How To Make Better Use of Outsourcing To Grow Your Small Business

Outsourcing is one of the most important considerations to keep in mind when you want to grow your small business. It allows you to bridge the gap between your current employment situation and hiring new staff. For many small businesses, hiring is simply far too expensive and just not practical. However, sticking with your current team might not be working out for you, so it’s important to eventually get some new talent on board.

This is where outsourcing comes in handy. By hiring specific people to do certain tasks, like hiring managed IT services, you can greatly improve the productivity of your business at a fraction of the cost of a new hire. However, while outsourcing is popular and used by almost every business by now, it does have its disadvantages and it’s important to keep an eye out for these if you want to grow your business safely and securely.

How much is outsourcing really costing you?

One of the first considerations to keep in mind is how much outsourcing is actually costing you. This sounds like a strange question to ask because you can simply look at the invoice that you’re being charged every week, month or whenever you request the services of a company. However, there are actually some “hidden” costs of outsourcing that not a lot of people know about.

If you constantly need to outsource a task, then it’s likely going to work out to be more expensive than just hiring an employee in the first place. If you outsource the same service for multiple years, occasionally switching the service you use and having issues with the company, then you could’ve saved money by just hiring someone in the first place. Not only does this give you a full-time employee that you can rely on, but it also helps you nurture their talent which is great for future growth.

What tasks do you really need to outsource?

It’s also a good idea to consider what tasks actually need to be outsourced and if it’s relevant to your needs at the time. A great example of outsourcing is to use an efficient phone answering service. This saves you a lot of time because phone calls tend to be extremely long and drawn-out, but they can also be your window of opportunity to grow your business or connect with different clients.

The same logic applies when it comes to managing cloud IT services. While some businesses may benefit from building an in-house IT team for the more specialized or industry-specific tasks, but outsourcing cloud it support services can be a smart and efficient choice too. This can allow your internal team to focus on critical, business-centric technology needs while ensuring that routine maintenance, updates, and troubleshooting are handled by professionals who specialize in cloud services. By outsourcing these day-to-day responsibilities, you maintain a streamlined operation without overwhelming your in-house staff with tasks that could be better managed externally.

It’s incredibly important that you consider what tasks you need to outsource. Some of them could be done by you, some of them should be done by full-time employees, and others can be much cheaper if you find the right freelancers to work with. Regardless of the situation, it’s absolutely vital that you carefully consider your outsourcing options and if they’re really better than hiring a full-time employee.

Outsourcing too much will hinder your growth

When starting a business, it’s common to outsource tasks because you’re a small business with little experience and every little influence in the industry. However, once you start growing larger, you open up more opportunities for growth that you need to take advantage of if you want to maintain your success.

A great example of this is in your hiring power. As you get noticed in the industry, the chances of hiring new talented employees increases. You also have more capital to teach them new skills through training programs, and you can offer higher salaries to draw in industry professionals. This essentially means that you’ll have 

Outsourcing too much can also cause your business to stagnate. If you’re not nurturing new talent and including the employees in your overall plan, then it could become problematic in the future. You need to breathe new life into your business by hiring talented employees that will eventually become your next superstars. If you’re always relying on outsourcing, then you could be limiting your business’s potential growth, thus costing you a considerable amount of profit.