Here’s a Recession-Busting Way To Pocket £180-£450 PerWeek as Companies Cut Back on Overheads
Hands up who remembers the Sinclair C5, the first Blind Date and Wham! Well I’ll forgive you if you don’t – or if you’re too young to remember them – but these were all big news back in spring 1985. Cilla’s Blind Date was considered daring, cuttingedge TV. George Michael’s Wham! were regularly at number one... though you had to go to the shops and buy a round, black vinyl thingy if you wanted to listen to them. And the Sinclair C5 electric car was launched as the transport of the future.
Something else was big news in 1985 too. Unemployment. It’s the last time unemployment in the UK was as high as some forecast it will reach this year... around 3m people or one in 10 of the workforce.
So let’s get serious for a moment: I don’t need to tell you the employment situation at the moment isn’t good. Companies are shedding workers at an alarming rate on a daily basis. Many people who’ve never known unemployment before are getting their first very unpleasant taste of it. So this month I’m going to do something to try and help. I’m going to outline a business blueprint that is perfectly suited for right now. It’s a service that can help hard-pressed companies survive the crunch. Whilst at the same time help you stave off the worst effects of the recession if your job comes under threat... or even if it doesn’t.
I’m going to show you how to start an outsourced, back office bureau.
I’m not going to pussyfoot about here. Things are far too serious right now for that. So let me explain quickly how this opportunity works. All companies have admin staff, doing so-called ‘back office’ work like typing, filing, data entry and accounts and so on. But these jobs come under threat in a recession, as companies look to cut costs. A back office bureau is a service that offers to do this work for them. By taking it away and outsourcing, as it’s called, to freelancers working at home.
Outsourcing is an absolutely perfect business model to be following right now. It allows companies to cut costs. By outsourcing work they save lots of money on providing office space, heating and lighting, buildings insurance, business rates, computers and equipment, and providing training. They don’t have to pay holiday pay, sick pay, National Insurance or pension contributions and all the other overheads associated with employing people. Yet the people you employ get to do reasonably well paid office and admin work in the comfort of their own home.
You set it up and make a healthy income from organising and managing everything. It really is a win-win-win situation for everybody, in what is looking like will be a terrible year for the economy.
Don’t get me wrong. I’d love every office worker to have a secure job, sat in a comfy leather chair in a glass-clad skyscraper, earning a six figure salary and looking forward to a pension of politician’s proportions. But in times where that’s plainly NOT going to be the reality for millions of people I think this is a pretty decent option.
So, how to set this up right now...
You can set this up easily, right now, working part-time from home. You’ll need a little desk space and a phone. You don’t need an office and you don’t need any full-time staff.
But even though this is a cut-cost business do present your back office bureau professionally. If your own presentation and office admin is top-notch, potential customers will assume the work you do for them will be too – and vice versa.
Choose a proper business name for your business. A separate telephone line or mobile number for your business is a good idea. If you’re not available during the day always use a voicemail service and call your customers back right away. Print some smart business notepaper and business cards, for sending out marketing literature, invoices and so on.
Ideally, you do need a PC and an Internet connection to run this business. You can use it to do marketing, run and organise everything. It would be possible to manage without it in the early days, at a push.
By the way, if you don’t want to do any office work yourself you don’t have to. Shortly, I’ll explain how to set this up as a simple organise-andmanage opportunity where you don’t have to do any of the admin, work. So, if you couldn’t type a letter to save your life, you can still start this opportunity.
Another tip – buy any equipment and stationery you need for this wholesale. Not from shops. Wholesale prices are far less and will maximise your profit for no extra work. Secret Source Finder at www.secretsourcefinder.com is great for finding wholesale suppliers.
First, finding customers
Later on I’ll tell you about some of the back office services you can offer. But what I suggest you do is approach this in what seems like a topsy-turvy way. Find some customers first, then find out what services they need. Then you can tailor your service to exactly what’s wanted. It’s better than choosing a service to offer and then trying to find businesses who need it.
OK, the economy is in the doldrums right now. But there are still literally hundreds of thousands of potential customers out there. Potentially, every single business is a customer. I’d recommend you look for small and medium-sized businesses locally to start with. They will be looking to save money through outsourcing their admin, work, yet will still have a big enough volume of work to make you good money.
Keep an eye out on the news. Businesses that are making redundancies can make very good potential customers. They might have less admin work to do than in the past, but they’ll still have a need for this kind of service. Don’t feel for a moment that you’re taking jobs. Rather that you’re helping to save them.
Desperate times call for desperate measures
So, for this business, don’t waste time sitting around waiting for customers to come to you. Don’t bother placing newspaper ads, dropping leaflets or doing fancy PR campaigns. And don’t waste precious cash on setting up a website. You need to take direct action.
Here’s the kind of full-on direct approach I think you need: Compile a list of potential customers for an outsourced back office service in your area. Use your local knowledge of local businesses plus the telephone directory and the Yellow Pages to make up a ‘hit list’ of names, addresses and phone numbers. Try and get the name of the owner, managing director or manager (phone and ask if you need to).
Now send them a sales letter mailshot telling them what you can do for them. Address your letter to them directly, by name. Then a few days later give them a phone call, or even call round and see them to see if they are interested.
If you do this, I can pretty much guarantee you will have keen, cash-generating leads within a few weeks.
The clever thing about this approach is that it combines the ease of mailshotting with the effectiveness of personal selling. But you never have to do any tricky ‘cold calling’. Because, when you call, prospective customers should already know about you and, with a bit of luck, be ready to sign up.
Your letter should be short and simple: Tell prospects what you do and – most important of all – what the benefits to them of your service are.
FREE SALES LITERATURE. To help you here, I’ve had one of my professional copywriters draft out a sales letter mailshot you can use. If you’d like a copy just go to www.canonburypublishing.com/backoffice and download it. All you need to do is adapt it to suit your business, print it off and mail it out.
Don’t be put off by the idea of having to sell your service. After all, you’re offering to save your clients money. As any professional salesman will tell you there really isn’t a simpler sell than that. But the benefits to the customer are still the key to signing them up. So push as many strong benefits as you can when you talk to your prospects.
The main benefits of using an outsourced back office bureau are as follows:
• It can save you money – possibly hundreds or thousands of pounds a year. (Always mention this benefit first!)
• You save money on office space, heating and lighting, buildings insurance, business rates, computers and equipment, and providing training.
• You save money on holiday pay, sick pay, National Insurance and pension contributions and all the other overheads associated with employing people.
• You just pay for the office services you need when you need them. You don’t pay for what you don’t need.
• It can help your business survive and be profitable through the recession.
These are all things that make outsourcing such a great selling point for all businesses right now.
What to charge... maximising your profits
This is something you need to sort out before you approach your first customer. You need to find a balance between a pricing system that offers good value for the customer, pays the people who do the work for you a decent wage, but makes good money for you.
Probably the best way to charge for this is on an hourly basis. This is fair all round and easy to work out too. You can charge on top of that for any out of pocket expenses, such as stationery, printing, postage, travel and so on.
What you can do is ring round the secretarial and office services in your area. Pose as a customer and find out their prices for this type of work. Charge around the same, maybe slightly less. You’ll probably find prices are a bit higher in London and the south east, a bit less everywhere else.
I’ve done a bit of research, and this kind of pricing structure seems fairly typical at the moment:
Copy typing and wordprocessing £12-£18/hour
Proofreading and editing
Filing and archiving
Data entry
Bookkeeping, accounts, tax returns £15-£25/hour
Credit control
Graphic design and DTP
Virtual PA
I can hear you saying... but those rates are more than a lot of companies pay their office staff anyway! And indeed they are. But remember that when they use your outsourcing service they don’t have office overheads, National Insurance and other taxes to pay. So it’s actually a lot more economical. It also means you can afford to pay your workers more than minimum wage rates, just by stripping those costly overheads out! I think you’ll agree, outsourcing really is a very clever recession-busting concept.
Back office bureau services to offer
In this part of the blueprint I’m going to run through some of the main back office bureau services you can offer, and how to go about doing them. You don’t have to offer all of these. Nor is this list exclusive by any means. Remember to tailor your service to each customer. If they want some services and not others, or some other kind of office or admin service – and you can do it and make money from it – then go ahead and do it!
Copy typing/wordprocessing
OK, a lot of people in offices today do their own typing on their office PC or laptop. But there are still times when DIY two-fingered typing just won’t do. So this is a good service to offer for preparing important letters, reports, legal documents, business plans, proposals, student dissertations and CVs... loads of demand for these right now.
If you offer this service find a top-notch typist who offers good quality work. And to keep everything simple and cost effective do everything electronically where possible. Deliver completed documents to the customer by e-mail. (If the customer wants printed hard copies then you can charge extra.) You can also offer audio typing, where the typist types documents from a voice recording.
Proofreading and editing
A good bolt-on service to offer alongside copy typing and wordprocessing is proofreading and editing. This is basically checking documents for spelling and grammar. Although anyone with an eye for detail can do this, try and employ people with experience in proofreading and editing to do this for you.
Bookkeeping and accounts
Every business needs bookkeeping and accounting to help them keep track of their sales, purchases, overheads, staff wages and so on. So this is one of your core back office services... something that 90%+ of your potential customers will need. It’s also a job that calls for more man (or woman) hours at the end of each month than at other times. So it’s perfect for outsourcing, because customers only have to pay for a few days work each month rather than pay a full-time employee to twiddle their thumbs for three weeks out of every four.
Although some businesses still use paper ledgers you (or the people you employ) will probably need to be competent with computerised bookkeeping. The Sage system is one of the most popular computerised bookkeeping systems around. Incidentally, if you’d like to become a bookkeeper yourself you can do a short part-time course in computerised bookkeeping (including Sage) for about £100 at most further education colleges.
Tax returns
Move quickly on this one... as the time will soon be perfect for marketing this service! Tax returns plop through letterboxes every year in the first week of April. So if you get started now you’ll be in pole position to cash in on this massive source of business.
It’s a fantastic service to offer as most business people either hate doing their tax returns, or haven’t a clue how to do them properly. There’s also the dreaded VAT return which VAT registered businesses have to fill in, and corporation tax returns for limited companies.
What I suggest you do here is this: Look for an experienced tax accountant who’d like to work a few hours a week. Perhaps someone who’s retired early, one who wants to work at home while they look after the kids, or an out-of-work accountant. This way you can offer your customers a top-notch service at a very competitive price.
Filing and archiving
If you think this service is going to leave you up to your eyeballs in dusty paper amidst a jungle of old grey filing cabinets then think again. The sort of service I suggest you offer here is an electronic filing and archiving service. You’ll need a PC and a good quality scanner for this one. Basically, you’ll take in paper documents from your customer, scan them into electronic form, then securely destroy (ie. shred) the originals. A good sales point is that it helps your customers save on time, as well as expensive storage space.
Credit control
This is a really good service to offer right now. Credit controllers keeps tabs on who owes a company money, then chases them up from time to time to obtain payment. Companies need more of this kind of service right now, not less!
If you can find an experienced credit controller or two to work for you then this really will be money for old rope. But anyone with a pleasant-but-firm telephone manner could turn their hand to it. Every week, simply ask your customer for a print out of who owes them money that week. Then the credit controller sits down with a phone and keeps pestering away until they get paid. OK, so this sort of work can have you tearing your hair out with frustration sometimes, but it’s not exactly what you’d call hard work.
Data entry
The great thing about this service is that it is one of those kinds of jobs that is actually much more suited to being outsourced than being done by employees on the payroll.
One important thing. People you hire to do data entry for you need good keyboard skills and an eye for detail. All they will be doing basically is taking printed documents and forms and then keyboarding the data from them into computerised formats like spreadsheets and databases. Accuracy is very important though.
Graphic design and DTP
This is a really great service for offering on an outsourced basis. Almost every company needs these sorts of services, but a lot of them will not have enough work to employ a full-time graphic designer on their books. When you offer graphic design and DTP (desktop publishing) you can offer them advertisements, reports, leaflets, brochures, newsletters, books and booklets, catalogues, business stationery, forms – things that every business needs.
One good piece of advice here: If you’re not an experienced graphic designer don’t attempt to do this sort of work yourself. It will look pants. It’s much better (and easier) to find an experienced graphic designer who also has the right design software and just farm the work out to them.
Virtual PA
A virtual PA does everything a real PA or personal assistant does, but they do it at home... rather than at the boss’s office. Their work includes taking and making phone calls, secretarial work, organisation, keeping a diary and making appointments.
At one time it would have been impossible to offer PA’ing as an outsourced service. But nowadays it is easy. Everything can be done over the phone or Internet. The PAs you employ won’t be sat behind a desk in a smart suit... they can do it all at home sat in their pyjamas if they want to!
Hiring and using office assistants
How you can succeed in this project even if you can’t type a letter to save your life...
I mentioned earlier you can even run this business if you don’t want to (or can’t) do any office, type work yourself. How? By recruiting people – let’s call them office assistants – to do the actual office work for you in their own homes. Then it just becomes a simple managing-and-organising business worked mainly over the phone: Do the marketing. Take customer enquiries and give quotes. Then take orders and place the work with the most appropriate office assistant.
Like I’ve been saying, things are tight at the moment. So you can bet there are lots of people who would be happy to take on office work in their own homes. (Yes, they could do it direct themselves but not everybody is as enterprising as you!) It’s perfect, for example, for people who’ve worked in offices but who now need to stay at home with the kids. Or office workers who need some extra cash. Or early retired people. And, needless to say, people who’ve lost their full-time jobs.
How to find assistants? Advertise in local newspaper ‘Jobs’ columns – try window cards – the usual methods. But this is even easier: Go to the Government’s employment service, Job Centre Plus. See www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk for more details. Job Centre Plus will be able to find assistants, interview and select them for your business free of charge. In fact, I reckon they will grab your hand off right now.
Be fairly selective about who you take on. Ask for a CV, showing evidence that they’ve done similar work recently. Even better if they have a relevant qualification. Look for assistants who have the self same skills you will be offering to your customers. Like wordprocessing, or computerised bookkeeping, or accounting. Then you can match them up with each job as it comes in.
One tip. If there’s any paperwork to be moved about you could offer a collect-and-deliver service to make everything run smoothly. Pick it up from the customer and deliver it to the office assistant. When the work is done deliver it back again. This will allow you to keep in touch with your customers and your staff. (Also it very cleverly avoids your customer finding out who does the work for you and being tempted to try and hire them direct!)
So what about paying your assistants? As your other overheads are fairly minimal you can afford to be fairly generous here. Pay them around 50% of what you charge your customers for each job, depending on their experience and skills. This means that even your lowest paid staff will get more than the National Minimum Wage (currently £5.73 an hour) – most of them much more.
At the end of the day, once everything is set up, you’ll be earning 50% on each project for coordinating everything.
Incidentally, if you pay each assistant no more than £90 a week and it’s their only job you do not have to pay or account for any income tax or National Insurance contributions on what you pay them whatsoever. (You can find out more about this on the Government website at www.direct.gov.uk.) By keeping under this limit you can keep your own admin work as simple and straightforward as possible.
Profit projections... up to £23,400 extra part-time income
So how much do I think you could make from this blueprint? Well, it depends how big or small you want your business to be. It could be a small, parttime recession-busting sideline. Or it could grow into quite a sizable long-term business.
Let’s assume you charge on an hourly basis. And you opt for a hands-off type of operation where you just organise everything – and in turn outsource the work to assistants rather than doing anything yourself.
And let’s assume you charge your customers £18 per hour on average. (Some services will earn less, others more.) That means for each hour worked you would make £9, with the other £9 going to pay your assistant.
Let’s assume you found 20 hours of outsourced office work each week. That would make you £180 gross profit per week.
Now let’s assume you found 50 hours of outsourced office work each week. That would make you £450 gross profit per week. (It sounds a lot, but remember, the typical working week is 40 hours anyway.)
On an annual basis you’d make anything from £9,360 (based on 20 hours a week) up to £23,400 (based on 50 hours a week). And remember, that’s 50 hours of work outsourced, not actually 50 hours of your time. That would still be a very small part time business. It could quite easily be a lot more than that.
True, it’s not going to make you a millionaire. But it will certainly help you keep afloat during the recession.
Don’t forget your FREE DOWNLOAD – just go to www.canonburypublishing.com/backoffice