Services to Consider Outsourcing
When you are a small business owner, money can be tight, as well as resources. You can feel like you never have enough time, and can often take on a lot of work, to keep in control, as it is your business that you want to grow, build, and scale. That is why many small businesses can benefit from outsourcing some of what you need to do.
You can’t do it all yourself when you’re the owner, and often taking on more staff just for a couple of tasks isn’t always necessary, as there are extra costs involved with that. Which explains why outsourcing is growing and growing, and something that many small business owners are turning to.
In fact, more than half of businesses say they are increasing how much they outsource, with less than 10% saying that they will no longer outsource. So, if you choose to outsource, you will be in good company.
To really make outsourcing work for your business, you need to make sure that you are outsourcing in all of the right areas. If you have a small business that you want to scale, there are a number of outsourcing options that can really make a difference.
Here are some of the services that are best to outsource, if you’re thinking of doing this more.
IT Services
Many small businesses don’t have the kind of resources or skills that are needed in order to maintain IT services and keep them going as required, in-house.
Throw something in like a Black Friday sale and a website could crash without the right support, hindering the growth of your business. The good news is that there are a variety of benefits to outsourcing your IT services.
It can help with the performance of your IT, as well as massively help to reduce costs, as you only need help as and when you need it.
When you have the expertise of an IT professional, then they will be able to give you the skills that you need, and it can be a worry off your mind.
Many small businesses will outsource things like data centre services, disaster recovery, network maintenance and monitoring, as well as an IT helpdesk, if required.
Accounting
Accounting is a task that all small businesses need to do, and a lot will tend to do themselves to start with. Of course, that can be a big learning curve, and if you feel able to, then it can be worth doing.
However, looking to outsource and assign bookkeeping tasks to someone else can really help the business. As the business grows, things can become more complex, especially if you have more employees, and are making more money.
The good news is that outsourcing things like bookkeeping and accounts are really simple. In fact, the majority of small businesses tend to outsource this to someone else, until the business reaches a size where it makes sense to hire someone as part of your team to do it for you.
Accounting can be something that needs to be correct, so if the thought of it fills you with dread, then now is the time that you should look to make the switch and start to outsource.
Consulting Services
Small businesses can face some changes and disruptions from time to time. These things can range from dealing with an external disruption to having to implement new policies or acquire new processes. In these instances, it can be helpful to outsource these tasks to consultants who are experts in the area.
You can hire consultants to just deal with one specific task, or they can be hired for a set length of time. If you are going through a merger process, for example, then they could be with you for a month, rather than a couple of days when working on something specific.
Digital Marketing
If you are not skilled or experienced in digital marketing, then you need to remember that it is something that requires some specific expertise and skills. If you have people in-house to do this, that can be great. However, if not, outsourcing is a fantastic option.
When you choose a digital marketing agency to help with your digital strategy and help to implement it, then it is a weight off your shoulders, and they will have proven experience with previous campaigns and planning.
Print Marketing
This can depend on what your business is; however, print marketing is something that is still really effective. It can help to make your marketing message run through to all aspects of your marketing, and it can help engage consumers in a practical and engaging way.
The planning and design of it all is important, though. If you miss the mark a little with this, then it can fall flat. That is why an expert in print marketing, especially around brand cohesion, can work well for your business. You don’t want to spend money printing out materials that will then be wasted.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is something that is vital for small businesses. Even if you don’t have an online presence, which would be very rare, you need to keep your computers and emails secure.
So many small businesses will have websites that need to be secure, as well as customer information from addresses to bank details. Even an in-house team for IT might not have the exact expertise that you will be looking for on this, and to hire a team to do this in-house can be very costly.
Outsourcing and working with cybersecurity specialists can help your business, as well as being a much more cost-effective solution. This can help to give you the specialist with the skills that is needed, but they can also provide the software that will be best to use, in order to keep your business safe and free-from hackers.
Outsourcing for your business is something that can have a big positive impact on your growing businesses. It can help to provide many cost-effective solutions, as well as offering you a range of flexibility that can benefit the business, and help it to scale and grow.
Which services are you outsourcing in your growing business? Or haven’t you started outsourcing yet?
Image Credit: Pixabay
