"I am living in a two bed room flat. I want to move into a spacious independent house. It means spending Rs.3,000 more in rent every month. Though I can afford it now, I would love to earn that money from a home based work," Sujata said. She is a middle aged mother of two young children. Her husband is an Internet entrepreneur and no one knows, including Sujata, what exactly his nature of work is and what his income is.
"Your aspiration for a bigger house is a movement of expansion and life will soon respond to your aspiration suitably. Have you ever talked to your husband about home based business opportunities?" I asked her. "Any discussion with my husband about my career is frustrating. He talks about creativity, programming algorithms and software architecture and strongly believes that anyone can learn all these things. If I tell him that it is difficult for me to learn them, he becomes impatient and says I am not fit to do anything useful. What will happen if every housewife insists that her husband must learn how to cook at least a simple tasty sabji or Chutney to prove that he is a good, useful husband?" Sujata replied.
"Please don't do that. I will be in trouble if you do," I said to her. "Let your husband live in his own dream world. I understand a housewife's problems. It's certainly possible to make a few thousand rupees working from home. Most people don't know what to do. That's the real problem."
Sujata said, "That's my problem too. I have Master's degree in Law and have practiced in High Court. After marriage, I have not been able to take up practice. Please forget my Law degree and suggest something that I can do now."
"Have you ever heard anything about BPO?" I asked her. "Yes. BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing. In developed countries, cost of labor is high. So, big companies identify the low level routine tasks that can be done from a remote location and get those tasks done by BPO companies from developing countries for a low fees. What is 'low' in developed countries is 'high' in developing countries," Sujata said.
"That's true. Big overseas companies such as Bank of America hire big BPO companies and save millions of dollars. Tens of thousands of small companies and individual entrepreneurs in the United States and the Europe want to outsource some of their work so that they too can save money. They can not go to big BPO companies that employ thousands of people as these BPO companies will not accept small work. It is an excellent income opportunity for individuals that want to work from home." I told her. "How can the individual workers contact those small companies and establish a working relationship?" Sujata asked me.
"One of my friends, Harry Harmon, is a small Insurance agent in London. He prepares dozens of quotations for his clients every day. He wants to outsource this activity. Will you be interested?" I asked Sujata.
"Thanks. What is the nature of work?" Sujata asked. "Harry Harmon will send quotation preparation software programs that will automatically calculate rates and prepare quotations. You will install them on your computer. Every day Harry Harmon will send you, by email, forms containing personal particulars of his clients and prospects. You will type the data into the software, generate quotations and send them to Harmon by email," I told her.
"It sounds pretty simple. There is zero learning time. How much will Harmon pay me?" Sujata asked. "Most BPO activities are simple to do. He told me that each quotation would take an hour and he would pay $5.50 an hour. If you prepare 3 quotations a day you will earn Rs.700. If you leave out the weekends, you can earn Rs.15,000 a month," I replied.
Sujata was thrilled and exclaimed "I wanted just Rs.3,000 but I am getting Rs.15,000!" I said, "That's the power of self-employment and entrepreneurship. You will get more than what you expect and need."
I met Sujata after three months. "How are things going?" I asked her. "Every day things are getting better. Though the work is simple, I had a lot of questions in the beginning. Once I was comfortable, I prepared a step by step standard operating procedure and now work flow is smooth. I worked hard in the first month. I used to generate two identical quotations for the same data to make sure my work was perfect even though I would be paid only for one. Harmon and his team are happy with the arrangement and want me to take up a few more high paying assignments," Sujata replied.
"Excellent! Excellent! You told me that you needed only Rs. 3,000 a month for additional rent. How do you spend the balance?" I asked her. "I buy 2 or 3 sovereigns of gold jewels every month. My daughters will need these gold jewels at the time of their marriages," Sujata replied.
Well, it is very difficult to change an Indian woman.