Outsourcing refers to the practice where companies entrust the processes of their business functions to an external vendor. This includes functions like transcription services, payroll, call center services, transaction processing, image manipulation, and a lot more.
It’s important to acknowledge that one employee can’t handle all the different tasks. You can hand off tedious tasks and tasks you’re not familiar with. This will help save money and boost business productivity are just a few outsourcing benefits.
Here are 6 areas of your business you could outsource to off-the-shore staff and grow your company more effectively.
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1. Technology
During the early days starting your business, all you might need is a laptop and a few basic techs. However, as your business expands, you may need specialized technology, especially in IT.
IT operations can be costly to handle in-house. But, the question most startups struggle with is whether to outsource several areas of their internet security or not.
There are many instances where outsourcing computer, network and data security makes a lot of sense. For example, you should consider outsourcing if there is no proper in-house skills and resources.
Also, if you don’t have the budget to make a full-time hire, you cannot overlook outsourcing benefits. Even cybersecurity experts sometimes outsource cybersecurity. This creates more time to engage their employees and improve other aspects of their business.
Companies need to make sure that they hire professional cybersecurity providers. This is because it outsourcing is one area to be very careful with when seeking off-the-shore help.
It’s a good idea to hire the best firm for your company’s specific needs. This can save you lots of money as your business need for a comprehensive system increases.
2. Visual Content
Sooner or later you may need photos for a newsletter or brochure or your blog, website or social media. Many new tools can help do this by yourself. But sometimes you may need the training and touch of an expert to take your presentation to the next level.
Nothing hurts like spending hours on end creating visual content only to find out it doesn’t look as professional as you hoped. If your competitors are using professionals to create their visual content, shots from a camera phone could seem inferior in comparison.
3. Human Resources
Human resource responsibilities can be time-consuming, especially for a growing team. Every team you bring in new employees, your human resource duties increase proportionally.
Mishandling human resources such as failing to pay appropriately and firing without consideration can cost your business. Failing to execute your duties properly can create headaches with the labor department. It can also cost you money and even lead to a lawsuit.
Depending on the kind of help you need, you could outsource human resources to a single or several providers. Outsourcing to a payroll service to process your employees’ compensation or recruiter to find talent are just a few areas you may outsource.
4. Accounting and Financial Tasks
According to research, your productivity may drop up to 40% when you multitask or manage several projects at once. The projects take more time to finish and your stress levels may increase. Many experts agree that juggling is an illusion and all there is task-switching.
No business wants to make costly mistakes when handling their finances. A company that doesn’t watch its finances can quickly lose money (through interest and fees) or even suffer a miserable tax session. This is one reason to hire business outsourcing services to help you with financial jobs.
It also costs less to organize your accounts than trying to catch up at the end of the year. Individuals and accounting firms can help with many financial tasks, including financial planning, analysis, and reporting. They may also help with invoicing and bookkeeping.
5. Administrative Tasks
There’s no doubt that many company employees spend most of their time doing administrative tasks. You may find most of your in-house employees do repetitive tasks you can outsource to someone else.
It’s smart to outsource these duties to people who charge less for their time than what you pay in-house employees. Small businesses can hire a part-time admin assistant. However, if you own a big company, you should consider outsourcing your admin functions to a virtual assistant agency.
Some of the admin tasks you could delegate to an outsourcer. This might include polling, surveying, focus group testing, research, and data collection. You may as well off-load your travel arrangements, note-taking and minute preparation, personal errands, and calendar management.
6. Social Media Marketing
Social media channels are not limited to branding and communication. Businesses use sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter for lead generation. More companies are also using messaging tools like WhatsApp for businesses.
Marketing on social platforms isn’t always easy as it requires you to invest a considerable amount of time. For instance, your job doesn’t end with publishing a post on a social network. You need to respond to users and participate in conversations.
Many business owners think that they can manage their social networks by occasional posting stuff about their company. If your mission is to reap benefits from social media, you’ll need to invest in growing your community. Outsourcing this task to experts will likely bring in good returns.
You can have a social media manager monitor and grow your followers. Plus, you can use tools to add social network managers and approve what they post on your business’s social network.
Take Advantage of Outsourcing Benefits to Grow and Scale Your Business
If you’ve got lots of tasks, taking care of them yourself can be tiring and time-consuming. Doing tasks you don’t enjoy can be draining and make you start to dislike your business.
Thankfully, outsourcing various tasks can relieve you of some of this burden and win back your time. Think of these additional expenses as investments. Most businesses that outsource some of their tasks have proven that outsourcing benefits are worth every dollar spent.
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