Follow These Steps to Implement an Outsourcing Strategy

Outsourcing can help your company make better use of its resources. It can expand your company’s capacity without much increasing its costs. If you have never explored the idea of outsourcing, though, you may not know how to start implementing it in your company. This article outlines the benefits of outsourcing and the steps to initiate an outsourcing strategy.

How Outsourcing Can Benefit Your Company

Some of the tasks you and your employees do are core tasks. That is to say, they are the activities that form the heart of your business. Producing the products or performing the services your company sells are core tasks. Finding and serving new clients are also core tasks. A lot of the tasks that you and your employees have to do, however, are not core tasks, they are simply tasks that are a part of almost any business, such as accounts receivable management, recruiting staff, and IT services.

It makes sense to hire employees to help with the core tasks. After all, the essential tasks are critical to your business’ success, and you need to have talented people who really know your business dedicated to doing them. It doesn’t make sense to hire employees to do the others tasks. Hiring an employee is expensive. There’s not only the matter of wages, there are also other costs such as benefits and training. Also, these other tasks may not fully occupy your employees’ time, meaning that you are paying them more than you need to get those tasks done.

What Tasks are Appropriate for Outsourcing?

Your business will benefit most if you outsource support tasks rather than core tasks. Let the important stuff be done by you and your highly trained staff. The exception to this rule is tasks that require expertise that you do not have on your payroll. In general, you should outsource IT work, as small businesses do not generally have enough to justify hiring an IT expert on permanent staff. You can also outsource invoicing, payroll and bookkeeping tasks. There are a lot of companies dedicated to handling these things for small businesses. You can also outsource any simple, repetitive tasks that don’t require a lot of training.

Outsourcing tasks that do not require specialized knowledge of your company and industry allows you to get them done for minimal cost and frees you and your employees to concentrate on the core tasks. You and your employees do not have to be distracted by repetitive tasks when you outsource them. You can instead focus on those things that are most critical for your company’s success. Additionally, when you outsource non-core tasks, you can often get them done by experienced people who specialize in these tasks, which can increase your productivity.

How to Implement an Outsourcing Strategy

If you have not looked into outsourcing before, it can be difficult to know how to get started. Here are some initial steps you can take to get the process initiated.

  1. Figure out which tasks are core tasks and which are not. IT services, administrative services, and payroll are all excellent candidates for outsourcing. Many tasks that are not unique to your business can be usefully outsourced.
  2. Determine a budget for each of the tasks. Don’t skimp too much on cost, because you want to get a good value and hire quality experts.
  3. Find freelancers and businesses to hire for each task. There are online marketplaces for many common business tasks. You can also do web searches and ask other people in your industry for recommendations. Alternatively, you can run advertisements for freelance help and have the freelancers come to you.
  4. Initially, have the candidates handle just a few tasks on a case-by-case basis. If you find that those contractors are not meeting your expectations, you don’t have to hire them for more work. If they do meet your expectations, offer them long term contracts for regular work to be paid for on a piece-by-piece basis.

The Bottom Line

Outsourcing your company’s non-core tasks can make it more efficient. It can help you and your employees stay more focused. It can make the difference between success and failure for your business.

Related Resources

Build a Better Business by Outsourcing

Operate More Efficiently by Outsourcing

4 Reasons Small Business Owners Should Outsource Their Accounts Receivable

About Universal Funding

Universal Funding is a nationwide invoice factoring solutions leader, supporting growth-focused businesses with scalable factoring solutions. With its invoice factoring, payroll funding, and purchase order financing services, Universal Funding provides clients with the working capital needed to grow and support their businesses without taking on new debt. Ranked as one of the nation’s top invoice factoring companies, Universal Funding provides cash flow financing for businesses all across the United States.

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