and they sell more burgers than anyone else.

And yes you need a contract, PM me and I'll send you mine