Outsourcing is a business strategy in which a company acquires the services of an outside party to handle certain tasks or part of operations for the company. It is also done instead of hiring new employees or assigning those tasks to existing employees.
Most businesses get the services of an outside company to lower operational costs or to streamline certain operations while still handling important functions. The outsourced company arranges for its own workers and systems to perform tasks and services either on site or remotely.
Outsourcing of tasks may be occasional or seasonal, such as the hiring of external accounting services to do taxes once a year or contracting cleaning services rather than hiring full time janitors.
Companies today outsource several tasks or services involving information technology, programming, application development, as well as technical support. Businesses may also outsource other types of tasks or works as well, including, but not limited to human resources tasks, manufacturing, financial functions, or part of, or even entire divisions or departments.
For many years, the outsourcing market revolved mainly around manufacturing, but today, outsourcing has expanded to include varied types of goods and services.
Reasons for Outsourcing
Businesses often outsource to lower costs. Other reasons are to improve operational efficiencies and speed. When a company decides to outsource, they rely on the expertise of the third-party provider to gain benefits.
The underlying principle is that the outsourced party focuses on a particular contracted task or tasks, and can do a better, faster, and cost-effective way of performing the required work.
With such benefits, businesses often engage in outsourcing support functions within their companies, so they can focus their resources more often on their core competencies, to help them gain competitive advantages in the market.
Some companies decide to outsource for other reasons as well. A prime example is they are unable to do specific tasks or jobs in-house. Outsourcing when done well can help grow businesses without compromising quality.
Why Business Owners Should Outsource
If you find yourself spending too much time in handling business-related tasks such as, working on social media campaigns or digital marketing when you don’t really know how. Or even managing and scheduling client meetings when you barely have time attending to them, then it might be time to consider outsourcing.
Businesses can outsource nearly any task that doesn’t require being on site to complete. This may include bookkeeping, email management, customer support, social media, and more.
Remote work from agencies, for example, specialise in a specific industry or perform specialised tasks. For instance, one business might choose to outsource IT and technical support, while another might prefer help and guidance with digital marketing efforts or social media outreach.
Benefits of Outsourcing
Businesses opt to outsource to avoid the time-consuming process of hiring and training new employees, while at the same time allowing the business to grow. The business case for outsourcing may vary by situation. Outsourcing benefits include one or more of the following:
Frees up your time to do what you do business – by enlisting third party support, it saves you time to invest in growing your business. Outsourcing helps you streamline your processes and allows you to take back your life and precious time.
Allows for business growth – when you find the right person or team that can help and provide support for your needs, it will open an entirely new avenue of growth for your company.
Increases efficiency – while most companies appreciate skilled staff in multiple areas, it sometimes makes more sense to bring in specialists than to train employees. An outside contractor may have the experience and expertise that your current staff lack. Tasks will be done quickly without delaying regular operational tasks.
Increases Client Capacity – In simple terms, successful marketing is reaching your target audience and giving your sales a boost. Outsourcing your marketing campaigns, for instance, helps you connect with your audience and can convince them to buy from you.
Lower Costs – outsourcing lowers cost by cutting on labour costs than full-time employees who receive benefits and require office space. Also, it can be more cost-effective for some companies to hire short-term outside contractors when demand is higher than to hire new employees.
Additionally, if the growth of your business results in the need for more office space, outsourcing simple operations is a cheaper option than moving or adding a new location. The cost would be far less than the price of expanding office space and more efficient than relocating.
Further, outsourcing helps minimise costs by allowing your business to get the same amount of work done for less.
Types of Tasks That Can Be Outsourced
Outsourcing allows businesses to get more than and entrust important tasks and processes to experts and professionals without having to grow your full-time staff significantly. More than a third of small businesses outsource at least some part of their operations, and even more are exploring this option.
For small businesses, outsourcing allows them to get more done while keeping costs under control, increase efficiency and lets them focus on their business’ aspects that they enjoy and are good at.
Outsourcing can be helpful for several business areas and industries. Here are some areas where you might consider it:
Social Media
Managing social media can take so much of your time. It has become a critical tool for keeping in touch with business partners and customers. Even maintaining a single social media site may require up to 32 hours each month.
With its own set of standards and skill set, hiring an expert is the preferred option. By outsourcing your social media to a professional, you can entrust your social media to someone who has experience in advertising, knows how to develop new ideas, and driving engagement regularly.
Administration
Having virtual assistants (VA) are now commonplace in a lot of industries. They especially work well for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who work out of a home office. VA’s can handle multiple tasks, from inbox management and scheduling to social media posting.
This is often the least expensive ways to outsource, as VA’s charge by the hour, which rate varies with a particular speciality.
Client Communication
Customers expect companies to be responsive and communicate with them in meaningful ways. Outsourcing client communications help businesses deliver personalised and effective communications that they need to keep customers happy. This is one primary reason many businesses are outsourcing this critical business function.
Graphic Design
The creative sector today has been overtaken by the practice of outsourcing design tasks. By outsourcing, it may also help you acquire new design ideas or provide a fresh outlook for your design projects. Not to mention, contracting out design tasks is the most effective approach to reducing overhead and labour expenses.
Content Creation
When you outsource your content creation and development, you can easily enact adjustments to your business’s changing needs. You can either hire multiple creators when there is a need to, or purchase content in bulk, easily switch between different pools of content creators, and more. Outsourcing content creation can also help you fine tune your content strategy to achieve the best possible results.
Copywriting
Without a good copy on your website, you won’t be able to effectively communicate with your target audience. Alongside this, you won’t be able to engage and convert your traffic and establish your brand as an authority in your industry.
By outsourcing your copywriting needs, not only does it save time by writing the copy yourself. You get copies that perform better, and in some cases, you also get expert recommendations from your copywriting provider that may help you make strategic decisions for your content marketing.
Bookkeeping
Another task that is essential but tedious and time-consuming. Virtual bookkeeping services can propel your business to new heights with no strings attached. The most apparent advantage of outsourcing bookkeeping is decreasing mistakes and enhancing accuracy.
Accounting
It is one of the most common areas where small businesses choose to outsource. If you are not a financial expert, it would take a lot of time to learn the proper skills and processes required. Not to mention following the compliance standards that your company must meet. By outsourcing a skilled accountant, they can typically manage this area with ease and for multiple clients at once. This saves you money and increases efficiency.
Contract Creation
Contract outsourcing uses the skills of a specialised partner to negotiate and manage contracts. This empowers businesses to stay lean and focused on high-value tasks.
Outsourcing help businesses avoid pitfalls to keeping contract work in-house. Organisations that internally manage contracts diverts scarce resources away from growth and higher-value legal work.
Legal Document Creation
Legal document creation is very important for businesses of all sizes. It is a powerful tool to assist in the lifecycle and part of contract management. The traditional process of creating and drafting a legal document can take a lot of time from start to finish.
The time alone in manually, or internally drafting, legal documents can be inefficient and the process unreliable. To ensure no costly mistakes are made, many companies now outsource legal document creation.
The above are just some aspects of business that can be outsourced. There are more tasks that businesses can outsource aside from these areas cited above. But the best way to determine if and when a task should be outsourced or not is to first determine what parts of your business you are struggling with to fulfil.
The weakness you find in your operations are usually the most ideal tasks that you can outsource. Leaving these tasks in the capable hands of seasoned outsourced experts will ensure that these problem areas can become places of growth for your business.
Ready to get started?
If you would like to learn more about the power of outsourcing and how to get started make sure you book in a free consultation with Angie Martin’s team from The Growth Manager.
Additionally, begin your outsourcing journey by solidifying your contractor contracts and legal documents using Law by Design’s incredible fixed priced offerings.
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