The Cost of Outsourcing vs. Keeping Work in House

As with any business the bottom line in Internet niche marketing is often financial. There is no clear cut answer as to whether particular tasks will be completed at a lower cost in-house or through outsourcing. This will depend on a number of factors. For example the qualifications of the in-house staff is one of the major factors in the equation. The availability of the in-house staff members should also be considered.

If there are members of in-house staff members capable of completing the task and available to do so, it may be more affordable to keep the work in-house. However, outsourcing does reduce labor costs but often comes with a higher hourly rate as well as costs required to advertise the position and interview candidates. These costs will vary from case to case so it is important to always consider outsourcing as an option when possible.

The Quality of Outsourcing vs. Keeping Work in House

Comparing the quality of outsourcing versus in-house work is even more difficult. Again, there is no set answer for which is typically higher quality. In a situation where experts are required to complete a task it may be better to outsource the task because the in-house staff is not qualified to complete the task. In this case the quality of the work produced by the contractor will not only be of higher quality but will also likely be completed quicker and more efficiently.

However, in cases where the in-house staff and the contractor are equally qualified the in-house staff may hold a slight advantage because they are more familiar with company policies and procedures. In this case the in-house may be more efficient because they are already familiar with the standard procedures. This becomes less of an issue in cases where work is outsourced to the same individual regularly.

The other factor to consider when comparing outsourced work to in-house work is the work ethic of the individual completing the assignments. Two equally qualified employees given the same assignment, schedule and pertinent information may not produce the exact same results. This is because one employee may have a more diligent work ethic and a more keen attention to detail. In this scenario the more diligent employee will likely produce work of a higher quality. As this relates to personality rather than whether or not the work is completed in-house or outsourced it makes it even more difficult to compare in-house work to outsourced work.

Regardless of whether you keep it all in-house or not, you will still need a good, solid foundation plan to make money steadily in the complex world of Internet marketing. At our Cyber Money Map site we have just such a plan (roadmap) established that can help you make the right decision on matters such as this issue, time and again. Visit the site and you will see just what we mean.

Thomas Spratt

CyberMoneyMap.Com

By far, the best way to market this solution to patients in internal dental marketing are in 2 ways: first, through your staff; and second, through Invisalign Open House.#1) Your Staff….

In promoting Invisalign in internal dental marketing, your staff has to be educated and trained to talk to every single patient who express interest in having straighter, more attractive teeth, and also educated and trained to help ask people identify their problem. Wendy Briggs, who is the president of Hygiene Diamonds and Brilliance Inner Circle, is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met and one of the most trained people in improving your hygiene profitability and getting your hygienists and assistants to work in unison and it helps sell more sort of dentistry for the doctor. What she says a lot too is that she has a “magic question” for every single patient who walks through the door (and who becomes a new patient). She asks them a simple question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your smile?”. The patient would wonder and would give various answers. Some may say 6, some 4, others 2, or a 7 maybe, but it really doesn’t matter, because the next question is: “What would make it a 10?”. And we, as a dental team, listen to the patients. The moment they start talking about how they like to have straighter and/or whiter teeth, we take down notes and through this we can create a good package of information and regurgitate it back and sell the treatment. The staff also needs to know the core benefits of Invisalign; like it’s invisible, removable and it allows more people to feel more confident instead of wearing the traditional metal braces.#2) Invisalign Open House….

The next thing to do to market Invisalign in internal dental marketing is to do the Invisalign Open House. Now what we found with our doctors is that many of them have $25,000, or $50,000, or $100,000, or even $250,000 dollar a day by doing Invisalign Open House. So when you think about this there are two things that you should follow:

l First, you have to be able to market your Invisalign day appropriately. What I find a lot of people do, their big mistake is that they decide to do the open house, but they send out a mailer to their existing patients, and they get maybe 1 to 3 phone calls. That’s kind of expected, because if your going to do an entire open house, and you have an opportunity to make $5000 a case or say $15,000 net per case, you need to throw more money at it than just one little postcard. And you need to have your staff get people to come to it, to get worth a mile going. So what I recommend with all our doctors who plan to do Invisalign Open House is: you have to start planning the promotions of it 4 or 5 weeks minimum in advanced, because what I want to do is to get 2 to 3 direct mail pieces to my existing and inactive patient base in that time (so once a week for the first three weeks to promote it); if you have e-mails, you should definitely go and just send out e-mails, and if you have phone numbers, either you’re going to physically call everybody or just do a voice broadcast (which will go out to every single home and it will share with people the details and where to call).

l Second, when you do Invisalign Open House, what you do is to have two schedules for the event, instead of just one. Why? Well, this is because you can use the same marketing dollar to promote both events, and that’s one thing. The other thing is that some people who can’t make it, let’s say, on a Wednesday night, are going to be able to make it on a Saturday between 10:00 and 1:00. So you’re going to open up a dual option where people like that and they can choose more dentistry.

So these are the things that you need to remember to market Invisalign to your patients in internal dentist marketing. And if you have a lot of Invisalign patients, they refer more than traditional patients do, and also choose more cosmetic dentistry!

For the dental marketing consultant, the best way to market this solution to patients are first, through your staff; and second, through conducting Invisalign Open House.Strategy#1 – Have The Right Staff!

First, the dental marketing consultant would advise you to have a staff that’s educated and trained to talk to every patient who express interest in having straighter, more attractive teeth, and also educated and trained to help ask people identify their problem at the same time. Wendy Briggs, president of Hygiene Diamonds and Brilliance Inner Circle, has a “magic question” for every single patient who walks through the door (and who becomes a new patient). She asks them: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your smile?”. The patient would give her various answers. Some may say 6, some 4, others 2, or a 7 maybe, but it really doesn’t matter, because the next question given to them would be: “What would make it a 10?”. And we, as a dental team, listen to their answers. The moment they start talking about how they like to have straighter and whiter teeth, we take down notes and through this we can create a good package of information and give it back and sell the treatment. The staff also needs to know the important benefits of Invisalign; it’s invisible, removable and it allows more people to feel more confident! Strategy #2 – Conduct Invisalign Open House!

Second, the dental marketing consultant would advise you to conduct Invisalign Open House. When you think about conducting an open house, there are two things that you should always remember:

1) You have to be able to market your Invisalign day appropriately. The big mistake that a lot of people do is that they decide to do the open house, but they send out a mailer to their existing patients, and they get 1 to 3 phone calls. That’s kind of expected, because if your going to conduct an entire open house, and you have an opportunity to make $5000 a case or say $15,000 net per case, you need to throw more money at it than just one little postcard. And you need to have your staff get people to come to it. So what I recommend with all our doctors who plan to do Invisalign Open House is: you have to start planning the promotions of it 4 or 5 weeks minimum in advanced, because what I want to do is to get 2 to 3 direct mail pieces to my existing and inactive patient base in that time (so once a week for the first three weeks to promote it); if you have e-mails, you should definitely go and just send out e-mails, and if you have phone numbers, either you’re going to physically call everybody or just do a voice broadcast (which will go out to every single home and it will share with people the details and where to call).

2) The next thing is when you do Invisalign Open House, have two schedules for the event, instead of just one. And this is because you can use the same marketing dollar to promote both events, and that’s one thing. The other thing is that some people who can’t make it on a Wednesday night, are going to be able to make it on a Saturday between 10:00 and 1:00. So you’re going to open up a dual option where people like that, and they can choose more dentistry at the same time.

These are the things that the dental marketing consultant would advise you to help you market Invisalign to your dental patients successfully. And if you have a lot of Invisalign patients, they refer more than traditional patients do, and also choose more cosmetic dentistry!

The truth is that every portion of this nation we call America has been affected. Sure maybe your house hasn’t drastically dropped in value, but I can still bet the buyer pool in your area has shrunk. If there aren’t many buyers out there qualifying for loans, then how can they buy your house? They can’t.

So how is someone to sell their house especially when time is an issue? Well, I believe the best way to sell in today’s market is by doing it yourself. Contracting with a Realtor is not ideal because for one the average house sits on market for 6-12 months until sold. This just doesn’t cater to the people who are motivated to sell their houses fast. These sellers maybe in a situation where they need to relocate for a job, or possibly they inherited the property and they they don’t want to make two mortgages. Who can blame them for wanting to sell fast?

A “For Sale By Owner” is basically you cutting out the middleman, the real estate agent, and in the end saving yourself money on commission fees. This will allow you to market the property the way you want. You are in the driver’s seat, and you don’t have to feel pressured by an agent. This means you can accept whatever offer you want and not have to worry whether or not the agent will be upset for taking less on their profit.

Ok so your are trying to sell your house and you want to know how the internet can help you? It’s quite simple. All it takes is for you to do a quick search on Google.com to find that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of people looking to buy homes. For the most part these people are investors. Investors can buy your house with cash, cutting out the banks, and saving you time in the end. They will get their funding through a third party such as a hard money lender or private lender. Generally speaking, this cash loan is approved within 14 days. Sometimes it may only take 1-3 days for approval. What does this mean for you? It means that there is a good chance that you can close on the house within a month. The investor will want to make sure the title is free and clear of any liens or judgments, but once that is in check, and the inspections are in order, then really there is nothing left but to close on the house.

Will an investor buy my house if there are a lot of repairs needed? YES! If anything that will strengthen your chances of selling the house because most investors are in the business to rehab properties. No offense, but they want your house to be outdated and an eye sore. That’s another reason why investors are great to work with because they will buy a house in any condition.

I think as the word gets out, more and more people are going to use the investor option rather than the real estate agent option. The internet is one of the most invaluable tools at your disposal. Use it to advertise. Use it to reach a large audience of people. It’s right at your fingertips. Now just use it to your advantage and sell your home!

Everyone likes to put their own personal touches and knick-knacks in a house when they own it, but to home buyers, it may prevent them from picturing their furniture and pictures in the house, and distract them from truly seeing your home’s unique architectural features and spacious rooms. Also consider the fact that the more cluttered the rooms look, the smaller they look. You may be holding back the true potential of your house by displaying pictures of your friends and family

Since you hope to move soon anyway, go ahead and box them up and put them in storage in advance of the open house or showing.

Neutral colors are better. Consider painting walls a neutral color such as beige or taupe. While you may enjoy vibrant colors, potential buyers may be turned off by the choice of colors. A neutral color allows them to add their visualize their own tastes.

Don’t leave the little issues unresolved. A potential homeowner is always going to over estimate the cost of repairs by atleast 30%. If there are problem areas in your home, get them fixed before the showing. When prospective buyers tour the house and see leak stains on the ceiling or peeling paint, they will also see future work and assume that bigger maintenance and repair issues are lurking behind those small problems.

This is particularly true in kitchens and bathrooms, which are often the two rooms that make or break a sale. An investment in either of these rooms will yield the biggest return. The expenses you incur on the front end sprucing up your home will be cheaper than the profits you could lose by having to lower the price to meet buyer demand.

The internet is a great marketing tool when trying to sell your house, so take advantage of the unique ways to market your house. Use YouTube.com, a video sharing Web site, to introduce yourself and your house for free. Take home shoppers on a virtual tour and tell them about its uniqueness and strengths from a first-person point of view.

Once your house is listed, e-mail the link to your friends and ask them to forward it on to their network of contacts. By simply having your friends pass along information about your house, you may be able to sell it without having to get a real estate agent involved which will save you thousands.

Be sure that you are using traditional marketing techniques to your best advantage. When photographing your home for promotional purposes, invest in a wide-angle lens for your camera so that rooms appear bigger and in proportion when they are displayed on Internet home listing sites or in marketing flyers. If you decide to create a virtual tour, look for professionals who will be able to film and upload your video using the best techniques and technology.

Come up with creative ways to draw people to your house by having a wine and cheese gathering as an open house, or if there are other homes for sale in your neighbor create a parade of homes to draw more people in. The more people that you can get through the door, the better your odds of getting the price you want.

1. Do your Realtor homework. In a lousy real estate market, you want the best help you can get to sell your home. Take your list of questions to several Realtors and take a goodly amount of time when you interview them. Comparison shop. No one’s rushing to buy homes this year, so don’t be in a rush to choose a Realtor.

2. Get ready. Many Realtors agree it takes 30 days to ready a house before the “For Sale” signs goes up, because those first impressions often will prove the most important factor in whether a “looker” eventually becomes a “buyer.” Make the investment in external repairs that can mean the difference between a quick “No” and extra time spent examining your house. This is the time to paint, patch and repair what buyers will see first. Buyers are more forgiving in a strong real estate market, not in a weak market.

3. Consult the owners of homes that successfully sell. What buyers consider valuable can vary from region to region. Ask those in your community with a newly placed “sold” sign for pointers on how to prepare your house for sale. What did they notice that most “lookers” paid attention to, or commented on, when exploring their house? Just ask – is installing new carpeting more important or is it better to freshly paint the walls. Ask several owners of recently sold homes, and take lots of notes. These can serve as your guide to using your time wisely to prepare your home for sale.

4. Actively engage your family. Let them know that there will be “company,” and to assist you with their unique skills. Let the list-maker in your family make repair and “sprucing up” lists, and keep lists of Open House dates and other important information. Share the work of selling a home, and every family member will have a personal stake in your success. Delegating the work that goes into selling a home also will dramatically reduce your stress.

5. Be flexible with personal plans. Stay focused on the goal from the time you first plant that For Sale sign on the front lawn to the first Open House – no activity should become a distraction. Don’t plan messy parties or major functions during this period, because you want your home to be tidy at all times. Arrange family gatherings elsewhere. You’ll want to be particularly vigilant when homes aren’t selling easily to make no mistakes.

6. De-clutter. A cluttered house looks smaller. Rent a temporary space at a local storage facility and fill it with seasonal items extra clothes and even extra furniture. A de-cluttered house also will reduce your stress levels by simplifying the sprucing-up process. Place personal items out of sight. If you’re overworked and time-starved, place an ad on Craigslist.org and hire a college student or affordable cleaning service to help you. If you can’t afford that, consider downsizing your possessions. Are they really worth cleaning, storing and stepping over year after year?

7. Disappear your pets. (temporarily, of course) Not everyone likes dogs; not everyone likes cats. Arrange for a day away in a boarding facility or away from home with a member of your family on Open House days. When the real estate market is slow, you don’t want to offer any excuses to potential buyers that will make them turn away from your wonderful home.

8. Stage your house. Do a little research about “staging” your home, and if you’re financially flush, hire a professional staging service to do this for you. Exchange harsh lighting for soft lighting. There’s nothing like freshly baking cookies swear some old timer realtors. Sprinkle baking soda on your carpet before you vacuum. Buy a bouquet of fresh flowers such as inexpensive daisies to brighten up your room.

9. Be honest. No house is perfect. Be honest about shortcomings. The buyer will trust your honesty and be more inclined to trust a decision to make a purchase. It’s a buyer’s market, so become a trustworthy seller.

10. Be realistic. The higher the price, the longer it will take to sell your home, especially in a lousy real estate market with high foreclosure rates that are pushing home prices down. Have a frank discussion with your agent about what amount you will accept below the asking price, or how long it will take to find a buyer who will meet your price. Engage a practical friend or family member in this discussion.

Selling your home during a tough real estate market isn’t impossible. It simply requires pulling out all the stops and being fully informed.

Or are you unable to make your mortgage payments?

Mortgage costs including taxes and insurance should be no more than 40% of your take-home income, at worst. Many people are paying more than this.

Your mortgage payments may feel like a crushing burden and you probably don’t know where to turn for help.

It turns out that a short sale may be the answer for you.

I want to focus on doing a short sale — that lets you sell your house, get out from under your mortgage without paying in any cash, and get out from under even if you owe more than your house is worth.

Because let’s look at your choices.

Choice #1: If you sell your house and you owe more than it is worth, you can pay your own money to make up the loss.

For example, if the buyer pays $180,000 because that is all you can get as far as an offer, and your mortgage is for $250,000, you have to pay in $70,000 cash at closing or else the deal will fall through.

Do you have that kind of cash? Many people do not have that money. And I don’t suggest you raid your 401(k) either.

So the only other option that is the least bit appealing is a mortgage short sale.

A short sale involves mortgage lender cooperation. Your mortgage company must agree to accept the buyer’s full proceeds as payment in full for your mortgage. The home loan lender lets you out of your mortgage and allows the new buyer to step in and buy your house.

You are out of the picture and you didn’t put any cash in.

The mortgage company may still decide to come after you later, to pay them for their financial loss. Each state’s laws are different but often they have two to four years to file a complaint in court and sue you for their financial losses.

You can negotiate this, sometimes, during the short sale process. They will agree not to go after you, in writing.

The mortgage lender may also report you as a deadbeat to the credit agencies. Or not. You can negotiate this too, sometimes, during the short sale.

The key element though is that by doing a short sale, you are helping your mortgage lender get out of a big problem. And that gives you room to negotiate more than you thought possible.

You see, their problem is having a non-performing mortgage loan and they do not want your house back either.

Your problem is their problem.

So you can make things a lot better if you will sell your house and get the lender to accept the short sale. The lender loses money.

But not nearly as much money as they lose if they get your house back.

Getting your house back could cost the mortgage company tens of thousands of dollars.

Banks are not that great at holding on to your house. They have to pay for fixing it up because they can’t sell a house in any condition. And they have to hold onto it while it sits on the market. Lenders typically only recover $0.68 per $1 of value on a foreclosure house if they take it back.

So why not do a short sale instead?

I have learned of the system that lets you sell your house in nine days, with no fix-up, in any market. Because it is a short sale, the lender expects to get clobbered. So they will let you sell your house for 75% – 85% of market value. That means that you can sell your house while your neighbors probably can’t because they feel they must get a higher price than you need to get.

The market value of your house is the real market value today, not the one six months or twelve months ago. A short sale can be done substantially below this real market value. And that means that it is a good deal for the buyer. And good deals are the only deals that are happening today.

Remember, in a short sale, you aren’t getting any of the proceeds yourself. All proceeds after closing costs go straight to your mortgage company. You won’t see a dime of it.

So that means that all you care about is exposing your house to the market and letting the market decide what your house is worth.

As long as you can demonstrate to the lender that the buyer is paying a fair price today (a price that can be substantially below market value), you can get the lender to say “yes” to a short sale.

And that means you can get out from under your debt and move on with your life. You can even buy another house with little or no money down, no qualifying, and bad credit.

It’s amazing what you can do if you know how.

And learn more about short sales do you owe more than your home is worth and how to buy house with little or no money down and bad credit .

1. Consider paying to have your home placed in the MLS. There are several companies out there that will do this for a few hundred dollars. With sales down, real estate agents are desperate to earn a commission. By putting the house in the MLS you are agreeing that if an agent brings a buyer to you that you will pay the agent their part of the commission (you still save the listing agents commission). If you can sell the house on your own with no agent then you won’t have to pay an agent. However, in a tough market you want as many possible eyes on your property as possible.

2. Get the word out to as many places as possible about your house. One of the best places to do this is on the internet. There are dozens of free websites that will allow you to post your house for free. Consider starting with craigslist since it has so much traffic and then spread out to the other sites on the net. It will probably take you an entire evening to get the house posted on all the sites and you will want to keep a spreadsheet with your usernames and passwords so that you can go back later and remove the listing once the house sells.

3. Design a professional looking flyer and put out for sale by owner signs and a flyer box. If you aren’t the artistic type and don’t know that much about designing things like flyers consider a site like vflyer which will give you templates for designing a flyer. Take some good pictures of the house with your digital camera and put them on the flyer. If you use Vflyer or a program like it you can probably use the same template to post the house to craigslist and ebay (if you decide to pay for a listing).

4. Be creative. When we put our house on the market we ordered an eight foot full color printed banner to put on our fence. Our house backed to a major street and we were able to get some major exposure from the banner. I have heard of people offering free vacations, big screen tvs, cash bonus’ to the listing agent and even a free car. I have also heard of people giving away a cool prize at their open house. These things can help get your house noticed which is the first step to getting it sold.

5. Make sure that your price is competitive. Consider using the money that you are saving on real estate commissions to cut the price of your house so that it is more competitive. In tough markets it is going to be very important that your house isn’t priced too high or people will find another option. In our area there were a ton of houses on the market and most of the houses that were selling were 5% or more undervalued. If that is what it takes you might need to swallow hard and cut the price of your house.

Of course all of these things are just suggestions. Still, when things get tough and you need to sell your house these could be an option for you. They worked for us.