Click here to get this post as a PDF and read it later!
When you first set up a small business, you’re likely to find yourself doing pretty much everything yourself. At the end of the day, you need to have somewhat established yourself and to have started generating profit if you’re going to consider taking staff on. Staff come with all sorts of financial commitments. You have to make sure you can definitely pay their wages, as well as providing other perks such as annual leave, paid sick leave, parental leave and more. Plus, more staff means more rules and regulations you have to mind in order to ensure you don’t find yourself with a compensation case on your hands. But at the same time, one person can only get so much work done and know how to do so many things. Sure, you can pick up skills. But this doesn’t eradicate the fact that some areas of expertise you’ll require to get your business off the ground and running are particularly difficult to learn without years of education or training. A lot of people feel lost in this situation. The answer? Outsourcing. Here’s everything you need to know about this commonly employed business practice!
What Is Outsourcing?
First, let’s focus on what outsourcing actually is. Well, it’s a business practice that involves you using third party freelancers, agencies or other companies to complete parts of your own business’ work, or tasks that your business needs completed.
What Are the Benefits of Outsourcing?
As we’ve already highlighted, taking on permanent staff can be a huge commitment that businesses may not be ready to make, or may simply not need to make. You may outsource because you can’t afford the help you need five days a week. You may outsource because the task you need completed is a one-off project and you don’t need the services on an ongoing basis. Either way, the main perk of outsourcing is the relatively casual and non-committal nature of the process. People who accept outsourced work also tend to have their own machinery, equipment or tools to do the job. This means you can have the work carried out without having to purchase the necessary tools to complete it too!
Areas to Outsource
Of course, there are many areas you can outsource. But here are a few of the most popular that you might want to take into consideration!
Web Design and Web Development
Every business nowadays needs some sort of website – even if you’re not an E-Commerce site! At the end of the day, people are heading online to source most of their information, so if they’re looking for your company or brand, they’ll expect a webpage that showcases your products or services and includes other important information, such as contact details. Chances are you aren’t a whizz when it comes to website design and development yourself, so it’s generally a good idea to leave this to the professionals. They’ll know what works and what doesn’t in terms of user experience. They’ll also know how to put all of your ideas together on the screen!
Customer Support
You may be able to answer customer emails or calls here and there. But you need to focus your attention on other areas of your business’ progression, such as product development, rather than the administrative tasks that keep the company afloat. Of course, these administrative tasks are still essential. So, why not outsource the work? A professional answering service will be able to take any calls your business receives and provide the right responses and information. This can keep your customers happy and maintain a good brand reputation.
IT
In today’s tech age, we’re becoming increasingly reliant on our business’ tech working in order to keep our businesses up and running. On top of this, we hold a lot of important and sensitive data, so it’s important our IT systems are secure to avoid data breaches, which could put our customers or employees at risk and ruin our business. The majority of small businesses nowadays outsource their IT solutions. In-house IT departments tend to belong to the realm of large businesses and major corporations. So if you are in the market of hiring IT personnel, take a look at how to recruit for technical roles.
Hopefully, the above information has helped you to get the basics of outsourcing, seeing some of the perks it could offer to you and your business! The outlined areas to consider outsourcing are just a few examples. Chances are, whatever work you need doing for now can be outsourced easily and for a good price!
