The Advantages of Outsourcing for Small Business Owners

The advantages of outsourcing for your small business are immeasurable. Sharing the workload or time-consuming tasks is sometimes essential, even if you’re the most charismatic, multi-talented multi-tasker in the world! After all, “Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.” – James Cash Penney

For small businesses, a lot of work goes into evolving and staying ahead in the hyper-competitive market. While the business is still in the start-up phase, the business owner adorns a lot of roles whilst ignoring the benefits of outsourcing. Apart from concentrating on the core business functions, small business owners and managers tend to invest a lot of time in handling small tasks such as hiring, accounting, small business bookkeeping, payroll processing and much more.

The habit of micromanaging vs the advantages of outsourcing

Micromanaging – the need to do everything yourself is actually like digging a grave for your business with your own hands. No one has made a law that you must do everything by yourself.

As small business owners, we understand the need to look for every advantage available to stay ahead of competitors. And one of the most effective ways to do this is by outsourcing certain business activities and concentrating more on the more important areas of the business.

Outsourcing for a small business: is it necessary?

Outsourcing has nothing to do with the size of your business. It is the process of hiring third-parties to handle work that is normally performed within the enterprise to give the business owner more room to concentrate on the core business functions.

Large-sized organizations have been leveraging the gains advantages of outsourcing for decades, to efficiently manage their business processes. If you’re a small business doing all the paperwork by yourself and doing things your own way, choosing to exploit the advantages of outsourcing could be a wise choice.

Still not convinced? We bet, by the time you finish reading this article, you will definitely rush to seek someone to share your load.

Top 3 benefits of outsourcing for small businesses

The real benefits of outsourcing is that it can essentially help your small business to facilitate growth and expansion. Here are the top benefits of outsourcing all small businesses must know to take the first step towards hiring a third party.

1. You can focus more on your core business areas

Owning and running a business are two different things. Act like an owner. It’s good to do things by yourself, but only up to a certain limit.  

Administrative and support functions of a business such as; payroll, bookkeeping, resource management, accounting, and managing the website, entail a lot of time and effort. Instead of managing too many processes at once, focus on achieving core competency in specific areas, and set your sights on growth. 

Outsourcing the support and admin activities will save you a lot of time and help you focus on your key business processes. When a business outsources, it becomes more adaptable and can take on new opportunities faster than competitors who still do everything in-house.  Focussing more on the core business means better scope for new opportunities, especially short-term projects.

2. Outsourcing pros: save money for future

Cost-cutting is one of the major reasons why small businesses must consider outsourcing.

In fact, 59% of businesses who outsource consider it as a cost-cutting tool. Outsourcing allows you to avoid large-scale investments and convert fixed costs into variable costs, thereby controlling capital costs.

It also saves labour costs, since you can focus on hiring human resources that you need the most. Hiring strong resources for certain business processes allows you to take up on new projects and deliver faster, thereby improving the overall sales and business growth.

Outsourcing gives your business much more flexibility in managing costs and investments. Instead of hiring full-time in-house resources for tasks such as graphic designing, content writing, you can hire freelancers at lesser costs.

Hiring freelancers will also benefit you from investing in the employees’ office equipment and space, medical benefits and other employee policies. 

3. Outsourcing improves productivity and expertise

Outsourcing unimportant tasks can save you a lot of time and allow your resources to focus more on the important tasks.

For small businesses to flourish in a competitive world, there needs to be a competitive advantage and expertise in specific business areas. Outsourcing gives business owners the ability to evolve their area of expertise and stay afloat while maintaining an aggressive advantage.

Still don’t see the advantages of outsourcing?

Cherry-on-the-topadvantages of outsourcing

Apart from the above-mentioned advantages of outsourcing, there are a few more that aid in the overall growth of small businesses.

• Building brand credibility: When you hire more people to work for your business, your brand visibility and credibility improves. This benefit is often overlooked.
• Increase competitiveness: Your start-up is competing with both large and small businesses. Hence, hiring third parties that have a foothold of the industry and its changing trends will help you stay ahead of the competition.
• Leverage expertise and skills: Hiring third parties for handling various business operations gives the business owners an opportunity to work with qualified professionals having varied skill-sets and expertise. This will eventually affect the quality of work and therefore the overall growth of your business.

Requirements for outsourcing to keep in mind

We are sure, you’re now considering outsourcing your business functions. Here’s what you need to know and take into consideration to do so successfully:

• Build a strategic plan and vision for your business
• Have clarity regarding the company objectives and goals
• Maintain strong relationships within as well as outside your business
• Have open communication with all your staff
• Involvement and support from senior leadership is necessary
• Make sure your vendor agreements and contracts are structured

Wrapping up

Outsourcing and its advantages can act as a catalyst in the growth of your small business. If you’re a business owner doing everything by yourself, outsourcing would be the right thing to do to move towards rapid business growth.

Lastly, a piece of advice: when you outsource, place your trust in your third-parties. Micromanaging the tasks you’ve outsourced is nothing but a big waste of time, money and resources. 

Happy outsourcing!