How to Start a Data Entry Business From Home
Big Data is not just a big requirement for businesses but also a big opportunity for companies to get into data management. With the projected global annual data generation figure set to be over 180 zettabytes in 2025, the potential for growth in the data management industry is massive.
One of the paths available for entrepreneurs here is starting a data entry outsourcing company. The term “data entry” may conjure up images of an archaic practice with people typing sheets of data into computers, but the reality is it is a vital part of data management even in today’s digital age.
Its importance has only increased due to the digitization of practically everything. Database management, managing incoming enterprise data from various sources, digital archiving/record keeping, etc., are driving the data entry sector.
The technology and techniques involved have also evolved to meet the demands of present-day data entry, with examples like Artificial Intelligence playing increasingly important roles. Thus, proceeding with a data entry startup can be a rewarding venture if you’re an entrepreneur.
As with any other business, founding and running a data entry outsourcing company needs careful planning and execution. If you’re trying to figure out the best way to go about it, then this article is what you need.
Read on to learn the steps you should undertake to begin a successful data entry entrepreneurial journey.
8 Tips To Start a Data Entry Business You Need
1. Have Clear Goals and Vision
Every business is founded with the intent to serve clients/customers and register good profits for growth and expansion. But in a market filled with such businesses, you need to have something that will set yours apart from the rest.
Confirming your unique selling point and building your business around it will help your target audience recognize you better. Besides that, a clear vision for your business, with well-defined goals and timelines, can create a path for you to push your business.
You’ll be able to define company policies, client type and size, and other such necessary aspects.
2. Gain Thorough Market Awareness
The better you know your clients/customers, the better business you’ll do with them. At the core of learning about customers is market research. Whether online, offline, or both, you should dig deep into your target market to learn as much as you can about them.
This will help you get the insights you need to structure your service and marketing strategies for maximum ROI. You’ll also learn which target audience members will likely convert.
Besides your customers/clients, it is important to conduct competitor research as well. It will tell you what they are doing to make their business a success. You can then work to counter that strategy and gain a larger market share.
They may be bringing in a lot of traffic to their business and by learning about them, you could discover and incorporate it to grow your business as well.
One of the best ways to learn about the competition is to hire a data entry outsourcing company yourself. Market research data can be vast and unfiltered. A data entry service provider will enter it into your servers while detailing all there you need for the job.
Doing a background check on them and also enquiring about the particulars of their services will give you an idea of what they are offering and how they’re going about it.
3. Get The Legal and Financial Side Of Things Cleared Up
Regulations govern every industry, and getting the permissions required to get on with your business can take time. So you must start with gathering the right certifications and compliances quickly.
This is especially true for data-related services because data compliances vary by region and government. So, make sure all permissions are in place since you won’t be able to amend them once you are running your business easily.
It’s best to hire legal counsel to get through this process swiftly. Alongside your legal compliance, your effort to set up your business’s financial concerns should also be in progress.
A data entry outsourcing company, whether having just you or multiple workers, needs to have a business account with an applicable credit card. It also needs appropriate insurance to account for mishaps of various types.
Get an accountant or keep an accounting firm in your call sheet to outsource your accounting/bookkeeping and taxation purposes.
4. Set Up Your Workspace
Are you an independent entrepreneur who wants to conduct data entry outsourcing services from the comfort of your home? Or are you looking to go bigger and start a full-fledged company? Depending on your choice, you need to set up your office space and equipment.
Go according to a budget, even if you have the urge to send extra and scale prematurely. Survey the market for all available software and hardware that is necessary for your work.
Select those that meet your requirements at a price that’ll help you get good returns on your investment. If yours is a firm, it’s a great idea to go with a cloud services provider. You get many advantages like near-instant scalability, access to multiple modern software, round-the-clock support, etc.
You can even have backups of your work for emergencies, which will be fully protected by the cloud service provider’s security measures. It saves you the trouble of managing that aspect of your data entry outsourcing company all by yourself.
5. Decide On The Additional Services
Often, data entry forms a part of a list of services that a business needs to get the most out of its data assets. This is because enterprise data is rarely ever usable in its raw form, i.e., as it is extracted from one or more sources in varying formats and forms.
It contains a lot of issues like duplication, missing data, unwanted/bloated data, non-compliance, incorrect entries, obsolete data, etc. These should be corrected before the data is entered into your client’s data storage.
Business owners are in a hurry and so would like for the data entry firm to provide these additional functions as a part of the outsourcing package. So, you should decide on the number of these services you want to offer.
You could start with a few initially and grow that number as you grow your data entry outsourcing services business.
Again, you need to be careful about overdoing it, wherein you add more of these than you can handle at a given moment. This is because every added service will drain your resources, and if you don’t get the returns for that investment, will impact your revenue harshly.
It’s best to let it grow organically unless you plan to have everything from the start, along with the necessary startup budget.
6. Hire Quality Employees
The people you hire for your company make or break your business. It is, therefore, important for you to choose only the most qualified and experienced professionals for the job.
Data entry has grown over time to include sophisticated techniques and technologies, and your data entry outsourcing company should utilize those to remain competitive.
That means your employees should be familiar with those techniques and technologies to deliver timely results. It’s best to hire such candidates from the start because you won’t have to spend money, time, and other resources training them.
Hire your employees based on the type and number of data management services you will be offering too.
It’s a good idea to outsource the hiring process to an external agency since they can get you the kind of people you want at short notice.
Outsourcing will also lower your hiring costs as you won’t have to manage such personnel all by yourself. You also get the advantage of scalability that every data entry outsourcing services provider should have.
You can readily take on more projects when the demand arrives and tackle the challenges that come with clients’ growth.
7. Market Your Business
Your brand will go unnoticed if you don’t market it well. You should have a robust marketing strategy and the appropriate budget for it from the get-go.
It should cover both digital and traditional marketing to reach as wide an audience as possible, though you can fine-tune the share of each in your marketing strategy.
Use the available market data to craft a rewarding marketing strategy that appeals to most people and gets them to convert. You can customize it too for a more personalized touch. Account for returning customers too in your strategy.
Mention the best aspects of your data entry outsourcing services business on your bespoke website and social media pages.
Take the help of a professional marketing agency for creating the required website and ads. Ensure that your website is fully SEO compliant and that the agency frequently revises it to keep its search results page ranking high.
All relevant KPIs should be tracked to know how effective the strategy is and what can be done to improve it.
8. Prepare For Emergencies
Running a business is never a smooth experience. Roadblocks in the form of delays, mistakes, and others will keep happening. If you are unprepared for them, their adverse effects will hit you harder than the alternative.
Hence, you should make contingency plans for your data entry outsourcing company as soon as possible.
The plans should cover every aspect of your business as the advantages they bring will keep the entire organization cohesive and functioning despite adversities.
You can confidently take the necessary risks to push your business ahead since you, your clients and your employees can be sure of the path to recovery should things go off-track.
Start by forecasting possible obstacles that could hit your business in the near and far term. Estimate the damages you could incur should they impact you at their worst. Then build resiliency systems to minimize or eliminate those setbacks.
Allocate an adequate part of your budget as an emergency fund and save it somewhere. Don’t use it until as a last resort.
Always keep expanding your client list so that you won’t be left struggling without any. Maintain data backup of your company as well as those of your clients so that in case of a cyber-attack or another problem, data is not lost.
Speaking of cyber attacks, have a troubleshooting guide in place to get your data entry outsourcing services on track quickly should you fall victim. This includes both the technical and personnel side of your IT infrastructure and the organization at large.
Regarding any outsourcing agencies you’re using to get your tasks done, it helps to have one or two others on standby. Your present agency may not be able to take on additional work due to some reason.
Then you can call upon the backup agency to complete the task in time and prevent loss-inducing delays.
Don’t forget to mention all applicable contingencies for the services you’re offering during negotiations with your clients and the subsequent contract.
This prevents unwanted legal hassles and monetary losses when things don’t work out as expected between the two of you.
Conclusion
By completing the steps mentioned above, you will have the kind of data entry outsourcing company you need to tackle the market successfully and experience the growth you’ve always wanted.
You can make these steps even more potent by periodically reviewing your business plan and adjusting it to match market demands at the moment.
You can build on the reputation you garner as you move ahead and gain the technical and other expertise necessary to run your business successfully.
Author Bio:
Rohit Bhateja is the Director of, the Data & Digital division, SunTec India. He has a decade-long career in management and growth planning with core expertise in digital marketing, customer acquisition, marketing analytics, and brand communication.
He also contributes to data support operations, data entry and management, data processing services and solutions, and web & app solutions. He likes exploring data trends to devise transformative marketing solutions.
At SunTec India, he has successfully led teams, redesigned business processes, and solved complex business challenges.
Rohit likes keeping tabs on the latest data trends and solutions that are shaping the industry & transforming business. He is also an avid writer with a penchant for translating his insights and understanding about any matter at hand into articles that promote a growth-driven mindset.
