Twig broom and dust pan (Photo by Adam Baker)
There is a lot of misconception about outsourcing. A lot of people think that it is evil. I disagree. Just look around you and you will notice that a vast amount of activities are being outsourced, in one form or another.
Sample activities that are outsourced (or subcontracted):
1. Cleaning services
2. Gardening/landscaping
3. Electrical installations
4. Printing services
5. Audio & Video Editing
6. Photography
7. Design services (graphics, web, products)
8. Writing
Outsourcing gives a lot of freedom to the outsourcer, and they in turn can focus on more of their core-business, which in turn will bring better profit, and will eventually generate more jobs in the community. A lot of these outsourced jobs cannot be sent overseas, because they need the physical presence of labor, thus jobs won’t be diminished.
Sending jobs abroad is called “Offshoring”, which is a form of outsourcing. A lot of IT jobs and customer service (call center) jobs are being sent overseas, which benefits a lot of companies here in the US because as I mentioned before, they can focus more on their core business and income-generation. This can be good enonomics for both countries.
There’s a number of off-shoring advocates out there. One particular example is Tim Ferriss, who wrote a book called 4-Hour Workweek, that outlines his strategy of having a personal assistant overseas. Now I haven’t read the book, and I’m not suggesting you do that either. My point is, the channels for outsourcing is virtually unlimited, and in fact people are using it.