ACTING BIG when you are small

A COMBINATION of outsourcing and cloud computing have now made it possible for small enterprises, to act big. It has also reduced the barriers to entry to starting an online business significantly. While a small business owner will always be a jack of all trades, the beauty of outsourcing and cloud computing is that one can focus one's energies into activities you most enjoy and that you can potentially add the greatest value to.

In creating BWM Books, two services have been very important: Freelancer and Google Apps.

Freelancer claims to be the world's largest outsourcing marketplace. At last count there were 3.2 million users, that have posted nearly 1.5 million projects and traded $117 million. It's big. I've used the site as both a Freelancer as well as an Employer.  As an Employer all you need to do is post a project and set your budget range. A budget can be as low as $30. If you have ongoing work you can specify an hourly rate budget rather than a fixed price budget. Alternatively you can set up a contest like a logo contest or website design contest. For a fixed price you can get literally hundreds of designs to choose from. For my BWM Books logo I received 472 different designs and paid $290. 

For things like graphic and website design, data entry, software and mobile app development, I've had a terrific experience and I continue to work with the freelancers I've sourced from the marketplace. And interestingly, I've worked with as many people from the US and Europe as I have from India and Pakistan. We aren't just talking cheap third world labour here.  

As a Freelancer, you set up a profile and bid on jobs that you are interested in. Freelancer makes its money by taking a cut of your winning bid. The site resembles eBay in many ways, with freelancer and employer ratings, dispute resolution services and payment and financial services. I'm a big fan of the service and it provides me with a potential workforce at my fingertips for a fraction of the cost if I sourced the work locally. 

Google Apps is a set of cloud computing tools and services which can be useful for both small and big business alike. There are a variety of tools which are free such as Gmail, Google Docs and Google sites as well as business packages which start at $5/month per user account. Basically if you want all your key services in the cloud : email, documents, website hosting and analytics, blogging and more, providing your business with flexibility and mobility, then Google can be a great help. I have found that some Google services do lack a certain intuitive user interface and structure making usage, at times, cumbersome. Google Books being one. But in general, email, document storage, website and blog updating and hosting are very simple and cost effective with Google Apps. An added bonus is that Google Apps has a large third party app market place where you can source complimentary services in all sorts of things from accounting software, to social media apps. 

I've just highlighted just a couple of companies here which I have found useful in creating an online business but I know there are a multitude of others. Which cloud computing or outsourcing companies have you found useful?