Why Outsource?

MASTER YOUR STRENGTHS, OUTSOURCE YOUR WEAKNESSES

- ryan khan

The business world has changed so much during the last 6 months and is showing no immediate signs of settling down, so why would you consider outsourcing now?

Outsourcing is paying an external company or person to carry out business functions for your company. Obvious, but worth stating. These functions could be anything from specific operational processes, through to whole departments such as sales or accounting, either way why would you do it?

- The most compulsive reason to use a specialist outsourcer for your delegated role would be expertise. By using an expert in that field, you are harnessing their talent, energy, training and resources to maximise the effectiveness of that function. Having a professional lead generator, marketing guru, IT support or accounting expert on your team can drive you and your company forward and potentially give you an edge within your market.

- Time is your most valuable commodity, so concentrating on what you and your team do best will maximise your efficiency and create savings. If your metier is importing medical equipment into the country, selling and maintaining it, do you really need to employ your own accounts team rather instruct an outsourcer to process, complete, report and produce KPI’s for a fixed cost.

- In these unsettled but potentially rewarding times, having the ability to reduce your cost base or fix your costs for a company function could well be a way of increasing profit or reducing loss. Taking the time to analyse what monies comes in and what goes out, you and your team’s effectiveness and which areas could be outsourced may reveal an opportunity to create or save money, assisting the bottom line.

- Creating agility for your company is a tool that should not be underestimated. Using outsourcing for business-critical roles that have variable costs, enables you to scale up and down as your sales or operation requires.

- Setting parameters, goals or boundaries may well be easier through a contract with an outsourcer than getting the buy-in from your current team or from making the changes to your infrastructure. Choosing the correct outsourcing company who take the time and have the ability to understand your company’s business and then tasking them correctly to carry out that function, with all the necessary reporting, data and communication needs means you have control back again and accountability.

- If you have business critical information that you do not want the wider company to have access to, using an outsourcer, this works particularly well with accounting, means this information can stay offsite and safe.

Having listed the main points of why outsourcing might well work for you and your company lets have a look at what might stop that happening.

- Finding the time to accurately assess what functions or processes you could successfully outsource and then document what you require properly. This is particularly difficult if you are a micro or small company who are currently extremely busy. You know that if you get help you can grow, breath or relax but taking that step requires effort to get it right and this can be a problem. You could either rush into getting the wrong partner or supplier or just not even consider it as you are too busy.

- Locating the right outsourcer can be more difficult than you think. Where do I start, what do I need, how much will it cost…… If you can target what you need there are many ways you can find your talented outsource partner. LinkedIn searches, Google recommendations, People Per Hour, networking groups and associations, personal recommendations and even getting an outsourcer or virtual assistant to find you one.

- At some point in your company’s growth outsourcing may become a limiting factor and taking back that function in house may well be the most sensible action. An example could be when your company has the funds to employ an IT expert who can not only attend to your teams daily issues, but write new scripts, build infrastructure and sit on the board – there would be recognisably greater value than outsourcing.

In uncertain and challenging business times having the agility, cost and scalability benefits of outsourcing your non-operational departments or processes can increase productivity, sharpen team focus, maximise accountability and probably cost less money doing so. You just need to find the right partner.

Take a look at our full magazine to see our pros and cons for outsourcing - it could save your company a lot of money and help you grow bigger and better!