In an increasingly competitive market, going beyond client expectations is a solid course you can take if you want your expertise acknowledged and the breadth of your services expanded. A concrete example of this is the success of bpo services company. BPO, or Business Process Outsourcing, is currently one of the most thriving industries of today. They fall under what experts refer to as ‘service businesses’.
What is a service business?
To put it simply, it is a collective term used to describe an intangible yet highly valuable range of services needed to assist different business operations and demands. The features offered by a service company include digital marketing solutions, business consultations, accounting, app design and development, web development, virtual assistants, research, and content writing.
If you have plans to start a service business, it would help if you checked out this simple guide on how kick-start and fool-proof your BPO business plan.
Everything You Need to Know on How to Start a Service Business
Before you are introduced to the specific steps you need to take to commence selling service, let it be made clear that offering services and actual products are highly identical. What you need to ensure consistency in how you establish and promote your business is a strong and innate drive to make your core objectives possible. Whether you want to become a successful entrepreneur, exceed a competitor, elevate your brand into a well-respected company, gain more clients, have a stable source of income or achieve a dramatic increase in ROI, the structure and trajectory of your service company should always be rooted in what motivated you to put it into motion.
One of the typical reasons why business moguls choose to sell fundamental and intangible services is because of the broad amount of skills and features they can milk and culminate to their advantage. Imagine a BPO company that provides IT solutions, content creation, and advertising consultations. With interconnected and overlapping expertise, they can hit several opportunities with a single proposal. More importantly, they get to entice more people to join their team while proving their relevance and usefulness to a wider population of potential clients.
Indeed, the possibilities are rife, but only if you equip your business right through the following steps:
1. Research and weigh your options carefully.
It is not advisable to blindly follow trends, or venture into a niche without fully understanding its market and framework. Define the people and clients you want to help. What demographics and industries do you feel most attuned to?
When you choose a particular service or range of assistance, try to figure out the advantages and disadvantages that come with it. Determine if you have enough resources prepared to counteract these potential pitfalls, and measure the steps you will be taking to maximize these pros and leverage your company.
Don’t forget to check out customer behaviors and the driving forces that compel them to choose a specific brand for their business or operational needs. Are your target audiences more enticed by affordability, or do they have the tendency to prefer flexible setups for their demands? Will you be working with a fellow business owner, and if so, will they be large-scale brands, startups or a combination of both?
2. Focus on your passion and areas of expertise.
Similarly, choosing a type of assistance that you have hardly mastered may only backfire in the long run.
List down at least five areas that you are confident you have great interest in, or have had a considerably extensive experience in. When you offer something you are passionate about, it shows in how you communicate with your future end-users and market your skills.
Business owners hate it when the team or company they hire hardly know what they are doing. Remember, you are not here to learn the ropes with your clients. You are supposed to serve as the source of the solutions they seek.
Think about digital marketing gurus and renowned app developers, for instance. Since they have been in their chosen field for a long time, they now have a massive library of knowledge that enables them to devise tailor-made answers depending on the individual requirements of their customers.
It also makes them capable of adapting to substantial changes that directly affect their line of work. The only way for you to become a reliable service business is to deliver something that you already possess a significant amount of background in.
3. Consider the power of outsourcing.
As you draft your business plan, it is likely that you will begin to pinpoint specific strains and hurdles that prevent you from successfully starting a service business. A common setback for novice entrepreneurs is the limited amount of resources and unattained financial stability.
Instead of carrying out your expertise through the conventional hiring of in-house employees, why not opt to outsource your assistance? Companies that hire virtual assistants and refer them to clients on a global scale is a great example of this.
Outsourcing is ideal especially if you are offering a diverse lineup of skills and are targeting multiple types of industries. In this manner, you get a wider pool of staff to source for your services. You also get to save more and extend the breadth of solutions you can deliver.
Say you want to specialize in content marketing and customer acquisition strategies. You can hire remote content writers from areas where multilingual writers or native speakers of your target language are readily available.
By doing so, you are assured that you fortify your workforce with individuals equipped with the right skills and knowledge. If you want people who are well-versed with multiple platforms related to social media or even app and web development, the chances are you might find candidates well-suited for the job outside the country.
More importantly, outsourced expertise keeps you from draining your earnings on office rentals, employee benefits, and additional taxes.
4. Set up a realistic budget and a reasonable price range.
Although outsourcing service based business opportunities cuts off a huge chunk in your expenses, that doesn’t mean you get to slack off in budgeting your money and scrimp on scoring a favorable negotiation with potential clients.
Whether you choose to outsource or not, you must still have a specific budget and timetable for investments and expenditures. This step will include specifying how much you intend to pay your staff, and how you intend to grow the reach of your business. A clear reference of your financial limitations prevents you from taking unnecessary risks that may impale the stability of your services.
Some BPO providers make the mistake of accepting excessive favors and demands from their customers, even when they clearly do not have the tools and expertise needed to meet client expectations. Not only are they pushing themselves beyond their limitations, but they are making promises they cannot fulfill, too.
When it comes to setting up a price range for your services, use your competitors or leading brands in the market as your reference. Likewise, consider who your services are designed for.
Choosing to serve startups would mean preparing rates that won’t hurt their wallets. But if your chosen clientele are the more high-end corporations, you must guarantee that your deliverables justify your rates. More importantly, scoring high profile customers requires an intense level of competence that makes you stand out over other, equally capable competitors in the market.
You can also bundle similar or closely related services and sell your services at wholesale prices. This will strike a balance between the manpower and range of skills you will be exhausting and the business needs of every customer.
5. Sell smartly and be strategic with your promotional channels.
The most optimal approach to gain the upper hand when promoting your business is to join the digital community. Create a website and produce killer content that aptly describes your services. Establish a consistent presence on social media platforms.
Online marketing is arguably more resourceful because you have more chances of reaching out to a global audience than when you stick to using billboards, fliers, and print ads. The best part about digital ads is it is paired with analytical trackers and tools that allow you to get a closer look into what appeals to your customers and how you can improve your existing services.
You don’t have to be extensively informed with all the different channels of online branding and advertising. Find platforms that will best represent your business and bring your services to the spotlight. Is design and development your domain? Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are your best options.
If you don’t want to attract unwanted attention from spectators who do not fit your ideal user base, create a professional profile on Linkedin to limit your marketing funnel into fellow industry experts and business owners.
Here’s a pro tip: When you begin selling and promoting your expertise, don’t give away everything at the drop of a hat. Learn the art of bargaining, and be wise with choosing projects to work on. At times, pitfalls may first approach you as big-time opportunities. If a business offer is too good to be true, or if you receive requests that may potentially compromise your operations, don’t hesitate to hold back and seek for better alternatives instead.
Success doesn’t happen overnight!
Be patient. Focus your energy and resources on finalizing your business plan. Then, once you are satisfied with it, that’s when you can shift your concentration on finding clients, building solid relationships with them, and solidifying your name in your industry of choice.
If you want more tips and helpful guidance related to starting a business services company, check out New Media Services. They are a long-time BPO company headquartered in Australia, who have earned a favorable reputation for supporting startups and SMEs in leveraging their operations and streamlining their services. Their proficiencies encompass customer support, live chat, content moderation, AI solutions, and virtual assistance.
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