As an entrepreneur, your time is valuable. It shouldn’t be wasted on things that can be automated, or done by other people. Your focus should be on growth, strategies, management and networking.
Luckily, we live in the era of outsourcing almost any task.
Outsourcing involves hiring a third party company to tackle a designated area of your business. It could be anything from a one- off job (such as building your company app), or it could be an ongoing cooperation, such as hiring an accounting company to deal with all of your financing needs.
When you run a business, it’s important to utilize all of the tools that are at your disposal, and the use of third party companies is one of them. There are plenty of ways that outsourcing can play to your advantage, here’s how
The benefit for startups
Outsourcing is something businesses of all sizes can, and do utilize. But when you’re starting out and don’t have huge amounts of cash in the bank it can be really useful.
Instead of spending money on larger premises, more equipment, hiring and training staff and more, you can pay a company who already has what they need in place to take care of that area. It enables you to get tasks done or run entire areas of your business without having to personally manage things yourself which makes it extremely convenient and efficient for you.
When you’re first starting out and your time is split between many tasks, taking the pressure off in one area means you can fully utilize your working days doing things that suit your skillset and will most benefit your business.
What areas can you outsource?
If you’re running a startup or a small business, here are the things you can outsource to not only keep everything under control and keep making revenue and providing value, but to also free more time for yourself:
1. Content creation.
There are some wonderful freelance writers out there, with expertise in your exact field, that don’t cost much.
They are working for themselves mainly, and can be found on platforms like UpWork, Guru, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour and more. Their work is quality, and you don’t need to pay until you’re happy with the piece.
Find the right candidate and work with him long-term. Then, move onto hiring more people if that strategy is working out for you.
Get someone to take care of your blog – who will not only create content but publish it and update it frequently, get someone for your newsletter and another writer for the social media campaigns.
2. Marketing.
Promotion is as important as creating a product or service these days.
So make sure you have someone good enough, who’s willing to take control of your brand, develop media pitches, reach out to influencers, be active on social media on your behalf, and more.
Improper marketing methods are a waste of time and money and can even lead to bans in search engines which will massively affect your traffic and therefore profit. A marketing agency will know their stuff and how to promote you correctly using white hat techniques.
3. Bookkeeping.
Business owners often neglect this part, and regret about that in the end when they have to pay higher taxes or miss out on many benefits.
Get a bookkeeper who’ll be responsible for your accounting and finance. It’s his job to pay your bills, manage your money, tell you how your business performs and make sure everything’s in order with all the papers and data.
What’s more, you can hire a company that offers back office solutions and never have to worry about expenses again, as a whole team will be keeping things up-to-date.
4. Administration.
You know what administrative tasks are. These are the tedious, repetitive small things you need to do online all the time. They’re really boring, and something that can be easily outsourced to a virtual assistant.
Find someone who’s working quickly and doesn’t charge much, and you can basically let him do anything you can think of.
5. IT services.
Another thing you can outsource in your business and let the experts do what they can do best – code.
It’s alright if you’re not tech-savvy, many successful entrepreneurs aren’t. But finding the right guy, letting him know what you want exactly, teaming him up with your other staff members, that’s what you’re good at.
You don’t need to manage complex data, hardware and computing resources. Your energy is better spent working on the business, rather than in it, so consider utilizing IT services for your business.
6. Health and safety
WHS consultants are up to date on all the latest laws and advice so you wont put your company at risk for being sued due to improper practices
Why is outsourcing beneficial?
Outsourcing is a great way for businesses of all sizes to save money, but it also gives peace of mind that each job is being done to the highest standard.
When you hire a professional company, you know that they have years of experience dealing with that area of business, they already have the equipment, staff and knowledge in place and you wont need to oversee anything as a business owner. This can take a lot of pressure off you and enable you to use your time on other things.
So, what’s not to love about outsourcing? It can jumpstart your business growth, lower your costs, free up your time, and finally let you reach work/life balance.
What else can you outsource in your company?