USA is one of the most economically established countries in the world. With an estimated GDP of $13.81 trillion, USA maintains top position. A large number of USA’s GDP belongs to the service sector which is 78%. USA witnessed a continuous growth in private sector and small businesses for almost 11 years; with an average growth rate of 3.8%- the highest ever in the history of this country. Like its height in GDP, USA does have the best per capita income which is estimated to be $45,850.

Ever since the recession started in the late 2008, USA’s small business sector has been bearing a crisis situation. Many of the giant investment groups declared bankruptcy which resulted in even more pressure on small businesses, as their investment crashed with them. Now to stay in the market, small business sector is working out to cut their cost of operations, and most of them are finding outsourcing as their way out.

Since USA maintains a high ratio of GDP to per capita income, cost of doing business in USA is very high also. What outsourcing does is that; it utilizes the labor arbitrage, which the under developed economies have on offer. For example, GDP per capita income of India is only $2,659, which is far less than USA’s $45,850. That makes a huge difference in salary structure saving cost almost by 70%, while at the same time; a high number of professionals from these under-developed countries are equipped with international qualifications, certifications and experience.

Many small businesses have already utilized this opportunity by outsourcing services like:

1. Marketing (call center)
2. Accounting and Finance
3. Investment Research
4. Software and Graphics Development
5. Content Development

There are many other reasons for which companies are outsourcing except for labor arbitrage, like increased efficiency, reduced risk margin, control over capital and many others. There are many BPO firms providing outsourcing services to USA clients such as iSource Biz.

Starting a new business or purchasing an existing one, both have their problems and challenges, but here I am focusing on the challenges that are encountered by new businesses. Have you done your research?

Starting a new business is not as simple as it is described in the books. You need to answer following questions before you start:

1. What is your business plan?
2. How much initial capital is required?
3. Do you have experience in the type of business you have chosen? 
4. Are the economic conditions favorable?
5. What makes you exclusive in the market?
6. What value do you add as the owner?
7. How many assets do you have?
8. What amount of debt you have acquired?
9. How will you attract customers?

The above questions can be answered easily if you have done your research about the opportunity, competitors and market history. If you are a novice in the game, you should consult with a professional for writing a business plan for you; it will help you to minimize risk factor.

After passing the starting stage successfully, now you have to look into the following point in order to run the new business successfully:

1. Market has no sympathy; put a lot of effort to reach out to customers. It will help you to compete with rivals; after all they have same intention as yours.
2. Always take advice from a professional, if you belong to medical profession and running a pharmacy, you are likely to have insufficient knowledge of paying taxes.
3. Consistently analyze figures of your business; sales revenue, stock, wages, bills, and taxes etc.
4. Don’t acquire un-necessary loans from bank or investment companies, which you are unable to utilize properly. Remember, you have to pay a mark-up; so think for the ROI before applying for it.
5. No one knows the future, so always prepare for back-up plans in order to avoid bankruptcy. Also, you must nominate someone to take your seat to make sure smooth running of business when you are not available, for example in case of an accident.
   

Whether you are starting a new small business or running a large scale company, your ultimate goal is to generate maximum revenue, and cut your cost as much as possible. Outsourcing can help you do both of them in efficient and effective way. Let’s have a brief look at what outsourcing really is.

Outsourcing is a method of transferring responsibilities, to a separate business entity in anticipation of increasing ROI of capital. Normally, companies are used to outsourcing services like Accounting, Data-Entry, Marketing and many other services.

The most obvious reason of outsourcing is to cut the direct labor cost, since under-developed countries have the advantage of low wage structure over developed countries. But that’s not all, outsourcing has many indirect cost saving features, which are following:

1. It helps in saving your capital cost, because you don’t have to invest in infrastructure and HR anymore. You can take advantage of that additional saving for your capital growth.

2. By focusing on limited type of services, BPO firms are more productive and efficient as compared to traditional style of business operations.

3. You are no longer putting effort in searching for right employees and taking care of the trainings and analyzing their productivity for on-time delivery. That also helps in starting a new project; you just take the order, ask for ETA from BPO firm, and deliver it to the customers.

4. When responsibilities are transferred to BPO firms, you and your managers can take advantage of that additional time to focus on core issues of business, resulting in better management.

5. Since you have got the access to a large pool of qualified and trained staff through BPO firms, now you can equally take part in handling bigger projects, which earlier was only restricted for big players.

6. Stay ahead of the upgradation headache. Since you are not involved in infrastructure and HR development, you are not required to look for the latest technologies in market for optimizing efficiency. It is the responsibility of BPO firm now at the same time reducing your risk factor.

Internet marketing is very popular with most of the businesses these days throughout the world; whether they are small or big. Every consumer checks the internet, when they decide to buy something. Thus, to have an advantage over your competitor and to ensure higher ranking of your website, you must have effective marketing strategies. Copywriting is the most important tool of Internet marketing.

The best way to sell your product is, through copywriting i.e. the magic of words promoting your goods and services. A well-written content convinces the visitors to purchase. Informative and easy to understand content, helps to draw people’s attention to your website.

You have to explain to the visitors, why they need your product and why they should buy it from you? You need to characterise your product in two aspects:

• Features: Describe the main characteristics of your product or services.

• Benefits: Briefly explain the key benefits of the product or services to the customers, so they can analyse their need with the product or services you offer. Both aspects of your product or services are very important and play a vital role on your website.

Your copywriting should answer their possible questions:

1. Why would I want one?
2. What can I do with it?
3. Why is this one better than the others?

Most of the time, customers will jump directly to the technical information of the product, so you have to make sure that the information of your product or services is well defined, easy to understand and handily available.

Normally, people come to the website to get information. This probably sounds like you have to write a lot of content. Good content that portrays your product will satisfy both human and search engine spiders. Copywriting for marketing purposes usually entails recitation of a product meticulously, highlighting superficial features and benefits in order to convince the target audience to buy your product. Nevertheless, remember that “features tell but benefits sell”.

Copywriting is an effective tool to appreciate your product’s true rationale. You can use it to get your readers fully understand and finally get convinced about your product or services.

Research and analysis in the field of investment is a necessity in today’s changing financial markets around the globe. Whatever the type of investor and kind of market, they simply can’t put their assets on risk without properly judging the scope and credibility of investment.

Being small investors has its own advantages and vice versa. You don’t have a big amount to lose and at the same time it requires extreme efforts to capitalize the profit opportunity from small investment.

A very simple investment for small investors is stock market. It is understood by the masses that stock requires big initial amounts but that’s not standard, there are some affordable options for small investors to start with a small number of shares. If you are simply targeting the blue chip index and hoping to purchase a decent amount of shares, you should probably look for new and emerging companies that are indicating good future prospects.

Stocks are controlled by many factors. The fiscal year often influences how much a company generates revenue. It can however change as the business enters a new year. Some stocks are called seasonal, as there are companies which are in high demand in one season but not in the other season.

Government bonds and securities are a safe option as well for small investors because they don’t tend to change their directions a lot. But having said that you can’t just relax over it, rather you need to look at the facts and figures on timely basis. That means small investors do need to do their research and analysis before actually taking a position.

Investment research has its own divisions; fundamental analysis and technical analysis, both are as different in approach as they sound. Fundamental analysis deals with estimating value of any financial asset equals to current value of cash flows. A correct value of asset can assist in order to see whether the asset is “over priced” or “under priced”, for that one need to look at the financial statements of a company on regular basis. There are some other indicators such as its credit rating, business model, competition with rivals need to be looked at.

On the other hand, technical analysis is the art of predicting future price movements. In this case, past index is studied to identify a possible trend and current index is analyzed to identify emerging trend. It is believed by many that history repeats itself and same is the case in technical analysis.

Investment research can be done after doing thorough research on the target commodity, but it requires special skills. There are many firms online which are providing investment research and analysis at convenient cost. In my opinion it is a good option for small investors to subscribe to these firms as they can provide more accurate and risk free information because these firms have dedicated expertise and strong look at the market than a trader.

An example of these firms is iSource Biz, which provides Equity Research Analysis, Financial Analysis, Industry / Sector Research, Comparative Analysis, Portfolio Analysis, Feasibility Analysis, Ratio Analysis.

BPO industry in the recent years has grown dramatically, and the outsourcing firms have found their markets not just in the USA but other developed countries of Europe as well. The main reason why all giant investment companies are looking to outsource is basically to cut the cost of research and analysis in their own facilities. But there are some more factors inducing these companies to outsource to Asian countries including:-

•       Enhanced focus on business core competencies
•       More sophisticated research techniques
•       Access to a pool of highly skilled human resource
•       ROI growth
•       Enhanced quality of service

Current Economic recession and market conditions in the USA and Europe are the driving forces behind this momentum due to which more investment companies are being attracted towards outsourcing.

Silicon.com has predicted that in the next six years, research and analysis outsourcing will be a significant boost to BPO industry. The fact is that, research and analysis market is growing at a rate of 46% which will turn into a $17billion opportunity by the year 2010.

Reduction in cost is making giant investment companies interested in outsourcing their research and analysis to Asian countries. Another reason is a large pool of qualified and skilled work force that is available to BPO companies, for example iSource Biz in Pakistan. These companies are able to provide research and analysis services at reduced cost compared to developed countries.

Many giant investment companies have already outsourced their research and analysis to Asian countries. Some of those companies are Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and JPMorgan Chase, and more activity is expected in the near future.