Small Business Outsourcing-

Outsourcing is largely thought of as a corporate practice, but the truth is that any business of any size can benefit from hiring agencies to take care of various things. Very few tasks need to be done on-site anymore, and it’s almost always cheaper to let someone else handle it than it is to hire more staff. Even hiring independent contractors is usually more cost-effective than taking on more employees, and it can even produce better results.

Let Everyone Do What They’re Best At

The things that outsourcing shouldn’t be used for are the things that are most essential to the core of a small business. In a lot of cases, these are things that can’t be outsourced in the first place. A coffee shop can’t outsource the brewing of coffee; that would defeat the whole purpose. It can outsource accounting duties, and that’s a good idea regardless of how capable the business owner is of doing it himself. People who don’t do accounting for a living are far more likely to make errors, and the tax code is so complex that someone who isn’t constantly brushing up on it is bound to miss a few things on that end. There’s nothing that someone could do in-house that couldn’t be done better by an accounting agency.

Small Business Shouldn’t Outsource Everything at Once

Most small businesses begin by handling most things by itself, and it’s important to transition to outsourcing in a way that’s both gradual and sustainable. It takes time to vet outsourcing agencies, and if a whole bunch of things are changed at once, it’s likely that the whole process will be more complicated than it should be. The whole organization needs to be taken into account, and employees either need time to adjust to new roles or to find something to replace a job that will eventually be outsourced.

What Outsourcing Can Do for a Small Business

The most essential task that can be outsourced is accounting. Every business of every type can benefit from handing over accounting duties to an outside agency. Professional accountants can achieve results that are incredibly accurate, and they are an absolute godsend when tax time rolls around. Since accounting is something that’s only necessary some of the time, it makes no sense to hire staff to take care of that job, and the right accounting service more than pays for itself over time.

Outsourcing is great for gaining access to experts of all kinds. Small businesses generally don’t need experts for their day-to-day operations, but being able to hire someone on a limited basis through outsourcing can help to drastically increase the overall profits of a small enterprise. A great example of this is public relations. Small businesses definitely don’t need someone on staff for that, but being able to contact someone who can help with marketing and a business’ image is a huge boon.

Nearly every business needs graphic design services at some point, and copy writing is a must for any business that’s about to launch a marketing campaign. There are plenty of websites that offer access to freelancers who produce a range of content on the cheap, and it’s possible to finance an entire campaign for a few hundred dollars when businesses play their cards right.

What to Avoid When Outsourcing

Small Business outsourcing isn’t a magical solution. It is a tool, and it can address common needs more cheaply and effectively than most alternatives. It’s the perfect solution for businesses that have outgrown their initial scope, and it’s far more efficient than hiring new staff to cover things that are only occasional needs. It turns what would otherwise be fixed costs into variable costs, and that’s an insane amount of leverage for businesses that have limited resources to work with.

The biggest question that business owners need to ask before outsourcing is whether or not they’re dealing with something that can be addressed with the people and the resources they have on hand. They may be surprised at how much they already have to work with when they take a hard look at things, but if that’s not the case, it’s incredibly easy to get what they need with a few simple phone calls. In the bestselling book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich Timothy Ferriss extoles the virtues of outsourcing absolutely everything and shows how to do it so successfully that you can run your business from anywhere.

Other Recommended Books:

Vested Outsourcing: Five Rules That Will Transform Outsourcing; Change is the new status quo in today’s business world. New smart, lean and more efficient methods for increasing a company’s market share and top line have been created, and the adoption of their methods and practices will be the differentiator between growth or failure in this new business environment.

In Vested Outsourcing, supply-chain innovator and lead researcher Kate Vitasek has created a new business model that will transform outsourcing procedures the way business management strategies Six Sigma and Lean improved production processes in the 1980s and 90s. Based on a research study by the University of Tennessee with the United States Air force, Vitasek has identified the top 10 critical (and often invisible) flaws inherent in almost all outsourced business relationships. She then shows organizations how to reinvent their outsourcing relationships to ignite innovation, improve service, lower costs and increase profit.

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About the Author:

Marie Into writes for financial blogs where you can get information about tax accountants.