Crowdsourcing In Lieu of Outsourcing

The last couple of decades have seen a trend toward outsourcing versus traditional hiring to meet business needs. Coming out of the Great Recession, there is an even newer concept starting to pick up steam. It’s called crowdsourcing. Why not tap the power of the crowd when you have a specific task that needs a solution?

Crowdsourcing is a distributed approach to problem solving. You normally think of handing a task to a specific employee or to a manager who will delegate it to a particular employee. In lieu of that, you can go out and bring in a temp or contract employee or forget the employment model completely and hire an outside firm to do the work. If you want to sell a building, you contract with a real estate agent. If you want to build a building you contract with an architect and general building contractor.

Crowdsourcing works something like contracting with a local firm except that the world is your marketplace. Many tasks like web design, logo design, artwork, article writing, app development and so on don’t require someone located nearby. Pretty much anything you can do on a computer can be done anywhere on Earth. On the network, the home office in Beijing is just as close as the corporate office down the hall.

Isn’t this just another form of outsourcing? It is, but on a micro scale and with interesting payment options. What I’m describing is farming out your tasks to individuals and crowds, not setting up your own shop to get cheaper labor overseas or partnering with a major corporation as a service provider.

When you go out for services locally, you probably start with the Yellow Pages or an online directory equivalent. You pick from who’s available in the area so you can meet with them in person to describe the assignment, write the contract and review the progress & results. When you go out for services online you do lose the ability to press the flesh or get your hand around somebody’s throat - literally. But if you can get comfortable doing business without the physical contact, you open up a world of new opportunities - literally!

The biggest enabler for online contracting or crowdsourcing is having a marketplace were buyers and sellers can meet. It’s a lot less dicey than trying to conduct business in forums and chats. Fortunately there is a very large and established marketplace already available with 6 million members worldwide. It’s called Witmart. They’ve got the resources and the tools that make it easy for service providers and clients to hook up successfully.

Here’s where the crowdsourcing idea comes in. You have the usual option to offer a job on a contract basis where you specify qualifications, negotiate the reward, job content and completion date and then pay upon completion. But you also have the option to make a contest out it. You specify the job and the amount of the reward and let the marketplace have at it. You then pick from best solution or solutions and release the reward to the winner or winners.

Where does the contest approach work best? It’s for things like logo design, business card designs, website design, marketing slogans, promotions, and so on. These jobs need quick solutions, don’t demand a lot of time and effort, and the value of diverse perspectives is an asset.

Contracting is more suitable for bigger jobs that require lots of time and effort, need considerable communication and coordination and have many specific requirements. Often the work is done in stages with payment released based on meeting milestones.

Do you occasionally or regularly need to find someone to build a website, translate documents, develop an iPhone App, promote a brand or come up with a company logo and find it a big hassle? Your life could get a lot easier right now by checking out the freelance marketplace with verified high quality providers at Witmart.

Cash In With Custom Toll Free Numbers

Do you know that the most valuable asset is in many businesses? Beyond the employees, of course. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s their toll free number.

What’s so important about a toll free number? It’s not that the numbers themselves are magic. It’s the tremendous investment, both in advertising cost and sweat equity, that go into making that number synonymous with the business. You see them advertised on television, on the radio, in print and online. The catchier the toll free number and the more you associate it with a particular business, the more value it has. Do any of these examples happen to ring a bell (so to speak)?

1-800-flowers
1-800-contacts
1-800-petmeds

Note: These aren't just numbers that come to mind, they are also among the top ones listed by Google for "1-800". This shows that toll free numbers even help you get noticed on the Internet.

How about your business? Do people have an easy way to get in contact with you? Will they remember when it comes time to acquire your goods or services? Or will they just get out the yellow pages and call some ad they happen on or walk into the nearest store that looks like it might have what they need?

If you’ve got a substantial business or aspire to be one, getting an easy to remember toll free number can be just the hook you need. It’s even better if the number spells out the name of your business or what you do. These are called vanity numbers for obvious reasons. But the term vanity is much too shallow to describe the value of these assets. They should probably be called golden numbers or licenses to print money.

Now, the big question. How do you find these numbers? They must all be taken already, right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Of course, some of the best are taken. Toll free numbers didn’t just pop up yesterday (I’ll tell you about an exception in just a second). But there are many, many combinations that are available and ready for you to order right now. Don’t get a headache straining your brain to come with clever slogans or strain your eyes starting at the telephone keypad. Make the search easy with a FREE toll free number search.

Just enter the name of your business, product, service or something like that. That’s good enough to get started. This search tool will automatically convert your text to numbers and then search a database of millions of toll free numbers to the closest matches. You’ll see a list of possibilities displayed. Pick one of those or try some other phrases to see what pops up.

Now here’s something not too many people know. There’s a new toll free number becoming available soon. You already know about 800, 866, 877 and 888 prefixes. They’re all toll free. On October 1, 2010 at exactly 12:00 PM EST the prefix 855 will be released by the FCC. It’s going to be like a land rush, and perhaps more valuable. If you’ve got something in mind but your number combinations are all taken, then you want to reserve your 855 toll free number now.

Vanity, Thy Number is Toll Free

Is there a place for vanity in business? You bet there is. Any technology that gives you an edge over your competition is worth considering, including a vanity toll free number.

So, what's the difference between a vanity number and any other toll free number? The answer lies in the relationship between letters and numbers on the standard telephone keypad. It's been long standardized that the 1 button does not have any letters printed on it. But 2 has a, b, and c. The number 3 button has d, e, and f. And so on up through 9.

One benefit of associating letters with numbers is that you can now dial phone numbers by spelling out words. For instance, someone selling boats might want the number 1-877-48-BOATS which is the same as 1-877-482-6287. A bridal shop might find that customers could more easily remember 1-866-59-BRIDE than 1-866-592-7433. That's especially true if they saw the number on a billboard or heard it on the radio or TV and didn't have a way to write down the number at the time.

1-877-48-BOATS, 1-866-59-BRIDE, and others such as 1-877-51-BOOKS, 1-866-96-CONDO, 1-866-531-DEBT, 1-866-760-FOOD, 1-877-967-TECH, 1-877-80-TOOTH, 1-866-50-YOUTH and 1-866-546-YOGA are all examples of vanity toll free numbers. They are also all available as of this writing for the small sum of $15 to reserve any of them for your exclusive use.

Really? It costs only $15 to get a memorable toll free number for business, organizational, or personal use? It does if you order from the right place.

A leader in toll free services, including toll free numbers is Kall8. What makes them a leader, perhaps THE leader in this field, is that you get an impressive array of features, a huge collection of numbers already set up and ready to order, and dirt cheap pricing. For vanity numbers, the pricing is $15 to order the number, $15 a month to maintain exclusive use of that number, and 6.9 cents per minute for calls that come in on that vanity number.

Can you think of any other business service that can help you get and keep customers at such a small cost? If not, don't wait a second longer. Pick your toll free vanity number from a list of dozens and dozens currently available and order quickly and easily online. All it takes is a credit card a few minutes and you'll be ready to go.

Better hurry. Now that I've mentioned these particular numbers, other readers might decide to grab them for their own businesses. You likely won't be too disappointed, however. There are so many good numbers available that you're likely to find at least one that exactly fits your needs. You should also know that while most vanity numbers are priced at $15 each, there are some that are so valuable, so easy to remember and so in demand that they command higher prices, say $20, $25 or $30 each. Even so, that's pretty cheap for something that can help you increase business just by being easier to remember than your competition's numerical phone number.

If you want to get started with toll free numbers even cheaper, there are many that are not claimed to be vanity numbers available for $2 each and $2 per month plus the cost of calls. Now, a clever person could go through the available numbers substituting letters for numbers and see what can be spelled out. You never know. You could wind up with the cheapest vanity toll free numbe of all.

Where to Get a 1-800 Number Cheap

Looking to have your own 1-800 number but don't want to spend a lot of money? No need to. How's $5 sound?

Yes, you can get an 800 inbound toll free number for just five bucks. It will also cost you a mere $5 a month to maintain your use of the number and 6.9 cents a minute for the calls you receive. For most business users, that's a pittance.
But it's a pittance that can pay off big.

Here's why. Anyone who calls your 1-800 number is doing so because they saw it in an ad, on a business card, on a flyer, in the newspaper, on TV, on a billboard, or heard it on the radio. Anyone who is motivated to call that number has a serious reason for doing so. Usually that translates into a motivated customer.

Most business owners know that 1-800 numbers have a powerful attraction for new and existing customers alike. People just have an aversion to paying long distance charges to call a business. It's something like paying shipping costs. The actual cost involved may not be that much, but it's a big turn-off compared to free.

What many business owners assume is that a 1-800 number is going to cost them a fortune to buy and use. That may go back to 10 or 20 years ago when the phone company was the only source for toll free service. The perceived value was high and so was the price tag.

No more. Now there are competitive toll free service providers who've made it possible for anyone, even the smallest independent professionals or entrepreneurs, to have at least one toll free number.

Is $5 a month too much? OK, then how about $2? Yes, you can get an 866, 877 or 888 toll free number for just $2 a month to order and $2 a month to maintain. The same 6.9 cents per minute applies for calls coming in from the contiguous states. It's a little more from Alaska and Hawaii.

This is why I said at least one toll free number. At $2 a pop, many companies have a bunch of toll free numbers. There is one for catalog orders, another for customer service, another for specials running on TV, another for items featured in the newspaper, and so on. The more numbers you have, the more finely you can track your marketing efforts. With a separate number for each ad you'll know exactly what is pulling and what isn't.

The service I'm recommending, Kall8, makes it easy to track these ad campaigns. In addition to assigning you a number, you'll get an online control panel to determine how your number is assigned and track any and all calls coming in. You'll have a complete accounting report for each of your numbers that you can check from any Internet enabled computer. Take a lunch break at your favorite restaurant offering free WiFi and see how your ads are doing.

You can also pick up your voice mail from these numbers if you wish. If you don't have the luxury of having someone to take calls, you can have your incoming toll free calls go to voice mail when you aren't available. If you want, audio clips of those calls will be sent to your email at no extra charge. Any incoming fax messages will also go to your email. This way your office is wherever you happen to be. "Another latte, please. My toll free numbers are paying off big today!"

You're Not Paying For Business Cards?

Business cards are the universal way to make sure someone knows your name, phone number and nature of your business. They are little advertising billboards on 2.5 x 3.5 card stock. You've got to have them, but they become obsolete before you ever hand them all out and they cost a bundle.

Cost? A bundle? I hope you're not talking about business cards. Oh, I know you can get some really elaborate embossed designs on heavy cardboard or even plastic with metalized lettering. Those can run a buck-a-card. But most of us just need something that looks professional and won't dent the budget. Fortunately, these are so universal and easily made that there's no reason not to have a few in every shirt pocket and make sure you distribute them as widely as possible.

So just run down to the print shop and order a batch of 5,000, right? Wrong. Very few of us need such quantities. We meet people in the course of doing business, but not whole cities full. With the way careers change and people relocate, chances are that you'll never hand out the last of those 5,000 cards. In fact, you'll probably put several thousand in the recycling bin. Sadly.

If you work for a large company and they automatically issue you new business cards when you get a new job, just smile and take them. But if you work in a smaller company, as an independent professional, have your own online or bricks and mortar business, or don't qualify for free company cards, you can still have great looking business cards for little or no money.

Think dozens or hundreds of cards, not thousands. If you are not sure what you need or want to play around with designs, why not make your own? Go to your local office supply store and see what they have to offer in the way of business card blanks. They are usually 10 to a page on heavy paper that will work in laser printers, inkjet printers and copiers. Some are just white card stock that is partially perforated. Other card blanks have a color design already printed as a background.

Now how do you get your information on those card blanks? You can use a graphics program or a word processor depending on how fancy you want to get. Avery offers both the card stock blanks and a free downloadable template. You may also find inexpensive software packages at office supply stores that let you fill in the blanks to quickly make card designs.

But there's an easier way that takes only a few minutes and gets you professional quality business cards for free. The company that makes this offer is Vista Print. It's an online service that lets you pick a design and enter your business information from your Web browser. If you are in a hurry, you can do everything in a matter of minutes. But you'll probably take longer to browse the site. In addition to the free card offer, you can get more designs and two-sided customization for a few dollars. Plus they offer other products like customized hats, letterhead, envelopes and mailing labels at pretty reasonable prices.

The free cards really are available gratis. You do have to pay for shipping and processing, but that's only a few dollars. I count over 40 designs to pick from, so there should be something that projects the image you want. You just fill in the form with your name, address, phone number, business name, email, etc. and then select which color design template to use. It really only does take a few minutes.

We ordered a set for LongDistanceRateFinder.com to post on bulletin boards in restaurants, hardware and grocery stores, and to hand out to people we meet. You can't count on people remembering your URL by the time they get back to their computer. They'll never remember your name or phone number if you want them to call. Business cards are cheap advertising. Free business cards are the best deal going. These are printed, so the lettering is clear and the ink doesn't smear when it gets moist. Anything made on an inkjet printer has that problem. Vista Print sent us 250 cards neatly organized in handy dispenser boxes. They're on a nice firm 80 lb. card stock with smooth edges.

We ordered just the basic set of free cards, but you can upgrade to your heart's content with access to over 300 additional designs, glossy finish, foil accents and even heavier paper for additional fees. Since you're not making a huge investment, you can go ahead and get professional looking cards to support your small business venture or professional image. Interested? Go ahead. Design and order your free business cards now.