Can You Afford To Outsource?

How Much You Should Be Spending On Outsourcing

After writing my first outsourcing article, I have come to realize that there are just simply too many people looking for information on outsourcing. Look on the top right, for instance. You see, the number one all time popular article on ADJ is on outsourcing—and looks like it will stay there for awhile. To answer the many other outsourcing questions you may have, I have decided to write more posts on this subject. Today, I will give you my opinion on how much you should be spending on outsourcing.

If you are willing to spend any amount on outsourcing, you could go ahead and do it but it would not be a good personal financial decision. When I outsource something, monetary value is very important to me and I would not outsource anything unless I am totally satisfied with the money I am spending.

But how do I know I can afford to outsource? I use a very simple formula. First, I look at the whole project in terms of how much time I would spend to do the same thing. Let’s say I would like to outsource the chore of replying to all my emails. I spend 2 hours daily replying to my email. If, for example, my salary is $10 per hour, I would therefore be spending $20 of my time daily replying to email. Now, what’s a reasonable amount for me to spend if someone else is doing it for me? Simple—it has to be lesser than 1/3 of my own cost doing the same thing. In the above email example, I would only outsource if I could find someone willing to look after my email for less than $7 a day.

This is just how I do things and you don’t have to follow my formula step-by-step. Come up with your own figures that make sense for you. One thing you need to keep in mind: there are some projects on which you will not be able to put monetary value by comparing it with your own hourly rate. These projects are those which need to be done regardless of costs, such as redesigning your website, producing a professional-looking eBook from your word document, etc. For these types of projects, I recommend that you post your projects on more than one outsourcing site and pick the one with lowest cost. Read my previous outsource article to obtain a list of outsourcing websites.

I hope today’s article will help you figure out if outsourcing is for you and what you can afford to spend on it. I’ll be writing more on this topic in the future, so keep checking back. Don’t forget to bookmark this site for later use.

Should You Give To Charity?

Charity Work

The topic of charity has become a surprisingly controversial issue over the years. Where once it was considered inherently good to give money to a cause, the concept of charity has now become loaded with caveats and provisos. Charitable donations now are something of a moral minefield, with people feeling that they have to do extensive research before writing the cheque or making the bank transfer. In some respects this is perfectly understandable. With just about any initiative formed on good intentions, there are loopholes through which those good intentions can be abused. Some people have taken this as a basis on which to decry all charity, which is perhaps the saddest thing of all.

It is easy to become cynical when you see the inherently decent concept of charity being abused. But it should be avoided – all too many people think now that by giving money to help a cause you are inevitably giving money to the lazy or the immoral. Some people have just been cursed with bad luck. Are we to consider that the homeless, the starving and even the long-term ill are malingerers whose only real problem is that they can’t pull themselves together, put on their best suit and go out and find a job? It would be a very regrettable situation if this mindset were to win out. Sure, it is worth putting a bit of thought into which charity you help out – but using the “bad” ones as a reason to doubt all charities is something to avoid.

There is another way that you can help out a charitable cause without needing to worry about handing money directly to a faceless corporation who will put it in the bank and “forget” to hand it over, or that it will end up being swallowed by administrative costs. You can refrain from donating money, or donate a smaller amount but add to it with your time.

Time and labour are often the areas where most charities find their biggest challenges. “No-one wants to give their time for free” is a common complaint. If however you are looking for a worthwhile way to use your time, charitable work can be a very rewarding way to achieve this. It may just be packaging up donations of clothes and food for delivery to needy causes. It may be taking boxes in your car to drive to a refuge for people who have been beset by the problems of a broken home, violence or any other difficulty. But by doing this you also get to see that your work and your time are not wasted.

Cynicism is natural, if not desirable. Skepticism is, to some extent, to be encouraged – it is what allows us to distinguish good causes from bad ones. But doing work for charity can allow you to see just what good work some charities are still doing – and at the same time learn a little bit about yourself as a person. It also allows you the chance to meet some very interesting, very driven people. It’s clear how charity helps the needy, but it can help anyone who gives it a chance.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com site. This article originally published on the above website on July 3, 2009.

Lessons From a 3rd World Country

Bangladesh Travel Lessons

My recent trip to a 3rd world country was quiet fascinating. It gave me a chance to compare some socio-economic issues between two worlds (1st world and 3rd world). A 3rd world country is obviously not in the same situation to be compared with a 1st world country. But from time to time, I analyze the similarities and differences between countries just to reenergize my thinking capability. That’s exactly what I was doing when I was visiting Bangladesh last month. It did not take me long to discover two stunning improvements this small country was able to achieve. Many developed countries have not yet been able to match these accomplishments.

Telecommunications
Bangladesh entered the era of modern telecommunications at the speed of light. I have not seen this many people using cell phones in America and Canada. SIMcards, phone sets and service plans have become unbelievably affordable. I did not meet a single person without a cell phone. I find it expensive to have a cell phone in North America due to phone company regulations and the high price ceiling. In Bangladesh the picture is different. Subscribers in Bangladesh reached 10.8 million at the end of January, up by 180% from 3.8 million at the end of 2004. It is expected that this number will double to over 20 million by 2007. In Bangladesh, cell phones have added $650 million to gross domestic product (GDP) and created 240,000 jobs. When I drove more than an hour from cities in America or Canada, I often lost the signals. This did not happen in Bangladesh. I traveled North to South on trains and always had strong signal. The whole country is covered and subscribers are able to make and receive calls without being charged roaming and long distance fees. There are malls in Bangladesh which sell only cell phones. When I mentioned this to my Canadian friend, he looked at me in disbelief.

Environment friendly and biodegradable shopping bags
I was in a shopping centre and was expecting my items would be put in a nice looking plastic bag as I am used to it in Canada. Instead, I was given a shopping bag made of some kind of fibre. Later I found out that it was made of jute (cotton like natural fibre).  Jute grows abundantly in Bangladesh and is totally environment friendly and biodegradable. The reason I was never given plastic bags is  Bangladesh has banned the manufacture and use of plastic bags, which many industrialized countries have not been able to do. Department of the Environment  has taken the plastic bag situation seriously, due to billions of bags being dumped into rivers, canals, drains  and other water bodies, over the years, creating a serious environmental threat.

Lessons we take
Theses are just two observations I came across. I am sure a lot more like these can be found in other 3rd world countries. Industrialized countries are hundreds or even thousands of years ahead of poor 3rd world countries. But sometimes it is hard or even impossible for rich countries to take steps to protect their environment and provide technological benefits to their populations. Whenever I notice steps taken by poor countries – which are miles away from ordinary and beyond expectations, it makes me pause to think. Rather than teach the developing world, perhaps it is time for developed countries to take lessons from them.

November 16, 2008. Originally published on www.adawn.net. I will be transferring all my articles from Canada’s Personal Finance Website to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. Thanks.

Vietnam - The Land Of Hidden Charm

Where To Travel In Vietnam

Vietnam is a country that offers uniquely breathtaking scenery, with mountains, rice fields, and islands surrounded by clear waters. Vietnam also has a deep history and significant cultural wealth, as well. Here, you will find that agriculture is a mainstay, and that traditional methods still exist.

When you travel to Vietnam, you will want to notice which region you are planning on visiting so that you can pack accordingly. Southern Vietnam is warm and dry during the months from March to June, then rainy from June to November. The winter months are typically cool and dry. If you are visiting during the rainy season, remember to pack both warmer and cooler clothing, since the temperature may change quickly.

The Northern section of Vietnam has traditional four seasons, with the coolest months running from December to March and the warmest months running from May until September. Monsoon season in Central Vietnam is the country’s most harsh, with cold, windy weather from September until February.

If you want to travel to Vietnam during its busiest season, then the holiday of Tet is the most important one to choose. Tet is the Vietnamese New Year, which occurs on a date that can be anytime from late January until March, with dates ranging from year to year. If you are visiting an urban area of Vietnam during Tet, you may find that there is a large amount of traffic.

For those looking for a relaxing spot on the beach, Nha Trang is the spot to visit. This small resort village is home to dozens of tourist attractions, although the beautiful clear waters of the beach are definitely the most popular. You will find that there are hotels and dining establishments for any budget, as well.

When traveling in Vietnam, you may be able to use a wide variety of international currencies, such as the US dollar, but the national currency is the Dong. The exchange rate between the dollar and is the dong is about one dollar US to eighteen thousand Vietnamese dong. You may want to consider carrying along both your own currency and the Vietnamese currency, even though both may be accepted locally.

The language in Vietnam is diverse, with Vietnamese being the official language. There are also large populations of people who speak English and Cantonese, as well. Visitors may find that signs are in both English and Vietnamese, making it simpler for English speaking tourists to find their way in large urban areas.

When traveling in Vietnam, you will inevitably want to enjoy traditional Vietnamese food. There are plenty of street vendors selling everything from spring rolls to pho, traditional dish of noodles, spices, and lime. This delicious dish is available everywhere in Vietnam. If you are lucky enough to be in a seaside town in Vietnam, then you will want to try the local seafood, which is freshly caught and prepared daily.

Vietnam is a scenic country, so take the time to enjoy the sights on a motorbike tour is the weather permits. There is plenty to see and do in any region of the country.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Travelnowsimply.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com site. This article originally published on the above website on Dec 20, 2009.

How To Change Without Making A Jump Into The Unknown

Let’s Go Retro!

A lot of us tend to find life unnecessarily trying from time to time, and this is due in no small part to the repetition of it all. It is a regular complaint from people in various jobs or other situations that they find each day runs into the next, with no variety to break it all up. It feels like Groundhog Day to many of us, as we wish we could just break the cycle a little bit and do something different. Of course, just as many of us have a bad feeling about changing too radically – what if we don’t like the change, it’s too difficult to change back or it’s so costly to make the initial change that we leave ourselves out of pocket for what turns out to be no real reason?

Well, there is another way to change things, a way that doesn’t leave you high and dry from a financial point of view and which you can feel confident about enjoying. It is called “turning back the clock” by more than a few, and various other names by various people what it amounts to is doing the things you always used to enjoy, without entertaining the boring and inaccurate state of mind that says it is uncool to do such things. Think about it – you always used to enjoy something, before life got in the way and stopped you. Now that things have settled and you need something to give your days a bit of a shake-up, what better way of doing that than rediscovering something you’ve always loved?

It doesn’t much matter what it is. If the thing you always used to love doing was a physical exertion like a sport or dancing, you may find that you have got out of condition for it in the meantime. Whether this is enough to persuade you to give up on it is up to you, but you could find that the journey of getting back to where you used to be is as much fun as the feeling of actually being at that point. Maybe it is something like old-school video games. A lot of people say that video games are for kids, but most of those people have either never played one, or last played one when they themselves were kids – and things change a lot in the world of video games, sometimes very quickly.

The key point here is that there are many things which we give up before we really want to – sometimes because we genuinely have to and sometimes because we feel we must. Re-evaluating at some point along the way means that we can look at bringing these things back into our everyday lives, or as a weekly treat. It is a way of changing things up without having to make a jump into the unknown, and allowing ourselves to enjoy a pursuit that we already know how to do. As a side benefit, doing things you used to enjoy can make you feel younger, and we could all do with that from time to time.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com site. This article originally published on the above website on June 20, 2009.