Outsourcing Professional Services

Top 5 Reasons Why Businesses Should Outsource

Story by: Xposure Consulting Firm

From the lemonade stand to the corner office, you always knew you were born to be your own boss. So, you did your research, wrote your business plan, won over investors, raised capital from family, friends, and even the bank, you even hired employees by leveraging company assets in place of a benefits package. So now that you’re ready for business, what’s next? Directing sales? Growing a loyal customer or follower base? Developing a strong brand or enhancing your market’s positioning? Leveraging your competitive advantage? Streamlining operations? All the above?

Establishing or growing your business can feel daunting at times. However, you do not have to do it alone. American author, political activist and lecturer Helen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” Regardless of your company’s position in the marketplace, level of success, size or life cycle — whether a sole proprietorship, small startup, second-staged firm or a large-sized corporation, you can bridge any gap by strategically hiring a consulting firm. Neither you nor your team have to be all things to all people — at least, not any longer.

Here are the top 5 reasons why you should consider outsourcing your professional services’ needs:

Saves time and money. Hiring and onboarding the right talent is not only timely, but also expensive. When calculating an employee’s wages, one must consider the basic salary, employment taxes and benefits. The costs to this point are typically in the 1.25 to 1.4 times base salary range - e.g. the cost range for a $50,000/ year employee might be $62,500 to $70,000.1 These costs do not include recruitment, whether using a recruiting platform or in-house human resources professional, or training and development. However, hiring a consulting firm eliminates the need for costly positions.

Reduces workload. Hiring a consulting firm will free you to run your business. For instance, you will no longer have to conduct selfguided research on the latest industry trends for fields that may not be your area of expertise. It also frees up your team to do just what you hired them to do — grow your business. Outsourcing business functions, such as accounting, marketing, event planning or even human resources, will lighten your team’s workload and ensure there is constant focus on the task at hand. A more manageable and realistic workload increases productivity, spurs creativity and bolsters morale.

Provides flexibility. While deciding whether to hire a consulting firm, you are inevitably making a strategic decision regarding how to best fulfill the needs of your business. In doing so, you have now customized the scope of the contract and achieved fluidity with the payment structure. For instance, you may determine that specific, a la carte services work best because you have an immediate need or maybe you determine that you prefer a packaged service offering because it offers the better return on a long-term investment. Depending on which option you select, you can work with the consultant to negotiate or even create a custom fee structure that works best for your timeline and budget. This strategy grants you control over the length of the business relationship and encourages stronger accountability. With any fee model, one should request status reports to ensure that the objectives of the agreement are being met. Here are a few example fee models: hourly billing, daily rates, retainers, projectand return on investment-based fees.

When you hire a consulting firm you gain access to their team’s skills.

Multiplies resources. When you hire a consulting firm, you gain access to that team’s technical, industry, and institutional knowledge, specialized skills, depth and breadth of experience, credibility, and networks. Those connections prove to be beneficial when the consultants must interface with other vendors on your behalf.

Elicits new perspectives. An outside firm that has no preconceived notions of how your company operates can work with you and your team to provide honest feedback and objective insights. A consulting firm is to serve as an extension of your team. In doing so, they can help you routinize redundant tasks, develop standard operating procedures and establish best practices. The benefits experienced from hiring consultants can be bountiful; however, it is all in how you leverage their services.

1 Statistic derived from a MIT web article titled, “How much does an employee cost?”