Like everyone else, despite the fact we’re an outsourcing provider, our email inboxes are frequently filled with outsourcing providers offering their services.
There are some great checklists online, but like virus and phishing spam, there are some quick “eye ball” checks you can do on an email arriving from a purported outsourcing provider.
Here are our top 10 things you can quickly check:
- Do they use real email addresses, and not Yahoo/Gmail etc
- Do they have a real website, and is the website available for viewing
- Is the address a real address, or is it a serviced office
- Do they have some hard to believe sales pitch: “Australia’s trusted Accounting Outsourcing partner”
- Are there some typos in the email? Mis-spelling accountant as Accountant is our favourite!
- Is the full name of the person sending the email given, or just the first name
- If there is a website, have a look at the “about us”. Frequently there won’t be any information on the owners, or photos of the staff.
- Is there any social media links showing the bona fides of the company. Have a look for videos by customers.
- Do a quick online search for the name of the person sending the email, the owners of the business. LinkedIn is usually a good place to start seeing how many employees are at the company.
- If there is an Australian connection, do some quick background checks on the company. Is it a registered company, or just a business name? Do they have an Australian tax agent licence? Google the company name to see where they are advertising – are they on freelance sites at discounted rates or are their staff on freelance sites!
Outsourcing email offers are coming thick and fast and a quick due diligence will allow you to monitor real price offerings in the market. Remember, if it is looks too good to be true then the old adage is usually apt: if it looks too good to be true, then it usually is.
There are no shortcuts for quality work. Drop us a line here at Odyssey if you’d like to chat more about how our quality service offering can assist your business.
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