Small businesses have big dreams. These dreams face financial realities that can hinder growth and stall innovation. In the early years, business growth relies heavily on the business owner to develop those critical relationships with clients. Because of this, the business owner, you, must find ways to free up your time, or your business will not grow. This means freeing up capital in order to replace yourself in those functions that are better handled by someone else.
One option to free up your time is to outsource some standard business functions. There are a variety of primary and secondary processes that can be outsourced. Not only does outsourcing free up financial resources, it allows the organization to focus on its core strengths. Outsourcing provides a number of benefits that can provide an organization the flexibility and freedom to quickly respond to changes in their market. Two main considerations when exploring how outsourcing can help your organization include controlling costs and gaining expertise.
The first and most obvious benefit of outsourcing is reducing labor costs. The effects of outsourcing on labor costs is two-fold. If your organization has a short-term project, this process reduces the expense of recruiting, hiring, and training temporary employees. In other words, if your organization has a busy period, outsourcing can help provide that temporary relief with experts in a particular area. Secondly, outsourcing can reduce organizational cost through long-term support. One commonly outsourced business function is payroll. These examples are not all inclusive, but provide quick examples of where your business can look to improve organizational financial health.
This outsourcing benefit has its roots in the adage that you don’t know what you don’t know. Subsequently, some business leaders know what they don’t know. Therefore, as a business owner who makes Widgets, you know how to make a Widget and what goes into making a Widget. However, do you know how to sell a Widget? Do you know how to market a Widget? Do you know how to set up a Widget warehouse network? Outsourcing these functions can connect you with industry experts. These experts know how to sell, market, and connect products. By focusing on making Widgets and letting experts help you move your products, you can continue to grow your Widget business and grow your profitability.
Industry experts can also provide an organization with a health checkup. When an organization is struggling, things can get emotional and employees start to point the finger at someone else. Outsourcing can shift that emotional blame game to a positive fact-finding mission. Furthermore, those with outside perspectives don’t share the same attachment as those within the organization. This can provide fresh perspectives and solutions.
Using experts create efficiencies in operation that a business would not normally realize, even over time. Although a business owner has the ability to enter invoices and payments in Quick Books, that does not mean he should. A bookkeeper is an expert who will perform the task correctly, has those connections the business owner may need with other business services, and can do the job at a much more efficient pace. All these things and more demonstrate why you, as a business owner, must consider outsourcing some of your standard business functions. As the leader in your company, your presence in developing business relationships with clients is a must.
Another function that can best be handled by outsourcing is list management. Your list is gold. But all lists lose value over time if not maintained regularly. Using an outside service to continually update your contact, their positions, boards, and leadership positions, can save you weeks worth of time and frustration. Using Chameleon Group for this function frees you up to grow the list and consequently grow your business.
Previously, we interviewed our COO, Vinny Bossi, on some common myths about outsourcing. We encourage you to browse this interview as you explore this option for your organization. Chameleon Group offers a variety of services that help your organization focus on what you do best.
As always, we look forward to meeting you.
Phone: 800.773.9182
Email: [email protected]
"*" indicates required fields