As business owners, directors, and accountants of small or medium businesses, this is a common question that will run on your head when it comes to considering offshoring services. Do not worry, it is normal to have that thought. Let us help you with answering that. But first, we may need to understand the difference between outsourcing and offshoring.

“Outsourcing” is when you entirely hand out a part of your companies process to an outsourcing company (which may or may not be in a different geographical location) to fulfil the requirements at an acceptable level which is agreed upon at the beginning stage.

“Offshoring” is usually when you have a team or company working on your jobs which is still a part and parcel of your business but is in a different geographical location due to costs, diversity, skills, and other benefits.

Now you might think how you are going to setup your own company in an offshore location in order for you to offshore the tasks of your business for the benefits that was stated earlier. Not to worry, you don’t have to.

There are multiple companies out there who would provide that same service of offshoring for you whilst minimizing the risk to your business. To be specific, the risk of you having to invest and setup you own company in a geographic location that you are not quite familiar with. This risk is eliminated by partnering with the right offshoring firm who are established and has been in the industry for a while.

Now before coming to answer the main question of whether you are ready for offshoring. You’ll have to answer a couple of other questions first before we can get to that:

1. Are you having sufficient number of clients?
2. Are you making enough income to cover your overheads?
3. Are you or your team overloaded with work?
4. Do you have a proper system in place to manage your clients and work?

If your answer to all 4 questions above is “YES”. Then you are in the right track, and the answer to “Am I ready for Offshoring” should be a “YES”.

But then, before you dive right into offshoring, we suggest you do a quick research on which Offshoring firm would best suit your needs and budget. Arrange a meeting/call with at least 3 such offshoring firms, and the discussion that you have will assist you to make the decision.

Need more information, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

By: Harmith Hassim