The 5 Major Pros of Outsourcing Small Business Services

Do you have time left in the day to focus on truly growing your business? If not, then you’re missing an opportunity to outsource the tasks that are taking your time away from your core competencies. Discover the five major pros of outsourcing for any small business below.

What is Outsourcing?

Investopedia defines outsourcing as,

“the business practice of hiring a party outside a company to perform services and create goods that traditionally were performed in-house by the company’s own employees and staff.”

Outsourcing as a business strategy has increased with access to technology and a global economy. Outsourcing does not just mean sending jobs overseas, but working with specialized firms right here in the U.S.

Small businesses may be hesitant to hand over control to an outside firm or expert, but the truth is that relinquishing that control could be the best business decision you ever made.

Types of services you could outsource

  • Marketing
  • Transcription
  • Legal services
  • Website design & development
  • Bookkeeping
  • Public relations
  • IT services
  • Human resources
  • Payroll
  • Accounting & tax services

This list could go on. For every area of running a business, there are experts available to subcontract that area of expertise. The best types of services to outsource would be services that are either highly specialized or highly repetitive. Focus on outsourcing the tasks that take your time away from your core competencies.

Top 5 pros of outsourcing at your small business

If you own a business, it can be difficult to give up control. But even though you may want to be involved in every aspect of your business, outsourcing can actually be better than doing it all on your own.

1. Outsourcing saves your business money.

It’s expensive to find the right internal employee for the job. The service becomes a fixed expense, you need space to house that employee, and you’ll need to spend extra for benefits.

When you outsource a service, it’s a cost-cutting measure. Those fixed costs become variable costs. Variable costs releases capital for investment elsewhere within the company. That capital can go straight to revenue-producing areas. The fact that you’re focusing capital on growth makes the business more attractive to investors. It’s the snowball effect of success!

2. Outsourcing increases efficiency.

If you want to do everything internally, you are going to spend unnecessary time and money on upfront costs, research, development, etc. If you outsource a task or project, that outside team is ready to go right away. Tasks will get done quicker, and more efficiently. That efficiency leaves more time for you to focus on the unique strengths of your business.

3. Outsourcing reduces risk.

When you work with experts, they will better understand the risks associated with their areas of expertise than you can. Allowing experts to take over and manage that risk makes the entire process less risky!

4. Outsourcing levels the playing field.

You can’t afford to staff your business like a large company can. Outsourcing levels the playing field between competitors, even if your competition is significantly larger than you. Better technology and access to subcontractors has made the small business owner able to compete effectively right away.

5. Outsourcing allows your business to grow.

The bottom line of all of these benefits is that outsourcing work can give you the time to grow your business. Do you have time left in the day currently to pursue growth? Or are you caught up in repetitive daily tasks and trying to find internal support for highly specialized projects?

Once you outsource your weaker areas and focus in on your strengths, your business can flourish. Concentrate on the revenue-producing areas of your business and allow an outsourcing firm to take care of the other stuff.