All businesses must plan parts of the business that potentially, can be outsourced. Trust is a major factor if outsourcing involves customer touchpoints, but delivers value back by getting more done in less time and ensuring better quality. Business owners cannot be experts in all aspects of running a business with too many tasks requiring specialist knowledge. For example how abreast of latest tax regulations while working 16 hours daily and an accountant does help. The weekly blog writing commitment can be met by an external copywriter or a virtual assistant. The costs involved in outsourcing matter little if a value of your hourly rate is considered. Outsourcing to save hours, ensures benefits to add up.
Quality control your extra resources
A proactive outsource partner to lead in driving the activity rather than waiting for instructions about what to do. Never spend time on reporting and account management which eat into your monthly budget, with regular review meetings and assessments to keep your outsource company on their toes. Do change things if they don’t work out. If not realising value from your outsourcing investment, take remedial action as early as possible. To focus on your business, handle what can and outsource the rest? A business owner has a million and one matters to attend to. Outsource your work to ensure free time to do what matters for you. Waiting for retirement to defer your tasks to someone is an out-dated concept. Instead connect to a freelancing platform and take your pick of outsourced experts.
Letting go
Many business owners are intelligent with great work ethics and usually can carry out most business tasks. Why pay external designers when you can prepare a brochure using Adobe skills? You spend more time on it than you think and the end result may be basic. Evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses and learn to let go by outsourcing. If a team member has HR or legal skills, keep those activities in-house. However, for a new IT network, outsource to an IT specialist that ensures latest expert knowledge in security patching and networking. Time-consuming tasks such as chasing payments take up much time but are very important. Outsourcing payments collections and direct debits save time and boost your cash flow. Search for activities requiring specialist knowledge like digital advertising and marketing which are cost-effective in boosting website traffic and generate new business leads. Setting up an account takes minutes. For optimum utility, set up optimum bidding strategies, create superb ad copy and devise a landing page to convert traffic to leads. Other outsource areas include designing /operating a website, preparing accounts, payroll calculations, branding and design strategies.
What not to outsource
Outsourcing is not the answer to every business problem, as your challenges cannot disappear overnight. Some critical aspects of your service or product should be retained in-house. Never put your Intellectual Property at risk by revealing critical information outside the business. Providing consistent and excellent customer service is key for success. Your own employees for field sales roles, customer support or training customers, is essential. Often outsourcing leads to inflexible scripts and inadequate attention other than attending to routine enquiries? This can impact your customer perception of your brand in the future if their interactions are less than positive.