BUILD A BETTER BUSINESS WITH OUTSOURCING

“Almost all entrepreneurs possess great talents but they think they can do it all,” If you are thinking on the same lines then that can really stall the growth of your business. By outsourcing the activities that do not complement the business’ theme along with day to day back-office tasks, the business owner has more time to focus on activities, generating real value and revenues.”

Earlier, entrepreneurs perceived outsourcing as a strategy reserved for big business or only for the industrialist but, today, the power of technology and the revolution of digital era has made it an easily accessible tool for small enterprises. According to the survey conducted in the world, many small scale businesses have left a powerful impact on their growth, productivity and bottom lines due to outsourcing.

You can find many small businesses outsourcing their tasks these days because technology has empowered everyone to that point where professionals are being able to work from anywhere in the world, companies can get access to the supreme quality of work by opting to taste various outsourcing means such as managed IT teams. The availability and accessibility of extremely qualified professionals like business architect, virtual executive assistants, marketing managers, graphic designers, content writers, IT specialists, come on board can save the small business owner from the burden of paying overhead associated with payroll taxes and expenses such as salary and other allowances, worker’s compensation, as well as the space constrictions that growing a company in-house can present.

The first step towards outsourcing can be risky and time-consuming, but figuring out how to build your business with professionals can multiply your efficiencies and economies of scale.

1. What to Outsource?

“Sometimes there are things you don’t want to do but they are important to your core business and often there are things that don’t require your involvement but you love to learn and spend your efforts and time over them.”

Before picking up the tasks that can be farmed out, take a hard look at your business and determine your core activities, competencies, resources, strengths and goals. Outsourcing any aspect of the above mentioned factors would be a big mistake as they may cease to offer their unique selling points to their customers. The types of tasks that are best outsourced require proficient expertise or skills, some specialized knowledge or the ones who are highly knowledgeable in structuring, scaling & sustaining technology at businesses. 

2. When to Outsource?

For every company, the right time to outsource may vary depending upon the business objectives and goals. When you or your current team are having a lot on your plates and it seems that your company’s growth has become stagnant due to lack of time or efforts, outsourcing should be readily opted to pace up the process. The experts and the ongoing trends suggest that outsourcing should be an integral part of every business from day one as no business big or small is self-sufficient to do everything on their own in this 21st century where new things, trends and technologies are born every day.

3. Finding the Right Match

Before handing over the reins of your dreams in the hands of a person, be sure that you have selected the right caretaker. While technology has made it a cakewalk to find the capable and reliable outsourcing partners, it is still one of the most cumbersome jobs to pick one king among the million available jacks. The selection process is the most crucial and important part of the entire outsourcing process.

Whether you use a freelancing platform, a personal referral, or a personalized consultant, the key to identifying the right match is to know and tell exactly what you’re looking for and to up front discuss that what performance metrics are important for each task that you are looking to outsource.

At initial stage, the outsourcing may seem easy but if the process ends with the pitfall, it becomes the most disappointing and unavoidable task, full of speculations or aiming something in dark.

4. Making that happen

After you’ve found a service provider, your work isn’t over yet. As a great leader you should communicate your expectations and the steps included in the job clearly; never assume that people are thinking on your lines. To avoid the occurrence of communication gap, it is very important that the requirements and expectations are cleared out in the beginning, and nothing is left to assumption.

Even when you clearly state your expectations, there will be a learning curve on the provider’s side, which is highly dicey so you have to take report, manage and sync the different branches and nodes. When all is set well then you will have the freedom to focus on more important tasks.

As an outsourcer, your ultimate responsibility is to step back, relinquish control, and allow your new dedicated team members to do your assigned job.

5. Facing the Challenges

While outsourcing can yield great advantages for a small company, it comes with a heap of new challenges. Language barriers, time zones and cultural drifts can be some of the peculiar and inevitable ones. You cannot enervate them if you are hoping to get the best for your business. Even if you hire an employee, there are security risks with him along with the fear of losing him if his table as an offer of a higher package. Be it an employee, a freelancer or an agency; the owner has to be extra cautious to ensure that everything falls in place and the growth graph is exponentially increasing.

6. Reaping the Benefits

Despite various risks, outsourcing remains the only option for business owners to achieve greater and faster success rates. Because, in today's fast-paced technological era where there are numerous ways available to apply and scale your business, doing everything or hampering your in-house workforce to achieve it, seems to delay your transformation initiatives.

This stream allows you to have a team of proficient experts without bearing the expense of full-time employees, as the proficients will work full-time as an extension of your in-house team from a remote location.

It saves you every day from getting bogged down with tasks that can be completed without your supervision and your involvement. It’s an affordable and proven strategy for growing your business without letting your digital transformation initiatives fail.

When you outsource, you can figure out the new paths to take your business to greater heights in an agile manner and employ your company’s core competencies in setting new goals and finding the ways to achieve them.