Independent
Software Developer
HR Manager
Team Leader
Accountant
Copy Writer
Customer Service
Virtual Assistance
Some things are harder than others to offshore. I tell clients to focus on the low-hanging fruit of outsourcing roles – initially. However, the roles that have high complexity or a lot of barriers to outsourcing can offer the best rewards.
The barriers might make it harder to get an offshore team started. It might mean that the staff need extra intensive training, a specific certification, or a high-security environment to work from. These can all take extra time and money, but it could be worth it.
The nice thing about barriers is that if you are able to overcome them, then you actually create a strategic moat around your business. For example, if everyone is outsourcing their bookkeeping, then there is no longer any strategic advantage. However, if you are able to build an offshore team of 10 US licensed property surveyors, and your competitors cannot, then you have a significant advantage. Especially if you are paying 70% less than your competitor for those 10 surveyors.
There are a lot of roles that require either local licensing, regulation, or security requirements. Examples are doctors, mortgage appraisers, land surveyors, financial advisors, lawyers, and therapists. Others might require very niche qualifications – such as CPA, CFA, or Microsoft, or Salesforce certified engineers.
There are also roles that need very secure environments – for example, if they are dealing with collecting credit card payments, or health records, etc.
These are all candidates for outsourcing. They are harder to start, but you will be creating a wide moat around your company.
I know an Australian guy who built a team of 800 certified Salesforce developers. He spent months training all of the young staff and built an entire process for developing all the necessary skills in-house. His company became the largest preferred partner for Salesforce, and he eventually sold it for hundreds of millions of dollars
The question for your business
Do you have any licensed roles, or specialists in your industry that appear hard to offshore? How could you work an offshore component into that function?
