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Thank you for sharing your story @Melinda Stevenson I am totally with you about maintaining our values & integrity regardless. It can often come at a high price materially, but as you said, it is more important to be at peace with yourself.

In addition I feel it's important to expose sales malpractices (without pointing fingers). I now routinely say that "I'm very careful not to make big promises because there are many factors I can't control." This subtly communicates that if a company is making such promises, that they are possibly overstating their capabilities.

Really appreciate your heartfelt and thoughtful response!

Hi, I would like to share a few tips for IT outsourcing
1. The first thing that you have to do is list all your business requirements and give complete information like what and all you are expecting from the company you are thinking to outsource
2. Evaluate the company 
3. Analyze their projects
4. Analyze their experience
5. Check the reviews
6. Don't just outsource your project to any company because they offer services at low price. 
7. Look for the quality services
8. look for the one who is ready to provide support and maintenance post completion of the projects

Here is a list of IT outsourcing companies that you can prefer for
1. Fortunesoft  IT Innovations (https://www.fortunesoftit.com/au/)
2. Soluzione IT Services
3. Beyond Analysis

Well, I can't answer this from a personal perspective yet (although my wife may get pulled into helping with my ventures at some point).

First, it is important to keep separate actions and attitudes. At work you must fill your role and do your part, but you can't take any attitudes from that into the personal relationship (at least not long term). At work they may be your equal, superior or subordinate, but at home you are equals and must treat each other as such.

From business that I know spouses have gone into:

• Creative Agencies
• Restaurants
• Law Firms
• Retail (specifically boutiques)

Why do I think the above types of businesses work for partners? Typically because the are more traditional small businesses (they aren't trying to be the next internet juggernaut at least from the ones I'm aware of). The roles they have are either equal or complementary.

Example 1 (Law Firm)

Husband is a Business Lawyer, Wife is a Family Lawyer

Example 2 (Creative Agency)

Wife runs business operations, Husband is a designer

Example 3 (Restaurant)

Husband cooks, Wife manages

The Philippines is a much better place for support services in my view. In fact, an indian call centre employed by Telstra at one point outsource some of their work to the Philippines at one stage. 

There are a number of reasons companies will use BPO. One is definitely the cost savings, there is a massive saving in wages. Also culture and time zones are also factors. 

There are challenges with training when looking at outsourcing overseas and there are a lot of companies that will offer to assist with massive mark-ups, so you really need to do your research. 

A lot of my clients have call centres in the Philippines and some still have call centres in India. Having seen firsthand how the different countries can assist I have always seen less complaints and issues come from a call centre in the Philippines. 

All clients that have Australian staff in the offshore office to manage very rarely have training and compliance issues. It always pays to have an Australian employee working from the offshore office to ensure compliance, training and customer service is to your companies standards. 

You wouldn't have an onshore office running without management, no difference for an offshore office.  

As for what country, it really comes down to what you need. For developers I would look at Europe and the middle east. From past experience I have seen much better and stable code from these areas. 

For support I would look at the Philippines. For Tech support, I would look at Australian call centres to handle the actual issues and the Philippines to handle the initial inbound call. Just so they can screen out the Common issues (user training) and actual technical issues. 

Thanks @John Eustace and @Sarjit soni - @Emma Egel - did you reach out for assistance?  You could also consider hiring a marketing expert. 

Your question far too broad to respond constructively Kari. It all depends what you have on your website and who it is for. There are differing techniques for generating traffic, sign-ups and converting sales. Possibly thousands of variations in all three categories.

What is your objective, and quantify the minimum you identify as your nvestment.

Not necessarilly cheap.. but create a unique and great product and customer experience. Definitely the most effective. 

Before I could really weigh in on this topic I would need to know more information to really be able to help.

For example:

• Why specific types of IT service will you be providing?
• Are you aimed at small business in general or focusing on an industry (health care, financial, retail, etc.)?
• How are you positioning yourself (trusted partner, security experts, general IT needs)?

Great question; if you're hiring a marketing agency to run your email campaign, you can typically expect to pay $200 to $500 per month.

This would include services like email design, copy, backend management, and segementation.

While this may seem pricey, it's recommended that you spend 15% to 20% of your marketing budget on your email campaign; this is because it's a highly cost-effective strategy that, when run correctly, can provide a $30-$45 to $1 ROI.

However, there are some cheaper alternatives to manage your email campaign using software like Mailchimp or Constant Contact that provide design templates and easy backend control but require ongoing management if you're looking to have a weekly or monthly newsletter.

Alternatively, hiring a freelancer to provide some of the services previously mentioned might be more cost-effective for a small to a medium-sized enterprise looking to test the waters. 

I hope this answers your question. :)