Outsourcing – Will It Help Grow Your Small Business?

As an entrepreneur, you have incredible talents such as being creative, competitive and a self-starter. However, do you sometimes feel like you need to handle everything that comes your way? Trying to do it all can stall the growth of your business. By outsourcing the day-to-day back-office tasks, you have more time to focus on generating income. Progressive entrepreneurs realize the unstoppable power of outsourcing to handle aspects of the business that are essential but simply don’t make sense for you to deal with personally.

How does outsourcing help you grow your business?  

• Outsourcing lets you focus on what you do best. Every business has limited resources. Consider what your employees are spending time on. Is this adding value? Is it helping you grow revenue? Outsourcing allows you to spend time on your core business—what you do best. CONSIDER: What activities are you and your staff doing that doesn’t help grow the bottom line? 
• Outsourcing gives you instant access to experts. We have all heard we should surround ourselves with the right people. However, that is often easier said than done. Limited budgets, lack of qualified staff and low unemployment all get in the way. One of the best ways to provide you access to experts is outsourcing. It’s a sure-fire way to access talent at a fraction of the cost. CONSIDER: What expertise do you need that you don’t have?
• Outsourcing helps you reduce risk. Sometimes we don’t think about the risk of certain actions or lack of actions. Every business carries some level of risk such as compliance with regulations, financial conditions and/or technology security. Outsourcing provides you expertise to help mitigate or avoid risk that could be detrimental if it occurred. CONSIDER: What risks do you have?

When to outsource? One of the best ways to decide if you should outsource is by performing a time cost calculation. What is it costing you to do the job (or hire for it) vs the cost of outsourcing? Some clues to watch for are:

• When your staff no longer has time to handle their day-to-day workload.
• When you and your employees are unable to build the business to your satisfaction.
• When your employees are spending time on tasks someone else could handle more efficiently and effectively.

What to outsource? These are just a few examples to consider. Spend some time strategizing what you could outsource.

• Tasks critical to your operations but not a vital component of your strategy. An example is payroll processing—it’s critical to the organization to pay your employees, but you do not need to handle inhouse. Another example is benefit administration. It takes time to onboard and offboard employees—it’s something others can handle more effectively.  
• Tasks that require specialized knowledge. Think of areas where you do not have the expertise and do not have enough work to justify a full-time employee. Examples of this could be how to comply with various laws and regulations that impact your business or how to handle a problem employee. What expertise is needed to run your organization?

When properly done, outsourcing can enable you to streamline your business operations. It provides a means to more strategically utilize your resources, maximize your time investment and GROW YOUR BUSINESS.  

Mary Ward is in sales and marketing at Focus OneSource in West Des Moines, Iowa. Email her at mward@focusonesource.com.