Hi

I am toying with the idea of providing companies with virtual staff on rent – either by the hour or by the task. Please let me know if you feel there is a strong need for such services. 

The primary reason is like in the factory model – when you have a specific person doing a specific job you will see a huge increase in productivity since the entire work process in broken up into smaller tasks which are clearly measurable and a specific person is responsible for executing it. 

The staff rented out would work from our premises using our office infrastructure – thus saving the client the cost of real estate, IT overheads, F & B and other expenses. 

This is probably akin to a BPO for the masses. 

The pricing if required by the hour is Rs 200 per hour ( excluding tie taken for training and explaining the work ) or you can specify a flat fee – For example Rs. 5000 per month for all accounts & book keeping ( you can take pictures of bills for data entry & daily our person will call you with a checklist to ensure all expenses, sales etc are entered and you get the desired MIS report at the end of the month.

I would be grateful for valuable feedback 

Some of the tasks which can be outsourced are mentioned below to give you a better idea of tasks which can be outsourced. 

Sales

• Prepare special offers mailers to target the customer database.
• Analyze the effectiveness of above marketing campaign by using advanced analyzing metrics which shows how many mailers were sent, how many were opened, how many were deleted without opening and how many were marked spam. Analysis of campaign is very important to ensure its effectiveness.
• Prepare and maintain customer database
• Do internet research and get contacts for database
  • – Doing an analysis on your completion :
  • – Where are they located?
  • – What is their pricing?
  • – Regularly updating you on their special offers.

• Creating and updating a proper price list of your products with pictures, size of equipment’s, power required etc…
• Preparing a quotation for the enquiry generated.
• Following up with the customers to whom quotations’ have been sent for sales order. Regular follow-ups with prospective leads ensure that leads are converted to customers.
• Maintaining a database of month wise quotations given, orders received, orders lost with reason.
• Maintaining ticket based after sale service customer support desk (voice and email based) thus ensuring high levels of customer service.
• Making a database of top complains by customers and their possible solutions.
• Searching for and finalizing better and cheaper business loans for your company thus giving you an access to cheaper capital
• Preparing and updating customer FAQ on your website related to the frequent questions/complains by customers.
• Preparing business reports in excel with graphs, pie charts etc…
• Preparing a milestone based business plan with the help of qualified MBA’s and CPA’s.
• Regularly update contact information in customer database to ensure it is up to date and not outdated.

Admin

• Checking your email and replying to them (with your confirmation)
• Data entry in CRM software.
  • – Setting up appointments and scheduling your meeting.

• Booking hotel rooms.
• Booking of airline tickets based on lowest fare.
•  Preparing new PowerPoint presentation (PPT) as per your needs
• Booking cabs.
• Data entry (we can do data entry in word or selected format).
• Making a contact detail database in excel as per your requirements by doing Internet research.
• Converting complex excel sheet to simple formulae based excel sheet.
• Creating Graphs in excel sheet.
• Preparing reports templates for employees in excel.
• Following Up with employee for reports
• Checking and summarizing reports from employees
• Converting unformatted word document to professionally formatted documents.
• Convert word documents to PDF and vice versa, reducing photo sizes, converting excel to PDF format and vice versa etc…
• Making a list of your top 5/10 customers and sending them special gifts/greetings on occasions of their birthdays or special festivals like Christmas.
• Voice mail transcription
• Searching for and providing comparison of rates for new purchasers of IT hardware such as: computers, printers, tablets etc
• Content writing.
• Searching for a finalizing better voice and data plan for you telephone and mobile.
• You can record your notes and we can transcribe to word document.
• Getting quotes for printing from various printers for printing office stationery’s brochures.
• Uploading your products to your online store website as per your need
• Updating outlook calendar.

Accounts

• Doing data entry in tally or any other account software.
  • – Reconcile bank statement, daily SMS or email you available bank balance.

• Prepare cash flow statement showing receipts, payments and giving you proper idea as to whether you have shortage or excess fund for the upcoming month
• Setting reminders in your calendars for weekly monthly yearly bills of utilities such as electricity, telephone, mobiles or statutory government taxes payable.
• Preparing bills online
• Reminders for filing of government tax returns (personal and business).
• Putting up regular monthly bills on auto pay in your credit card or bank account.
• Preparing a genuine monthly profit and loss statement.
• Searching for and finalizing better and cheaper business loans for your company thus giving you an access to cheaper capital
• Prepare and maintain vendor registration and database.
• Doing random checks and audits for expenses claimed by your employees (for e.g. – if your employee has claimed an hotel expense of Rs.1500 a night, we can cross check and verify for the price from hotel and other sources )
• Getting quotes from and comparing insurance rates from various service provider and short listing the best option available
• Prepare purchase order for your vendors with clear cut terms and conditions.
• Follow-ups with these vendors for prompt delivery as per above purchase order.

H.R.

• Putting your advertisements on leading recruitment’s portals like naukri.com etc
• Sending replies and clarifications for emails received due to the above ad
• Short listing the candidate from the resumes received as per your criteria
• Lining up candidates for interview as per your schedule.
• Preparing offer letter for selected candidates as per your company’s policies.
• Maintain attendance of employees.
• Make payroll for employees.
• Make a check list of daily / weekly / monthly tasks for employees.

      PERSONAL 

• Creating personal monthly cash flow statement
• Deleting or merging duplicate entries from your contact book.
• Deleting or merging duplicate entries from your email contacts.
• Checking or replying to your emails.
• Setups reminders for bill payments or government taxes.
• Making professional resumes.
• Searching and Applying for Jobs.
• Searching for low cost medical insurance.
• Maintaining Face-book and twitter pages.
• Arranging photographs in designated folders by date or by name etc…
• Searching and finding cheaper source of finance/loan.
• Comparing and finalizing for cheaper alternatives for utilities like phone bill and electricity bill etc.
• Setting up reminders for birthdays of friends and family.
• Arranging for flowers and gifts for the loved ones etc.
• Downloading movies or songs to your desktop or transferring movies songs from one device to other.
• Helping on doing on line shopping by comparing rates and specifications from various portals.
• Following up with service providers like credit card companies or telephone companies for unresolved complains.
• Finding your perfect mate through dating websites.
• Online private tuition’s.
• Shortlisting and Booking movie tickets and also booking flight tickets.
• Planning a vacation based on budget.
• Finding vendors for any house hold works like electricity, carpenter etc.
• Online ordering of groceries etc…

regards 

Bhavesh Shah