Have you ever thought about Outsourcing one or more of your tasks on any given day? From repetitive administrative work to social media there are a variety of benefits to outsourcing. Most small business owners find it vital to achieving their business goals
There are a lot of challenges to successfully scaling your small business. You don’t want to fall into the old school mentality of grinding it out and just trying to keep up. Let’s learn more about outsourcing tasks and the pros and cons of Outsourcing any of your small business tasks.
Understanding the benefits of Outsourcing will help you decide if this is a good fit for as a business owner.
Pros of Outsourcing
Outsourcing can save business owners a lot of time and money. Here’s some ways to maximize your results!
1. Saves Money
Outsourcing really gives you an advantage to growing and scaling your business. In the past, these options used to only be for much larger companies. Now you can your business to become efficient and effective instead of you always running around trying to keep up. You can focus on businesses core competencies instead of being trapped in busy work.
With outsourcing, you don’t need to wait until you have enough work to maintain minimum hours. This is a huge savings when it comes to small business labor costs. You’re only paying for exactly what you need. Not any padded hours to meet a minimum requirement.
You also don’t have a lengthy hiring process. You need help, post a job, put your hiring process in place and in 24 hours you can have the project moving forward. No missed opportunities! You could have a virtual assistant working for you by the end of the week.
You also don’t need to pay the overhead that is associated with a hired employee. For example, if you needed someone to edit your social media videos. This would require expensive fixed costs like a desk, computer possibly needing more office space. All of this is avoided when you outsource. You can increase your revenue with new projects without the burden of heavy overhead costs. It really decreases your operational costs, which is a good business practice.
2. Access To A Better Talent Pool
We now have the ability to work with people around the world! Our talent pool is wide open which means we really get some amazing options.
Imagine if you were building a football team would you want the best talent from your local area or around the world?
In the past businesses were limited by geography.
Depending on:
– how many hours you offered
– and how much you paid
– determined how far someone was willing to drive to work with you
Now you can hire from anywhere on the planet.
In fact, outsourcing to the Philippines has been very successful for many entrepreneurs.
This means your talent pool is unlimited. A new team member can come from anywhere.
3. Lower Labor Costs
Did your grandmother ever tell you stories about when she was a kid…
And how a candy bar only costs 25 cents…?
and for a wild moment you thought how great it would be to go back in time!
Well, this is a bit like that!
With outsourcing services now being global, it gives you a variety of hiring costs. Entrepreneurs are dealing with different economic regions and the pay expectations vary. This means you can get very affordable and high skilled labor that would fit well into the needs of your small business day to day operations.
Lower labor cost does not mean you are trading quality for price. The level of talent has been highly impressive really adds to your professional services. Any successful company will tell you if you have issues with your team members it’s likely your hiring process.
Cons of Outsourcing
It’s important to understand any concerns you may have with outsourcing despite all the benefits.
1. Communication Issues
Some small business owners have concerns about communication issues. If you’re outsourcing from the Philippines, will there be cultural differences or language barriers?
Philippine outsourcers are generally fluent in English and strong verbal and written skills.
There are some cultural differences. As a culture they tend to be more polite and formal in their day to day communication. For example, they may address you as Sir or Ma’am until redirected. The more experienced outsourcers however know better. Regardless most business owners find this easy to address.
2. Time Zone Concerns
Some business owners are concerned about the time zone differences. In some cases there may be a 12 hour time difference.
Many outsourcers are used to working in different time zones. They are also willing to work the over night shift as well. However, great success has been with the outsourcer working their evenings, your mornings and the remaining hours while you sleep. Many small business owners have found this even more productive. They get to their desk and more work has been done overnight.
Access
At the end of the day all you have is your outsourcers email address. If for some reason they don’t show up it just feels like you have less options. This is a common complaint when dealing with outsourcers.
When somebody works for you locally and they don’t show up for work it just seems like you have more resources. (However, I don’t think you do. It’s very easy to ignore a phone call). And when was the last time you drove to someone else who didn’t’ show up for work?
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