Rural Sourcing, Inc.: Bringing High Tech Jobs to Rural America (cont.)

Some of Rural Sourcing's Jonesboro staff began as college interns.

What is the price differential between Rural Sourcing and India?

Prices in India range from $20 - $40 per hour for systems engineers. Our blended rate is between $38 - $48. That is very low for domestic technology employees. The other thing is, you wouldn’t [go offshore] for a two- to three-month project. Legal work and documentation can take up to as much as six to 12 months, so there is an upfront expense. We’re much easier to work with on small or shorter-term projects.

To talk about rural economic development in general…obviously this is an interest and passion of yours. Rural America has been struggling for some time, with manufacturing moving out. You’re not bringing just any jobs there, you’re bringing knowledge workers...

No one knows how big or little we can be. But I do think – and I hope – that we can be a catalyst for rural America to think about other knowledge work.Many services can be done remotely.

So not to tell your readers that this is the panacea, but this is one example. Service businesses require less overhead, and in many regions can use existing buildings.

I think there are a lot of opportunities. There’s a lot of things you can put on the Internet. I know of companies that are doing things like mailing specialty foods, there’s a lot of craft…the Internet and technology has changed our world, it’s changed our reach. I’m not brilliant; this is just about the computer and its capabilities, and I think that’s the exciting part.

When I first talked to you about doing this interview, you said you didn’t want anyone to get their hopes up too high about possibly attracting RSI.

Well, we have had so much press.We were on NBC in December, and [afterward] we just got everybody calling from every state, wanting us to come and visit.We’re still so small that we had to say no unless we really believed that it was imminent that we could do business with them.

I don’t see right now in the next 12-18 months that we’re going to a lot of other states.We’re going to have to do what I call clustering to be able to use the management that we have to physically visit the sites. It’s just practical that if we don’t get profitable in the next two to three years, we won’t be able to expand at all. It [RSI] is a great idea, I do believe in it tremendously, but it is something that has to be proven.

Do you have any other thoughts or perspective on rural economic development in general that you’d like to offer?

I think we underestimate it. It’s always easy to think about what we don’t have. The folks that I’m hiring could have been great anywhere. I love their attitude, their can-do, their eagerness, their passion for opportunity.We need to look at what we do have, good people, honest, who give more than is expected. In the customer service business we can do so many things that I think we can really stand out.

Looking to the future and your expansion plans…

We’re looking at a couple of sites…we’re in discussions with some folks that if we move there they would almost come with their set of customers…so I’m not sure yet. I would like to get these two centers [Jonesboro and Greenville] to between 50-100 people, maybe not before we start the next one, but my goal is to really build out so we can get some critical mass. Instead of 20 [employees] in 10 locations, a customer wants to see that you have the scale so that you can meet their needs – particularly the big companies – and so we need to have a center that at least has those kinds of numbers.

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