Oftentimes, a business will resort to outsourcing their work to smaller companies or freelance workers as a means of increasing profits.
However, for small businesses, it provides them with the ability to accomplish a lot more in a shorter period of time without necessarily taking on any additional employees, which means a lot when you’re just starting out.
In order for this to be as effective as possible, you’ll want to carefully determine which tasks in the company can and should be outsourced and what should remain within the business itself, as you could potentially be giving away sensitive information to complete strangers by outsourcing something that you shouldn’t.
Even though it’s fairly accessible even to smaller businesses all across the globe, people often think that outsourcing is limited to larger companies with great amounts of disposable income.
Keep reading and learn what you can do to prove them wrong.
Outsourcing in the current market
At the time, over a third of all small businesses outsource at least a small portion of their work to other companies, and this has been going on for quite some time, in fact, it can’t even be considered a trend, seeing as it started as early as 1989.
On top of this, almost 55% of small businesses use another, smaller company as a means of staying in touch with their clients, by using their workforce as part of their HR team.
This may have been impacted by the steady growth in the number of freelancers in the US job market, which has reached almost 59 million in just years, and it’s continuing to rise with each passing year.
With this in mind, the fact that almost 300k different tasks are outsourced to outside or smaller companies every day doesn’t seem all that surprising, and it’s gotten to the point where 78% of all businesses, large or small, are willing to outsource their work.
Saves money and time
Time is money, or at least it can be viewed as such, and by outsourcing some of the work your company does in order to generate revenue, you’re effectively reducing the amount of work your own employees have.
This is particularly important for companies looking to expand or rebrand, as it allows your workforce to focus on the subject matter at hand while your outsourcing partner company handles the rest of the load.
Finally, it helps you save a lot of money on employees, as you won’t be required to hire additional people for your company’s workforce just for a single, larger project, and once it’s completed, you can go back to the normal mode of operations.
A good example is that a digital marketing expert will generally charge around $100 for an hour of their time, but if you hire someone from halfway across the globe to do it remotely for a lower hourly wage, you’re saving money from the get-go.
When to do it?
It can be tough to decide exactly when to start outsourcing a portion of your work, especially if you’re working with a limited budget, which is a common thing for businesses still in their early stages.
However, it doesn’t always have to be high-end work you’re outsourcing, and you could just save some money on accounting, digital marketing, and support for your clients if you’re having a hard time organizing your budget.
This gives you some much-needed flexibility in terms of trying new things out for your company, and if you find a better service or agency to do the work for you, there’s little stopping you from making the switch.
The number one thing to consider is whether you’ve got the money to afford it, as it could potentially become a financial burden if your company’s income fails to keep up with the expenses of outsourcing some of your work.
On top of this, if your company already has all the resources to complete the task, there may be no need to outsource it, as you’ll practically be wasting money on something that you could’ve done yourself.
Bottom line
As often as it gets frowned upon, business outsourcing is a normal thing, and it’s what allowed so many companies to grow into the giants they are today.
Companies like Apple outsource a great deal of their work to China, allowing them to produce phones at a fraction of their cost while also not having to hire thousands of laborers here in the US.
This isn’t limited to large companies though, and you could easily find a company/freelancer to do some of the work your company can’t or doesn’t have the time for you.
With that task out of the way, you’ll be able to focus on expanding and growing your business without ever having to worry about whether a task will be completed due to the very limited amount of employees you’re working with.
