As the economy grows increasingly digital, the possibilities for remote work increase. Even if your core business model doesn’t allow for remote work, there are certainly back-end aspects of your business that you can outsource to others. Let’s take a look at the benefits of outsourcing.
How Can You Benefit From Outsourcing?
The most important benefit of outsourcing a task is that it allows you more time to focus on what’s most important: developing a great product or service for your best customers.
This is where a shift in mindset is required. As an example of outsourcing – many business owners think they’re saving $35/hour by doing their own payroll or bookkeeping, rather than using outsourced bookkeeping services. But what’s the opportunity cost of that time?
If you could be using that same amount of time to work as the CEO of your business on strategic tasks that generate revenues of $100/hour plus, you’re effectively losing out. Outsourcing lets you level up your time efficiency.
There is another benefit of outsourcing to a specialist. Let’s look at another example of outsourcing and its benefits. You may be faced with the decision of whether or not to invest thousands of dollars in software for your business. But if you utilize an outsourced service that already uses that software and only charges you a license fee for the aspects that you need, you could save significantly. You spend less, and a specialist gets to use the expensive software to its full capacity on your behalf.
If you choose to outsource globally, you can also take advantage of “geo-arbitrage”. This means paying 30-40% less to a specialist who lives in a country with a lower cost of living. This isn’t about taking advantage of people – what would be considered minimum wage in the United States is often a very comfortable living in other countries. You benefit by lowering your expenses; they benefit by receiving a living wage.
What Can I Outsource?
With cloud-based software solutions for nearly every situation, the outsourcing possibilities are endless. Nearly any of your back office support services can be handled out of office.
Outsourced Accounting & Bookkeeping
Well, of course we have to put this first! At Bluebird Partners we make it easy for you to outsource all of your accounting services. And there are many benefits to consider.
QuickBooks Online and other accounting software has made it possible for us to serve businesses not only in California, but across the country. We can handle bookkeeping, payroll, end-of-period accounting tasks, business tax preparation, and your essential back office services.
You can expect great communication, professionalism and all of your accounting services to be expertly taken care of for you.
Marketing
No business owner needs to be racking their brains for social media post ideas, or shooting darts at a board trying to understand SEO and how to find their ideal customer.
The benefit of outsourcing this function to someone who works with this all day, is that you will have a marketing strategy that works and is more cost effective for you.
IT and Customer Service
Most businesses today rely heavily on technology. From file sharing to cloud computing and a reliable internet connection, having outsourced IT support on hand is extremely beneficial.
Administrative and HR
Virtual assistants can help with nearly every task a CEO might need to outsource, from lead gen to email responses and appointment setting. Hiring an outside firm to handle your personnel needs, with the help of some HR software, can be the key to cutting costs without compromising quality for your team.
Training and Educational Services
Gone are the days of needing to get your whole team together for a training day with a professional. As an example of outsourcing, you could turn to online, cloud-based education and testing services. These allow you to provide training resources to your team, either as a group or individually. You can also track your employee training progress online. Your team and company can benefit greatly by outsourcing this role.
Before You Outsource
Before you outsource a task to an outside company, you need to consider what you want, and how you will go about getting it.
If you want to truly benefit from outsourcing your bookkeeping and accounting, you need to have a clear idea of what you want the provider to do and the end results you’re looking for.
To outsource successfully, you have to know exactly what you need, and exactly what the project will look like. Define your business goal, and the end metrics you need to get there. Remember, you’re paying for results, so you have to let your contractor know what results you need.
Research your service provider. Make sure you’re getting the most professional provider possible. Check their portfolio of work, results from past clients, industry experience. You need someone who can handle the work you want to give them, and that will work well with your company ethos and culture.
Finally, be realistic. True, you’re hiring an expert, but you’re still the boss. You can’t expect to hand over the work and wash your hands of it until you get the results. Keep regular communication and feedback flowing between you and your contractors.
FAQ’s
Outsourcing saves money in a few different ways. First, it reduces training costs. Instead of training a new employee on your software, you can hire someone who is already an expert.
It also allows you to pay only for the results you need. Instead of paying salary and benefits to an employee or entire department, you get to pay a few hundred or thousand dollars a month to get just what you need.
Outsourcing allows you to focus more of your time on your core business, without the internal weight of back-end work.
It also allows you to benefit from more specialized, high-end software solutions than your business might be able to afford on its own. By effectively sharing the cost of the software with your contractor’s other clients, everyone benefits.
Both business owner and contractor benefit from outsourcing. It allows two (or more) businesses to symbiotically thrive.
