Archives for “Uncategorized”

Today I woke up decided to drive across the country.  I need to make it out to the East Coast for the holidays, my brother flew in to the bay area to meet me and we figured why not.  Well, I’ll tell you why not — because that would be at least a week of [...]

The college dorm is an excellent launching point for many entrepreneurs.  A lot of factors simply line up to make dorms ripe for entrepreneurship: young people with little need for steady income, strong education, technical expertise, cheap rent, flexible schedules and unbridled passion.  However, this is one area where outsourcing hasn’t yet grabbed hold, and [...]

A recent trend has been the growth of the labor-as-a-service model that various companies are beginning to offer in the B2B scene.  The value proposition of labor-as-a-service is clear – labor on an immediate, flexible and scalable basis.  Small companies can use labor-as-a-service providers to help smooth the huge differences in work capacity between hiring [...]

Yu-kai Chou recently blogged about his negative experiences outsourcing and wisely reminds us not to lose sight of the fact that two variables go into determining the total cost of a project: hourly rate and number of hours spent, and that the number of hours spent – and therefore total cost – can be dramatically [...]

“Please speak or press…” [You: "Operator"] “Sorry, we did not understand.  Please speak or press…” [You: "Agent"]  “Sorry…” Outsourcing is not just for businesses these days.  Consumers can take advantage of the fact that people around the world have Skype and can make calls on your behalf, especially those painful ones that have been dwelling at [...]

I’ve discovered the incredible feeling of outsourcing everyday tasks relating to both personal and business to-do’s.  Nothing beats the feeling of moving 7 out of my 10 annoying to-do’s off my list and onto someone else’s for a price that absolutely makes sense.  So far I’ve been able to outsource a ton of my vacation [...]

A large part of effectively managing a team involves choosing the right tools for communication and collaboration.  In years prior, we’ve been constrained to conference calls, email and sending files back and forth.  Raise your hand if you’ve seen a file named something like draft_presentation_v4_(reviewed-9-4-04).ppt.  Cringe.  Believe it or not, such practices are still rampant [...]