One of our philosophies is to keep our head count as low as possible.  We would rather outsource a variety of functions to individuals who run their own businesses than add employees who require management, benefits, paid vacation, etc.

To that end, we have recently outsourced our bookkeeping function. Like nearly everything we do, we got off to a somewhat rocky start.  We went through a few people before we found an excellent fit.

When we started hunting for a new person, we placed an ad on Craigslist here in North Carolina.  We received a handful of responses over the first few days.  Some of the applicants were well qualified.

On a whim, we also decided to place an ad on Craigslist in Detroit.  I had recently watched a segment on 60 Minutes about the economic situation in Detroit.  It appears that Detroit’s economy has collapsed to an extent much greater than the economies of most other places in the United States.  In fact, a significant portion of the city’s population has packed up and moved away.  The city is really suffering.

The ad ran on the Detroit Craigslist for about 20 minutes before responses started pouring in.  By the end of the first day, we had received a few hundred resumes and cover letters from people interested in working as our bookkeeper.

The quality of the applicants was amazing.  These people had many years of experience working in a variety of different businesses.  They were looking for wages much lower than the applicants here in North Carolina.  If you are looking to fill outsourced positions, it certainly makes sense to consider markets that are having trouble bouncing back from the recession.  I suspect there will always be markets where opportunities are less abundant than they might be in your particular city.

We have outsourced functions other than accounting.  We have outsourced executive assistant functions, client survey functions, as well as paralegal tasks. You may find that you can achieve a significant savings by moving some of your work to other locales.  It’s certainly an opportunity that you should consider.