“Isn’t outsourcing just for big companies?” Well, not really. Small businesses can also benefit from outsourcing, and as a business owner, you should be aware that you can’t do it all. The sooner you realize that, the better.
Cutting costs may not be the only reason why companies outsource, but it is definitely a significant factor. Outsourcing can lead to tremendous savings. Since the cost of living is much lower in other parts of the world, especially in Asia, it is relatively easy to negotiate a lower rate with your provider. In fact, if you outsource parts of your business, you’ll only have to pay a fraction of the amount that you would usually pay.
Besides that, you’re don’t have to pay for the usual employee benefits like social security, Medicare, and workers’ compensation if you outsource outside the US. That can certainly save you money. Although, you can always offer bonuses or perks to keep your employees happy. You also don’t have to allocate money for office space and supplies.
Of course, there are small business owners out there who just don’t like the idea of outsourcing tasks that they can do themselves. You’ll hear them say, “Why would I hire someone if I can do it myself?”
Okay, think of it this way. As a business owner, time is your most important asset. So why would you go and spend all that time doing tasks that you could easily delegate? You’re better off using that time to grow your business. You’re not going to scale up if you spend most of your time doing admin tasks.
According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Outsourcing Survey, around 59% of companies outsource to reduce costs.
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Small business owners may not have the resources that larger companies have, but they can establish a level ground for competition by outsourcing.
How can they do that? Thanks to outsourcing, you can surround yourself with the right people who can help you take your business to the next level. Since you don’t have to worry about geographical restrictions when you outsource, you will have access to the best talent from anywhere in the world – including professionals that have proven track records in their fields. This allows you to offer the same quality of products or services that large companies can.
“Progressive entrepreneurs realize the unstoppable power of outsourcing to handle aspects of their business that are essential but simply don’t make sense for them to deal with personally. Small business, augmented by a global pool of human capital, can compete directly with the biggest players in their space, and win,” says David Walsh, entrepreneur and author of Source Control.
According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Outsourcing Survey, 28% of businesses outsource to gain access to expert talent and knowledge.
Outsourcing allows you to focus on the most important functions that will help your business grow. Many business owners like to keep things in-house, but it’s actually more efficient if you spend your time doing what you’re really good at. So if you’re a consultant, you should concentrate on your coaching. Not on accounting, marketing, customer service, or data entry. If you’ve been doing all that yourself, then you’re not doing it right. Get someone else to do all those tasks. This way, you’re freeing internal resources for other purposes.
Okay, here’s an example of a business owner not using his time right. Let’s say you’ve been playing around on Canva because you want to design a visually appealing logo. Why would you do that when there are plenty of freelancers on sites like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer.com, and 99designs who are willing to create a logo for you for a small fee? Just take a look at their previous works and hire the one you like the most. Of course, you still have to give feedback and communicate your ideas, but that shouldn’t take much time.
The reason why we outsource is to free ourselves up to focus our time on revenue-generating activities. If you have been doing all those tasks yourself, you’ll only end up slowing down your company’s growth.
“Most entrepreneurs have great talents but many times they think they can do it all. That can really stall the growth of the business. By outsourcing the day to day back-office tasks, the business owner has more time to focus on generating income,” says Laura Lee Sparks, owner of Legal Marketing Maven.
According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Outsourcing Survey, 57% of the companies that turned to outsourcing decided to do so because it enabled them to focus on their core business.
Want to scale up and down quickly as business demand changes? Outsourcing can give you staffing flexibility that just doesn’t exist with in-house employees. So while it usually takes time to scale up with a local workforce, you can easily respond to an increase in demand or workload. And once the peak season is over, you can scale down without losses.
We have to be capable of adapting to changes given that conditions can change at any moment, and outsourcing allows us to do just that.
Now that we have talked about the reasons why you don’t have to do it all in-house, let’s move on to the last section of this article – finding the right place to outsource.
Our go-to site is OnlineJobs.ph, the largest online job board in the Philippines (with over 500,000 resumes). So why remote workers from the Philippines? Well, aside from the affordable rates, virtual employees from the Philippines are generally hard-working, and they happen to speak fluent English, so they’re easy to work with.
OnlineJobs.ph is relatively easy to navigate. You just have to sign up, post a job ad, and wait for the resumes to come in. If you have any questions just give us a nudge. We’re happy to help.
* Disclosure: The link above is an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To find out more about our view on affiliate products, please see this page.
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