I want to start outsourced staff leasing business (not exactly but similar)

[Sagewing]

Ok, so with that offering you will need to differentiate yourself and demonstrate the value of your service. For example:

- where will you set up the development center? why is that more attractive then more established places like India or growing markets like China?

- why not just outsource to an existing company?

- how is is possible that you can do everything? do you outsource legal? accounting? staff management? how can you manage more than one or two shops?

I think that before you can reach your market you need to identify it. Those questions are intended to demonstrate that the majority of offshore development efforts our simply outsourced rather than going through the bother to establish a development center. For that to be worthwhile, I would think that the savings would need to be in the millions of dollars, or at least very large.

[super1]

I was thinking of going simple outsource of staff leasing route, but I was reluctant because they may cancel the contract at some point and I will be stuck with employees and not enough work for them.

[Ted S]

I am going to offer offshore development center establishment services for international clients. All services that is needed A to Z. Meaning that client only has to tell me what he wants and I take care of EVERYTHING. He says - I need 5 .NET programmers but they are too expensive in for instance Denmark, can you set me up with them somewhere in cheaper country and help me save cash on salaries. I will say - yes. And then I will do EVERYTHING - rent an office, hire staff, monitor staff, take care of any legal papers. Makes sense?

That's an interesting start but it doesn't sounds like everything I'd be asking about... let's keep exploring.

Does everything include managing the projects? Insuring requirements are met? Translating requirements into a local culture to insure they are done right? Can I call you at 9am my time to discuss my projects or do I call someone in the company you created for me?

I'm a potential prospect for what you offer but I'm not clear on if you are selling me access to 5 programmers or the ability to expand my own company and add 5 FTEs under my name. That's going to change who you market too and how.

[super1]

That's an interesting start but it doesn't sounds like everything I'd be asking about... let's keep exploring.

Does everything include managing the projects? Insuring requirements are met? Translating requirements into a local culture to insure they are done right? Can I call you at 9am my time to discuss my projects or do I call someone in the company you created for me?

I'm a potential prospect for what you offer but I'm not clear on if you are selling me access to 5 programmers or the ability to expand my own company and add 5 FTEs under my name. That's going to change who you market too and how.

I am selling ability to expand your company and add 5 FTEs under your name. But if you like just access to 5 programmers - why not?

Insuring deadlines and translating requirements - obviously yes. Otherwise there won't be much sense for you to go down this route.
Speaking of that example of 5 .NET developers my set up would be that one of them would be "senior/head programmer", "team leader" etc who would be competent enough to translate your requirements to the rest of the team and competent enough to manage work so that deadlines are being met and so on. If you don't like such a setup - tell me how do you like and 99% there won't be a problem (if reasonable).

You could call anybody - you could call me (for any reason), you could call head programmer (for technical stuff regarding programming).

[Ted S]

I am selling ability to expand your company and add 5 FTEs under your name. But if you like just access to 5 programmers - why not?

Insuring deadlines and translating requirements - obviously yes. Otherwise there won't be much sense for you to go down this route.
Speaking of that example of 5 .NET developers my set up would be that one of them would be "senior/head programmer", "team leader" etc who would be competent enough to translate your requirements to the rest of the team and competent enough to manage work so that deadlines are being met and so on. If you don't like such a setup - tell me how do you like and 99% there won't be a problem (if reasonable).

You could call anybody - you could call me (for any reason), you could call head programmer (for technical stuff regarding programming).

So essentially you're build an office of programming resources for companies who are able to deliver ready-to-code stage projects. Got it.

With this model, or at least the basics of it, in mind I would again suggest working with contacts, events and marketing channels that reach an IT savvy crowd. Marketers and Business owners won't be the right target, stay techie to people who know what they need and provide a better value (not just price but all around service offering) than your competition and you may just get a bite.

Similar to what Sagewing said before, since you're providing development headcount and management, you'll need to be able to show significant savings to make it worthwhile. This is always tricky as a large enough company could just as easily get their own local resource sent out or hired as an FTE while a small company isn't going to need enough bodies to warrant the overhead you will come with. Finding a spot in the middle -- companies large enough to need more hands but small enough to not know how to get them, seems most logical.

[Sagewing]

This is a moving target. Is there any service that you DONT do? Is there some part of this that you do extra well?

It seems to me that we are begging you to tell us about your service, but it's hard to get any detail. It should be the reverse - you should be selling us your service instead of us trying to pull it out of you.

When I first started with offshore, I specialized in dealing with Indian companies. Mind you this was 15 years ago when that was still fairly new, and lots of companies were interested in taking advantage of offshore savings but didn't know how to. I had a competitive edge: I was a proven project manager with tons of experience AND I was an expert in managing Indian teams. I lived in India when I was younger, understood the language and the culture, and spent quite a bit of time there. I knew the resources I worked with well and it was easy for me to bridge the gap. I also lived in Los Angeles (I'm American) and knew how to deal with US companies as well.

So there you have it: I was able to sell my services because I was an American consultant who had significant ties to India and spent much time there. That was a compelling story and I was able to advertise and quickly get business.

If I had just told people, 'I can do it ALL' who would have listened? I still say you are very busy trying to find business, but there is still no clarity on what you are 'good at'.

For example: if I hired a consultant to setup an offshore development shop I would expect that person to be great at legal, tax, cultural, hiring, real estate, permits, etc. But, would I expect that person to ALSO be the project manager? I doubt that one person would be great at both of those things.

[Borovsky]

Hi, I found this by searching for outsourcing baltics in google. I am also interested in building business around outsourcing.

Hope to get some brainstorming ideas and comments on idea.

I want to build a database containing pre screened small business and freelance it professionals with focus on web project development and regionally in eastern europe and russia and offering that to US or Western Europe sme clients.

I have given just a bit of thought on the above idea so there are some unclear questions. Like, are there enough people looking for outsourced resources partuculary in eastern europe?

But, I live in baltics and I believe we are in a position to have strong ties with western europe as well as Russia and other former soviet union states, so it should be possible to leverage that and make it easier for clients from west find trusted professionals in eastern europe.

Any ideas very appreciated!