In the difficult economic climate that companies face today any opportunity to cut costs is welcome. For some, considering outsourcing may be the best business decision they make this year. In essence, outsourcing is simply the term used to describe the practice of using another company to perform a task for your business rather than tackling it yourself. So, how can outsourcing help your business?
1) Outsourcing can reduce your costs.
When you take on a new member of staff to solve a particular problem, you are responsible for paying their wages even when there is no more to be done that day. For example, you may hire an agency to deal with collecting debts and unpaid invoices, but once they have made daily contact with all your debtors there is little productive use for their time. Compare that to an outsourcing company – when no more can be done on your task in a day they switch to another client and you only pay for the work that was done for you.
2) Outsourcing can increase your productivity.
You may choose to avoid higher costs by assigning extra work to your existing employees rather than hiring a new member of staff. However, you may serve your business better by outsourcing, despite the fact that you will have to pay a fee. Using your existing staff will mean that your current employees have to get up to speed on the task you have assigned them, and their attention will be taken away from their primary role. For example, asking your receptionist to handle PR and marketing might seem like a good idea, but this requires a level of organisational skill and time management that they may not have. You will have to spend extra time supervising them when you could be leaving it to an external expert agency.
3) Outsourcing can allow you to focus on your core business.
By leaving support activities such as debt collection, IT support, publicity and similar to outsourcing agency you can better concentrate on the core elements of your business. As a business owner and manager, your talents are best used on your unique selling point rather than micro-managing those important, but peripheral aspects. Rather than needing to take an active role on a daily basis, you can have an initial meeting with a customer management company where you come to an agreement and then simply need to evaluate the results periodically. This frees up your time to do what you do best – grow your business and maximise your sales.
4) Outsourcing can get you better results.
Hiring an in-house team for specialty work may seem like the best way to get value for your money, but outsourcing can often get you quicker, more professional, and more suitable results. The reason behind this is that a specialist company can benefit from economies of scale and expert supervision. Even something like hiring a graphic designer for your publicity can require a huge amount of investment in computers and software. A specialist outsourcing agency can spread the cost of those purchases across all their clients, meaning that you shoulder less of the burden and can benefit from top of the line infrastructure. A specialist outsourcer will have highly experienced staff who oversee and contribute to a variety of projects. It would be expensive to hire one of these professionals for your business alone, but by working with an outside company you get the benefit of their experience.