For any growing business, there will come a time where you have to consider making changes to how you operate. One of the most difficult decisions for expanding businesses is whether or not to outsource aspects of the business. While increasing your own in-house staff has benefits, there are many arguments for outsourcing, and some of them may surprise you. Consider the points below and then ask yourself: is it time for my business to outsource?
Outsourcing can save you time
While the prospect of vetting and interviewing different outsourcing agencies may initially seem daunting, outsourcing can actually save you a considerable amount of time. Consider the time you might typically spend recruiting people to fill positions in your company. By outsourcing, you only have to go through this process once and then they will take care of hiring the individuals to complete the work.
However, you do still need to take the time to find the right agency for your business. Columba explain that many companies ‘still rely on word of mouth and personal recommendations to choose an agency [but to] confidently appoint an agency that really suits your needs, your process needs to be air-tight.’ They suggest that the way to help brands find their perfect outsourcing contract is to get a shortlist from experts in the field first. This will save you time and increase the likelihood of you finding a good match.
Outsourcing can save you money
Perhaps typically the highest motivator for a business considering outsourcing: outsourcing can – indeed – save your business money. For one, you can use freelancers or private contractors who prefer to be self-employed and cost you a fraction of the price of a full-time employee. Secondly, you can save on money by passing on the onus for purchasing and maintaining more hardware and technology to the outsourcing company. Thirdly, you can hire professionals in countries with a lower cost of living than your own and, thereby, still pay them well but at a lower cost to you.
The caveat to this last one is that, if choosing an outsourcing company abroad, you make sure that the employees of that company are being paid fairly for their work; as this is an ethical responsibility for business owners who are outsourcing to poorer nations.
Outsourcing can help you focus
If you are expanding your business, you probably want to be able to keep your focus on what your brand delivers; rather than everything which goes on behind the scenes. Outsourcing can provide you with a great advantage in this area, as you can retain your hiring power for a task force best equipped to deliver your brand to the end-users and allow someone else to take care of your IT, accounts or marketing.
The most important thing is, of course, that this allows you to focus all of your attention on building and expanding your area of expertise, leaving other experts to handle the rest of the business protocols.
Outsourcing can improve the quality of your brand
Now, unfortunately most people’s opinions of outsourcing today are still tainted by frustrating customer service calls to foreign lands with poor reception. Indeed, Raconteur magazine explains that ‘the term “outsourcing” remains very much a dirty word’ for the majority of consumers; so make sure that your business challenges this assumption. Thus, it is vital that, while it saves you money, the quality of service doesn’t depreciate for your end-users.
The good news is that outsourcing, if done correctly, can actually help to improve the quality of your brand. If you opt to work with an agency to find your outsourcing contracts, you can be very specific about your requirements. You should then be able to rely on them to be accountable for finding the best company for you to outsource to and to fix things if you’re dissatisfied with the quality of the outsourced business.
Outsourcing can improve the speed of your business
When you are outsourcing work to companies in different time zones, it can speed up your turnaround for jobs and projects exponentially. For example, you may well send off a job request before going home, and then come in the next morning to find it has already been completed.
International outsourcing also means you can provide round-the-clock business and customer service, expanding your money-making hours.
Is it time to outsource?
Small Business recently published an interview wherein it was highlighted that it can be challenging for business owners to relinquish control over aspects of their companies. However, this doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. Now that you have considered these points, you need to go away and think carefully about what is right for your business.
Sources:
https://www.raconteur.net/business-strategy/outsourcing/digital-evolution-outsourcing/
Outsourcing: Encouraging business growth
