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It’s an interesting time for small businesses in the global economy. Big businesses have found a way to easily tap into labor arbitrage and vendors across the globe to make themselves more competitive. Small businesses struggle a little more with it. Part of it is due to the vendors themselves who just haven’t figured out how to allow small businesses to engage with them simply and inexpensively in the global economy. Another part of it is that the small business owners themselves just don’t know how to go out and engage that global workforce to their benefit.

As an example, as a small business owner myself several years ago, I wanted to outsource some work. So I went to some large vendors knowing who they were and by the time I got done with all their rules and regulations and how many heads did I have to do and all of this, I threw my hands up and decided to keep the work in-house. That wasn’t the right decision either, because I was still overpaying for that low value work, but it was just too hard to engage with the vendors. There are now vendors out there who understand small business and all the hats that a small business owner wears and that small businesses have just as many products to service.

So those small outsourcing vendors are out there and I think more small businesses that are outsourcers themselves need to drink their own Kool-Aid and go outsource that low value work. They just need to find the right vendor so that it is easy to do and saves them money that they can then put to growing their own business.