Team Talk: Blogs

We're a year away from political elections, and jobs and the economy permeate the candidates' rhetoric. What if one of them was to stand up and literally guarantee millions of new jobs for rural Americans?

I'm not running for office, but I am proposing a jobs creation plan that can do just that: A National Rural America Jobs Creation Plan. Funded through a public/private partnership, the plan offers private investors a 50 percent reduction in investment risk when investing in rural USA companies.

Imagine, taking outsourced technology jobs back from India and China. Putting Americans back to work and getting better results at the...

As Rural America Onshore Outsourcing (Rural America), prepares for its annual Strategic Planning Meeting (fancy phrase for the meeting where we set big hairy audacious company goals for 2011), I’ve been contemplating the future of the USA rural onshoring outsourcing industry.

Here are my top five predictions for 2011:

Prediction 1:  2011 will be a banner year for bringing technology jobs back to rural USA.
As market awareness of the rural onshoring alternative to offshoring continues to grow, greater volume of contracts are flowing to the industry leaders. There is a pent-up demand. Using Rural America as an example, the agreements...

This past November, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at the National Broadband Expo (www.thebroadbandexpo.com). My topic was "Labor Components of Rural Broadband: the Impact of OnShoring."

The vast majority of broadband service providers I networked with during the Expo conveyed that they are primarily focusing on the hardware and installation of broadband coverage.

In this rush and focus on broadband installation, often overlooked is what I call the Human Element, the opportunities to provide additional complementary services to millions of new and upgraded customers.

Millions? Look at these statistics:

The United...

A management philosophy for confident, results-oriented executives seeking to maximize the full talent of their fast-charging personnel in a virtual workforce.

One thing I've learned while building 13 companies in almost 20 years of being an entrepreneur is that hiring and motivating the right people WILL make or break a fast-growing company. How fast? 100% to 300% or more growth per year.

My latest company, Rural America OnShore Outsourcing, is wrapping up its second year in existence and we are booming. To add to the complexity of managing our rapid growth, Rural America's team is largely comprised of Associates who work from...

During a recent interview with a global sourcing industry publication, we briefly discussed the number of confusing names.

Seems like every company in our industry uses a different name.

Hummm...ones that come to the top of my head:

Onshoring
Rural OnShoring
Domestic Sourcing
Domestic Outsourcing
Rural Sourcing
Farmshoring
Low Cost Domestic Sourcing
Inshore Sourcing

Have I missed any? If so, please comment and add.

No wonder the Media and potential clients get confused. This mish-mash dilutes our industry brand and marketing impact.

Reminds me of the early days of the VCR...VHS vs. Betamax. Or more...

Today, I wanted to write about some of the great benefits Rural America offers to its team members. One of the benefits I enjoy the most is the ability to work from home in my own office.

Working from home allows me the luxury of having my very own office staff: two sassy calico cats who like to boss me around, and one neurotic, three-legged, scared, rescue dog, named Chloe.

But, even working in your own office, sometimes you just need to take a break from the computer and get some fresh air. Today was one of those days.The sun was shining and made for a beautiful day. So, I thought I'd take Chloe outside with me for a quick...

Okay! In part three of this topic I said, "don't chase after all those cool widgets". Now I'm going to tell you that widgets, gadgets and social media tools can be good for your site.

No, no. I'm not contradicting what I said above. Work with me, here.

When the internet was really starting to draw users in to surf websites it was perfectly fine to create a static, brochure-type website. Companies basically took their printed brochures, made them into web pages, and made the occasional updates when services or prices changed.
Pay Attention to Me!
On today's internet, we're inundated with information from multiple sources that...

Okay, so, you've met with the experts, figured out your target audience, figured out your message and have a design ready to go. You, and your team, have decided on what you need to get done, how to get it done, and the timeline to get it done by.

So, in the eternal words of one marketing giant: Just Do It.

Unless you find that something you have planned on will either, a) Take more time and money than you originally planned, or b) might be detrimental to your website, don't second guess yourself or your team. Waffling about new technologies you found after your team has started the build will only delay your project. And,...

In my previous post, I wrote about keeping your focus through a project so you don't end up with analysis paralysis. This naturally-occurring phenomenon is not restricted to internet-based technologies. It can happen in the 'real world', as well.

Here is just ONE experience (of many) that I've had with this paralysis:

I love woodworking in my free time. I came up with a great idea for a weekend project: a simple, functional bookshelf for my office that would fit nicely with the style of our old house, and offer a stylish way to organize my design manuals. This was a small project that would have taken me two afternoons of my...

Author's note: If you're here looking for information on 'How to plan your Project', this isn't for you. I'm also not here to tell you which widgets are best, what flashy tool will bring people in, or how to market your company using social media - I'll save those for future posts. These are simply some guidelines that I have found helpful to keep me focused once that plan is made.

Have you ever had that one, really cool project that you just can't wait to start? A project that you consider both fun to work on and a great value to your company, but, it never gets off the ground?

I have... more times than I can count.

Even...

If I have multiple Twitter Accounts is there a place I can manage them all?

I would like to answer that here and also explain a little. Twitter has taking the Social Media Marketing world by storm, With it's real time platform, and Hugh following you have the potential to interact, and network with thousands of people daily. And like most of your Social Networking sites it is not all Business related, and if you are Twitting for Business you can easily get side-tracked and sucked into personal conversations about subjects unrelated to your business. With that said back to the question. Yes, there are many sites that you can...

In the world of Social Media Marketing it is easy to get overwhelmed, there are so many sites and methods to use, I hope to help answer some questions here:

How do I know what sites or methods to use?
I am a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel. I take a look at what some of the other big companies are doing, and do a Google search to find what are the most popular sites. You have to always remember to adjust what you learn and what others are doing to fit your own company's direction, market, and goals. And also keep your resources up to date, just because site "xyz" was the place to be last month that may not be true...

Outsourcing business processes and software development to overseas has been around for a while and some of it works well. There are cost advantages with low cost country outsourcing and this is the only advantage that low cost country outsourcing has. But some of these cost advantages may be over estimated.

If you make use of a low cost country outsourcing you can see cost savings up to 50%

Now if you take into account:

Increased time to deliver services or product - 0%
Decreased Morale of employees - 5%
Cultural Interferences - 10%
Additional Travel Costs - 5%
Bad PR and Mitigation costs - 5%
Training and Process...

Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to present Rural America Onshore at an Angel/advisor mentoring session.

I only had five minutes.

Giving a company overview presentation in ten minutes is easy. Try doing it in five. What would have my hero Lincoln done?

At the end of session, no one rushed up to say they were going to name their new born child after me (Barack is apparently a new popular name) or write an investor check on the spot. Tough audience.

But I did share an overview of what we are about... and would like to share it now with you...

"Good Morning. Thank you for being here. I look forward to working ...

The Washington Post reported on December 11 that Dell Computers is charging customers who buy a new PC $12.95 per month to have access to an American customer service agent or $99 per year. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003574 ... Those who don't pay the special "Customer Service" fee will be talking to call center agents in India or the Philippines. (I've never had problems talking to agents from Manila, but India... another story... must be my Midwestern ears).

My current Dell is on its last legs... and I've been exploring getting another. This move seals my thinking... I'm going to a Mac. ...

Welcome to the blogs of Rural America Onshore Sourcing.

From time to time, various members of the Team will share with you their stories, thoughts, silly observations, and "pearls of wisdom".

Hopefully, after reading, you will have learned something...rather than thinking "Boy, that was a wasted five minutes of my life"! We'll keep the tone of this blog light and fun. Currently, there are no English grammar majors employed at Rural America. A lot of techies, and entrepreneurs, but no grammar police.