Save Money and Do More with Less
When times are tough, you need to cut corners at your small business wherever you can if you want it to survive. You can save on costs by outsourcing certain tasks rather than spending time doing them yourself or hiring new staff for them. In fact, there are a lot of benefits to outsourcing some of your small business work. Here are some key ways outsourcing can help your business save money and operate more efficiently.
Outsourcing Benefits
Outsourcing some of your company’s tasks lets your small business:
- Save Money. A contractor does a specific task for money. All you do is pay for that task. To hire additional employees, you need to pay them for a certain amount of hours every week, pay for their training, and pay for their taxes and benefits.
- Focus on the Essentials. A lot of the tasks involved in running a business are necessary, but not really related to your mission. Outsourcing these tasks frees your staff to focus on generating income.
- Benefit from Expert Talent. Most small businesses can’t afford to hire expert talent. However, outsourcing allows you to benefit from their expertise when you need it for a much smaller expense.
- Boost Revenue. Outsourcing makes it possible to temporarily expand capacity when you need to, letting your company take on additional work when the opportunity becomes available.
Tasks You Should Outsource
Your small business can benefit from outsourcing the following tasks:
- Content Creation. If your business has a blog or social media presence, you need the regular creation of original web content. It is usually cheaper to hire freelance writers for this task than to dedicate one of your employees to the task. The same goes for creating web videos and any other content your company needs. You’ll also probably get higher quality content by hiring professionals than you could by doing it yourself.
- Payroll. Doing payroll eats up a lot of time every month. Hire a payroll contractor service to do it instead.
- Accounts Receivable. You rely on the timely payment of invoices to fund your operations, pay your employees and your bills. By outsourcing your accounts receivable processes, you can enjoy steadier, more consistent cash flow.
- IT. Unless you are an IT solutions provider, it’s probably cheaper and more effective to hire an independent IT contractor to take care of occasional IT problems instead of hiring permanent IT employees.
- Repetitive Tasks. If your business involves simple, repetitive tasks, farm them out to low paid contractors instead of keeping employees dedicated to doing them.
How to Outsource
There are a lot of freelance contractor websites out there in many different industries. Not all of them are created equal, though. Search for reviews online to find the ones with the best reputation. You can also talk to your colleagues and business associates and ask them for recommendations for good contractors for the kind of work you need done. Finally, you can take out an ad for independent contractors at a lot of job seeker sites.
In addition to finding a contractor, you also need to draw up a contract that explains exactly what you expect from that contractor, as well as what you are obligated to do. Be very clear about what you expect, otherwise you’ll just end up wasting a lot of time later on.
Related Article from Business News Daily: Effective Tips for Outsourcing Work to Drive Growth
The Bottom Line
Outsourcing can help your small business function more efficiently, saving money and doing more with a smaller permanent staff. It can help your company make it through the tough times and lay the foundation for expansion when times get better.
About Universal Funding
Universal Funding is a private funding source that has funded thousands of businesses and more than $2 billion since 1998. We turn your accounts receivable into the funding you need through invoice factoring and can have capital in your hands in a matter of days.