As a small business owner, you want to focus on growing your business and bringing in new customers, right? If issues like social media, payroll, recruiting, bookkeeping, or business technology related tasks are distracting you, it may be time to outsource some of these areas.
Outsourcing is when a business obtains a product or service from an outside provider rather than handling it themselves. Outsourcing allows you to get more done and trust important tasks to professionals who specialize in it without having to increase the size of your full-time team. As a result, you get to keep costs down and increase your overall business efficiency and productivity by having the time to focus on the client-based areas of your business.
You might be thinking...outsourcing is only for big companies, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. If you're ready to save time, reduce costs, and increase your profit, keep reading for some tips to help you grow your business with outsourcing.
Know when you should outsource. Every business should have a core team working full-time to deliver products and/or services of top-notch quality and address customers' requests and concerns. If you team members are getting bogged down and distracted by social media, workflow, invoicing, paying bills, IT challenges, etc, they are reducing your overall efficiency and productivity and you should consider outsourcing some of these tasks.
Identify the tasks you should outsource - like highly repetitive or expertise-specific tasks. You should make sure to keep all tasks related to core products and/or services and customer success within your full-time, in-house team and outsource other tasks. Highly repetitive tasks such as e-mail sorting, calendar management, scheduling, payroll services, and business tech or expertise-specific tasks such as bookkeeping, social media, advertising, content creation, graphic design, web development, and tax planning and preparation are great candidates for tasks to outsource.
Find the right experts to partner with. Think about the following questions while you are trying to find who to work with: Do they have the expertise and experience you need? Do they believe in your company and your products/services? Do they love doing their work? Do you click personality-wise? Do their services fit within your budget? If you answered yes, then you found your new partnership.
Work responsibly with the selected vendor. Once you've found the right vendor to outsource each task to, you should focus on getting the most out of your partnerships. Make sure that expectations and task guidelines are clearly outlined and communicate any steps involved in the task. Trust your new vendor with their job and don't micromanage or there is no point in outsourcing. Figure out what the best project management platforms and communication methods are to keep your tasks and deadlines organized and on track.
Track the performance of your teamwork. Tracking is crucial if you need to weigh the costs versus the benefits of outsourcing this work. This will help you identify who your most valued relationships are versus which tasks may be more easily completed in-house. Regularly evaluate the performance of your partnerships and communicate frequently about any dissatisfaction or improvements necessary. This will help you build a team that you can rely on.
Did you know that more than a third of small businesses currently outsource at least some of their operations and even more plan on exploring this option in 2023?
If you aren't a financial expert, it can take a lot of time to learn all the skills needed to maintain your regular bookkeeping and use those numbers to do more advanced financial analysis like tax planning, profitability analysis, cash flow analysis, and an overall evaluation of expenses. When you outsource your bookkeeping to Nightfall Bookkeeping, we become your business partners for financial success. We'll help you consider your company's bigger financial picture, make confident spending decisions, and budget for future goals.
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