Join the outsourcing wave

It could easily be perceived that outsourcing has increased in popularity as a reaction to the pandemic, but its story goes much farther back.

Very far back, to the 1970s in fact in the US when manufacturing companies began hiring outside firms to manage “less-than-essential” processes in a bid to increase efficiency.

But now, with the increase in remote working accelerated by the pandemic, outsourcing has seen a progressive increase and it is now ready to peak. This is mainly because the restrictions with office work have served as proof to many businesses that a large percentage of work can be done just as well, remotely!

And probably the biggest wake-up call has been for small businesses.

Even back in 2018, more than one-third of small businesses outsourced at least one business process. The most common are IT services (37%) and digital marketing services (34%).

And why were they doing it?

24% said that they were looking to increase efficiency and 18% to receive assistance from an expert.

This trend has snowballed and now 80% of small businesses are outsourcing their services.

Stay small and grow big

While we are starting to see larger companies reverting to outsourcing work instead of the previously popular method of bringing everything in-house, the biggest gains to be had are definitely for small businesses.

This very much goes against the old thinking of needing to be a certain size to outsource, but it has become far more widely accepted now that you’re never too small to start outsourcing.

Why is this?

Mainly because by outsourcing services in your business, you can reduce overhead costs by not bringing on full-time employees while entrusting important and skilled tasks to experienced professionals.

Additionally, by outsourcing offshore (to non-US citizens) businesses can significantly reduce their tax obligations and create a diverse team able to cover a broader number of timezones increasing their ability to reach international clients.

The idea of outsourcing for small businesses is that they can significantly ramp up their output and services to offer more to their customers and consequentially grow their business through increases in lead generation, revenue, and inevitably referrals.

What is often overlooked though are the small jobs that can be outsourced.

While increasing output and expanding services have clear benefits, so do outsourcing more functional processes such as website maintenance, content edits, and accounting.

The “small stuff” you should be outsourcing

Now, we say the “small stuff” but these are vital parts of your business operations, most likely outside of your realm of expertise.

They’re the sort of tasks that appear relatively small from the outside but are in fact significantly more involved, intricate, and important than we might give them credit for.

Accounting

Accounting is arguably one of the most important functions of a business to “get right” and if you are a small business, hiring a full-time accountant may not be a viable option. For this reason, it is increasingly common for this service to be outsourced, and many accountancy firms are beginning to understand this and operate remotely.

Possibly the biggest concern with outsourcing accountancy is the security of information, which is why it can be beneficial to work with a larger organization. That way you will also benefit from a larger team and you should not feel the effects of vacation times or disturbances to the consistency of the service.

With standards, legislation, and technologies constantly changing, this can also be another great reason to work with an established organization that can implement efficient processes to grow your business by being proactive rather than reactive.

Website maintenance

Keeping on top of your website maintenance can offer huge tangible gains for your business.

As the only 24-hour lead generator in your team (we assume), ensuring that your site is up to date in terms of performance, uptime, and security should always be very high up on your to-do list.

But, it’s notoriously not the easiest thing to do.

In spite of being generally a very easy to access and use platform, WordPress users will inevitably start to struggle when plugins need updating because they are not all designed to work in harmony with each other.

And for most business owners, investing large amounts of time into learning website development just doesn’t make good sense.

This is where we once again fall back on the most important principle of outsourcing which is the access to the expertise you can gain from outsourced website maintenance services.

Admin

In the world of admin, nothing quite beats an assistant in terms of providing the most value and benefit to any busy, or even not-so-busy small business owner.

Realistically, it doesn’t matter how busy you think you are, the advantages of having someone to manage your entire schedule can hugely expand your scope for work. That is the real work of growing your business, not just running it.

Virtual assistants are able to take on these responsibilities with the added benefits of greater efficiency in time management and productivity.

With so many virtual assistants now working freelance, you can bring on a VA without a long-term commitment and you can pay them on a productive work-time basis. That means that you do won’t be throwing money away on a salary-based work schedule, but instead paying only for the time spent on performing important tasks.

In other words, no more paying for coffee breaks and downtime!

Marketing

In the multi-faceted world of marketing, there are plenty of opportunities for outsourcing. Be it hiring a social media manager, expert copywriters, or content creators, outsourcing these tasks can provide small businesses with access to talent that leads to quantifiable gains for your business.

While it may not be such a “small” thing, it is possible to break marketing down into sub-categories meaning that a business doesn’t necessarily need to go all-in from day one but can instead test different approaches via different services.

Fortunately, many aspects of a successful marketing strategy will lend themselves well to others, such as the possibility of re-purposing content across multiple platforms and channels.

For example, you could create a podcast or edutainment-style blog and tease content across your social media profiles extending the life of content and reinforcing the investment value.

Get back to business

By outsourcing the “small stuff” you can increase efficiency, keep costs under control, and focus on the parts of your business you enjoy and are great at doing.

Outsourcing grants you opportunities to expand your team and make the most of expert skills without the overheads traditionally associated with building a team in-house.

But you can, and should try and retain that in-house feeling of a team. First off, don’t forget to properly onboard your outsourced remote team and then keep in regular contact with them via Zoom and Slack, or whatever services you prefer.

Remember that every task your outsource partners are doing for you is a reflection of you and your business, so make sure they really get to know who you are.