Outsourcing involves paying another company to do a task for you. This can be useful when it comes to business tasks that are time-consuming or tasks that are beyond your expertise, allowing you to focus on the core tasks of your business. Below are just some of the services that are commonly outsourced by businesses – and whether you should outsource them.
Accounting
Accounting is a job that many people outsource – not only can it be time-consuming, but it’s important that it’s done correctly. If you own a larger business that deals with lots of different financial transactions, it could be essential to outsource accounting to save you time and make sure that your taxes are filed correctly. If you’re a small business with few transactions, outsourcing may not be necessary – you could be better off using accounting software and filing taxes yourself.
Marketing
Marketing will help you to attract customers. There are some marketing tasks that are worth hiring experts for such as SEO, web design, video advertising, product photography and event marketing. Other tasks like social media marketing and networking may be possible to do yourself. You should consider your budget and how much time you have – it’s possible to save money by running your own PPC campaigns or organizing your own marketing events, but it will also take up more time.
Legal advice
Unless you have a legal background, you’ll probably have a limited understanding about the specifics of business law. This is why it’s often outsourcing a solicitor to offer legal advice. It could also be worth hiring legal experts to write contracts, apply for a trademark or switch to a limited company.
IT support/management
It’s important that you’re using the best digital technology you can get your hands on – and that it’s all working properly and keeping you secure. IT support or IT management can be worth outsourcing for this reason. Some IT companies will have specific focuses such as fixing problems, recommending new tech or helping you to implement new tech. Some companies will be able to handle all three of these focuses. Make sure to outsource the right company for your needs. If IT is your specialism, then you may not necessarily need to outsource this service.
Recruitment
Outsourcing recruitment could help you to find new employees. This could help to save you a lot of time. That said, you may feel that you have enough time to handle this task yourself. It is likely to depend on how quickly you need to find staff or how specific the talent needs to be.
Manufacturing
If you’re selling a product, consider whether you need to outsource manufacturing. Most businesses will benefit from outsourcing manufacturers for specific parts – for instance, an e-liquid company may benefit from outsourcing the manufacture of CCELL carts. Outsourcing manufacture of your entire product could also be worthwhile if design and branding are your specialism. However, if you’ve got the tools and expertise to manufacture yourself, there’s likely no point in outsourcing another company to do it for you.
General admin
It’s possible to outsource general admin tasks like answering the phone, replying to emails and even building rotas. Consider whether such tasks are time-consuming enough that you’re willing to pay someone to take over them. Outsourcing someone to answer phone calls could be useful if you spend half the day being interrupted by phone calls, but not so worthwhile if you only get two to three phone calls per day.
