When you first get started managing a small business, it’s likely that you’ll be wearing all the hats. But as your small business grows, you won’t be able to do everything by yourself. In the modern world, social media alone is a full-time job for a small business owner!
If you’re considering outsourcing services don’t worry – you’re not alone. It’s revolutionizing the small business world and opening all sorts of opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise!
In fact, 54% of small businesses work with outsources to achieve their objectives, according to one study. Often most companies start to outsource virtual assistant.
Why are small businesses choosing outsource services?
One of the main reasons small businesses usually outsource work is they don’t want the heavy costs associated with hiring a full-time employee.
Yet they want highly skilled and quality team members to help them grow their small business.
As every entrepreneur knows too well, there are never enough hours in the day. So, as operations start to grow, small business owners often decide to outsource to give them relief so they can get to the “real” work.
It’s important to remember that people hire small business owners to solve a problem. And too often the small business owner get’s buried under administrative work and spend less time working with their clients.
Sadly, the small business owner often struggles with a few bouts of burnout before they act on outsourcing services.
But that’s story for another day!
Outsourcing services really are a game changer!
For example, an entrepreneur might decide to hire a video editor to process some of their social media videos. Perhaps you only need that video editor for 10-15 hours a month? It would be hard to get hire someone in house for those hours.
When you’re outsourcing services it’s a great arrangement. They can work for you and 10 other clients virtually. They don’t need to drive all over town accommodating everyone’s schedule. They may even have a few systems and processes to make video editing efficient whereas you would be starting from scratch.
What are the real benefits to businesses outsourcing services?
There are many benefits to outsourcing services for small business owners.
1. More time to focus on the work that brings you revenue.
As all small business owners know time is a huge limitation. The bottom line is there are just never enough hours in a day to keep up with your work never mind grow your business.
Even if you foolishly try the occasional all nighter!
You will still be short of time!
We all know building a business is time consuming to say the least!
There is always a certain about of pre and post work regardless of the type of work you do. And this is how small business owners get trapped in the administration web.
By using outsourcing services, small business owners run their business instead of digging through tasks always trying to get to the “real” work.
2. Hire outsourcing services to do specific tasks
It’s easy to get disillusion when you’re building your small business. You start out solving a problem for your clients and that’s what brings in the revenue. Slowly there is administrative tasks associated with your work. It gets confusing quickly and you think these tasks are part of your zone of genius but they’re not.
You want to have an expert that can shred through the paper work like a ninja. You want to outsource those tasks to someone who has that as their zone of genius. Instead of you constantly trying to dig your way out of it all.
3. Outsourcing services are extremely cost-effective!
Hiring employees is expensive, we can all agree on that. There are payroll taxes and benefits alone that can easily overwhelm the small business budget.
It’s also expensive to have desks, and the space to put the new employee(s). In addition you would need software applications for people to do their job. In the example above I talked about a video editor.
When you outsource to a video editor they would have all the latest tools and software to do their job. Not only would this save you money but let’s be honest, you don’t even know which one to buy?
4. Easily Invest In Your Small Business.
If you’re a small business owner who has recently decided to outsource some of your company’s workload, you’ve likely noticed that one of the biggest benefits is the way outsourcing saves you money. Imagine if you could utilize those savings in a way that drives more work to your business!
This allows you to invest in training and new equipment that helps you directly with the service you provide.
5. Improve your small business systems and processes
If you’re looking for a way to improve your small business systems and processes this is a great place to start! When you are running around doing it all, you’re fling by the seat of your pants.
You also tend to rely on memory which is dangerous.
Businesses are not run on memory!
Outsourcing allows you to have access to more resources than you would otherwise, and those resources are available to help you with all of your needs as they change over time.
You’re working with people in different regions, in different business communities with different resources. The video editor will know before you when there is a change in how videos are being used on line. And more importantly they will know how to do it!
Where to start when outsourcing for your small business?
So you now realize the huge benefits to outsourcing but what can you outsource?
When you started your business, there were things you had to do and those were often in areas you lacked skills. But, you likely thought you would muscle through and save money. There is so much the modern day small business owner has to and can thus outsource.
Let’s be frank, most of us can barely keep up with the demands of social media.
Each year the social media beast seems to grow as well as the technical skills to keep on top of it all.
Social media can be a nuisance at best. It’s like a pebble in your shoe or the boulder rolling down the hill!
You can outsource these jobs and more!
So I’ve made a list of things you could get off your desk, so you can have more attention to the problem you solve for your clients.
-Managing your social media platforms
-Researching competitors so you can market place knowledge and become even more creative.
-Pre and post work to your actual work (there is always paperwork regardless your industry).
-PR research to get you on podcast, or guest blogging
-Repurposing your content to get more mileage of your work and create a bigger reach.
How to Know what to use outsourcing services for?
We all know that the workday flies by. And when it’s time to go home, you’re often left with a laundry list of tasks that still need to get done. If you’ve got a small business, you may be tempted to take on as much as possible yourself. So ask yourself: what should you consider before outsourcing?.
1. Is it critical to the success of your business.
If something is absolutely critical to your operations, by all means keep that responsibility on your own plate. The last thing you want to do is to outsource a really important task to someone only to find out the hard way they made a costly mistake.
However, I want to remind you there are all sorts of things associated with “the critical” that someone else can do. For example perhaps your a public speaker coach, you could outsource:
-research to get more speaking gigs
-the onboarding process for your new clients
-nurturing your social media relationships
-combing platforms for speaking opportunities
2. Do you really need to learn this for your business?
Do you need to learn another new thing?
For so long I thought that I had to learn everything first and then train my outsourcers. But I’ve found that sometimes it’s more efficient for me to let them implement the systems and process while I only learn just enough to get by. If a problem arises, my outsourcers can usually figure out how to fix it; if not, they’ll find someone who does know how.
What was interesting about this approach was that it allowed me a lot more time and energy to focus on other aspects of my business that generate revenue.
So try letting your outsourcers do the heavy lifting for you and watch your business grow!
3. How much will NOT outsourcing cost my small business?
It’s a common question!
How much will it cost me to outsource my social media management?
We get that. But here’s the real question: how much will NOT outsourcing cost your small business?
For every hour you’re busy doing random administrative tasks, what deals are you missing out on? How many potential clients could you be connecting with? How much further could your business grow if you had more time?
What tasks are you going to outsource?
No entrepreneur can do it all by themselves. Truth be told, there comes a time in every small business owner’s life when outsourcing tasks is a necessity for taking the company to the next level.
Since you’re reading these words, you’re on the precipice of witnessing the upside of outsourcing first hand. Form a plan, start small, take things piece by piece, and you’ll do just fine.
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