It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is; the chances are that you’re going to need help at some point. There are some misconceptions that small businesses shouldn’t outsource certain tasks, but while outsourcing a service does cost money, it can make a lot of sense.
Basically, outsourcing allows small businesses to grow and develop by picking up tasks you and your employees aren’t trained to do. This means that you get to focus on your business, while a third party sorts things out behind the scenes. Outsourcing can be a game-changer for small businesses, and here are a few ways it can do that.
1. Hiring and Headhunting
Hiring employees and outsourcing services isn’t an either/or decision. You can do both, and to be honest, you probably should. The trick is working out when to hire and when to outsource. That is a whole other article, but the short answer is that you hire people who you need full-time. But for a service that comes and goes, you’re probably better off outsourcing.
Funnily enough, hiring actually covers that bracket. You don’t necessarily have to hire employees all the time, but you should hire as and when you need people, especially if you’re running a smaller business.
Outsourcing your recruitment allows you to put together a job description of what you need, and you are then much more likely to actually get more candidates through a recruitment agency, whether you need temporary or long-term workers.
2. Bookkeeping and Tax Management
If recruitment services can find employees and grow your business, bookkeeping and tax management can prevent your business from falling into a tax pit. If you outsource your bookkeeping, you massively reduce the chance of making mistakes while bookkeeping, which makes it easier to keep accurate records for your tax return.
As your business grows from a low-income sole trader to a business with income, outgoings, and employees, your taxes become messier. So get someone else to do it and save yourself a headache.
3. Digital Marketing
Another way to spend your money is on marketing. Marketing has a really easy-to-track ROI, which is great for small businesses trying to determine where to invest their cash. As a general rule, marketing is one of those tasks that’s just too big to do yourself.
Marketing companies know how to push struggling small businesses into successful businesses that people have actually heard about.
4. Transcription Services
On the administrative side, transcription services can be fantastic for certain industries. Do you find yourself in a thousand meetings with clients and shareholders? Or do you run a business that lives or dies on accurate records?
Transcription services take audio and video recordings and turn them into documents that you can access and read as and when you need them. This means that you don’t lose any important information, and you don’t have to lock the intern up with all of the recordings and make them spend their day transcribing with limited accuracy.
