Busting outsourcing myths with Derek Gallimore
Today on Just the Tips, Dean and I welcome Derek Gallimore, a serial entrepreneur who has really carved a niche helping businesses find savings via outsourcing. Derek came to outsourcing because he realized he couldn’t properly scale his business in London because of the salary costs. So he began looking around and found that he could save enormous amounts of money by sending work to the Philippines without seeing a dip in quality. Now he helps businesses do the same. This is a really fascinating episode of Just the Tips.
When the bubble burst, Derek turned to outsourcing
We started out hot, asking Derek, who’s been a serial entrepreneur for 20 years, about his highest high starting businesses. And he actually dipped into his roots buying and selling properties, and told us about selling one of his biggest properties, valued at $3 million, which now is a bit bittersweet. Soon after he sold that property, the financial crisis of 2008 hit, and suddenly it wasn’t as fun being in real estate anymore. But obviously Derek has bounced back and found a new path.
How Derek got into outsourcing
Juggling so many properties, Derek realized he needed to outsource his customer service. He ended up heading to the Philippines, and hiring one person there to help with customer service. But pretty soon his team was growing and growing, doing everything from customer service to web design to sales. He eventually built a team of 70 in the Philippines, and never looked back. And since then he’s discovered just how amazing outsourcing can be to scale your business, and has become passionate about helping others do the same.
Busting myths about outsourcing
Derek said that people often have a “polarized” view of outsourcing. One is that the people you’re outsourcing to are going to steal your ideas, or that it’s cheap labor that you can pay $2 an hour with no training. It’s either one or the other. But of course there are ways to protect yourself against the former and if you’re serious about outsourcing then you should have a plan for training to avoid the latter. As Derek says, if you do it right, you can save something like 70 to 80% of your salary costs by outsourcing.
What sorts of jobs can you outsource?
It used to be that entrepreneurs thought they could only outsource one function to another country: data entry. Maybe some customer service. But as Derek says, there are actually dozens of functions you can build a team around in the Philippines or elsewhere, and that many businesses have outsourced everything from graphic design to animation to artificial intelligence. The key is communication, and defining the role. And how do you find the right people? Derek has tons of advice and, dare we say, tips for how to get it done right.
Outline of This Episode
- [2:24] Derek’s highest high as an entrepreneur
- [5:40] How Derek got into outsourcing
- [7:12] Common pitfalls of outsourcing
- [10:05] What sorts of jobs can you outsource?
- [14:48] How do you find people?
- [19:28] What about timezones?
- [22:15] How to secure your information and intellectual property
- [27:26] Derek built the TripAdvisor of outsourcing
Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
