Imagine if you were to read the five blogs below, which we used to launch Catch Friday, would your business stand out?

Mavic, one copywriter who works for us, improved our business by making it acceptable to outsource.

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Is Outsourcing Exploitation?

I had some slack time and was reading articles online when I came across an article that hit a sweet spot at my end. The article was old, written way back in 2006 by someone who was quite concerned about the idea of outsourcing programmers. I didn't actually focus much on the article itself but was more interested on the responses that a statement made by one of those who commented gave me a question to think about.

The comment in summary stated that it was all right to outsource if the concept is to get something that you don't have within your means. It ended saying that it is bad if the purpose of the outsourcer is simply to avail of the low cost.

I sat back and tried ran the lines through my head in an effort to absorb it further. Is this true? Are we being accused of cutting down on cost just to beat the competition? I never thought of it that way.

It's not actually exploiting when you have somebody work on something on terms that you both agree upon. I wouldn't look for someone else if I planned to pay him the same price as I pay my on site office assistant. First and foremost, it would be rude for my office assistant if I did that. And it would go beyond the essence of providing employment. If I did that, then I would well accept the truth of that statement.

I think the rationale behind this cost efficiency is because they could afford to provide their services at that "low" cost. It is not the fault of each client that they try and seek ways where they could save. It is the most natural thing that anyone could do given that situation.

Curiosity Got the Assistant

There is no better satisfaction than to have someone at your beck and call waiting for you order. Looking at things through the eyes of a businessman, one would be doing the same if he is bent to succeeding with his business. Given that surge of adrenalin and the will to do best, he might be able to pull off this stint for a while but how far could he really go?

Even though he wanted to ask his assistant to do the same, he'd look like Scrooge thinking only about himself and not realizing that people get tired too.

Resigning helplessly with this idea and thinking of how to stretch that eight hours for everyone to be able to accomplish more, he accidentally finds an ad that seemed to be a solution for this problem.

In want to satisfy his curiosity he makes that call. Funny, they're somewhere halfway around the world and yet they're still awake at 2 o'clock Eastern Time. They didn't seem Asian as you talked to them and somehow, during that conversation, you felt at ease having been assured that your need would be fulfilled.

The Bridge that Outsourcing Makes

The concept of Outsourcing is plain and simple. Getting the task done at the least amount of time possible and attaining the best results in doing it.

Outsourcing bridges the void that incapacity creates. You are more likely to hit the exact results you need when you outsource than you do with having a regular employee. And do you know why? It's because when you outsource, you are given the exact kind of individual capable of doing the task that you require. Whereas with your own employees, the vagueness of the job titles that they have are not totally accurate to the task that you need to be done.

More often than not, ranked employees are jacks of all traits but masters of none. To accurately identify your need and find a specific person to do specific tasks for you, it would mean that you're willing to shoulder the incremental costs that that particular person comes along with.

But what if these tasks that you need to get done are tasks that are, in nature, classified as non-consistent? It would then be useless to maintain an employee for this. What use would he or she have to the company after his task is done?

On the other hand, with outsourcing, you only need to provide the specifics of your task and you're able to acquire optimum results at a minimum cost. You're not obligated in anyway to the person performing the task. No need to shoulder maintenance fees and benefits to think about. You pay for what you need and it's as simple as that.

With outsourcing, it's like hitting the bull's eye straight at the middle. You get to feel like a real boss and sit back and relax knowing that you're in good hands.

Virtual Dependence Condones Laziness

Amidst economic struggles citizens criticize virtual dependence as one of the reasons for employment dilemmas. More companies are resorting to seeking virtual assistance for tasks they feel they could no longer find solution on site.

More and more people are resorting to offshore support for answers to their pressing concerns. Critics have branded this as a result of man developing a "laissez-faire" attitude towards things that they no longer wish to bother busying themselves with work.

On the other hand, virtual dependence is a means with which people are learning to stretch their reach, as they would want to keep up with the times. It doesn't condone laziness. Instead, it denotes that a person has organized his time enough to realize that a systematic delegation of duties would make life easier for him on that regard.

This dependence seen to be overwhelmingly becoming a current trend allows people to maximize their strengths while finding joy in work. It is an acceptance of the reality that we're all but human and could simply afford to go so far. If we confine everything to ourselves in an effort to gain success and show everyone that we "are" something worth of thought, we'd all end up working like horses thinking only of one thing... make better what we have. In the end, when we could finally say that we've achieve the peak of our goal, could we really say we could sit back and relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor? Or would we simply be too exhausted to even want to enjoy?

Virtually dependent people only seek to buy more time for themselves in order to have a fresh look at things. Some people may find it wrong but in the end, it's really a question of how you would want to live and enjoy your life, right?

Amazingly, that virtual assistant proved true to her word. Like an angel in disguise, he slowly passed on more work. As each day passes, he has yet to prove that his virtual assistant is just a waste of time.

As years passed, many changes happened to his company. He let go of that office assistant of his and tended to his business alone. His business was booming and yet he let go of his people? That seemed strange.

When asked why he had to do as such, he answered, "I don't need them anymore. I'm covered 24/7. What more could I ask for?"


Living A Superb Life

Despite the concept with which outsourcing or offshoring, as it is commonly called, was created, the main purpose by which it came to be, is to ease the lives of the busy people who are completely losing a grip of being human.

I remember Laurie, a former colleague, used to work 8 hour shifts, which didn't even offer her some time to comb her hair. Her boss was so much in a hurry with the tasks he asks her to do that she skips meals, and feels so used and abused by the end of the day. Overworked and underpaid is her story as most employees feel.

She came to a point where she came down with flu and nobody could fill in her place to do the chores for her boss. Wanting to still be able to help her boss and at the same time do her job, she started outsourcing some of her tasks. She initially gave two projects to her Virtual Personal Assistant to start with. To her surprise, the tasks
were finished the following day.

When she got back to work, having had the taste of delegating work, she passed on some of her other chores to her virtual assistant. It was a cost she had to shoulder herself for she did not want to lose her own job in the process. It was a new secret she intends to keep to herself.

Little by little people are noticing the big change in her. She looked well groomed, having her hair tidied up all the time, and her beauty really glowed with this new and drastic change in her life.

Upon asking, she only had one thing to say: "I've never felt better about myself. I never realized that it was possible to delegate work. Now, I can't live without it."