In the fast-paced world of small business, efficiency is the key to success. As a business owner, you’re no stranger to juggling multiple tasks and responsibilities. However, not every part of your business needs to be handled in-house. Outsourcing can bring additional services and skills to enhance profitability.
In this article, we’ll explore the untapped potential of outsourcing for small businesses and how it can significantly improve performance, streamline operations and help your business grow and become more profitable.
One: Access specialised skills and expertise
Outsourcing allows you to tap into a wide range of specialised skills and expertise that might not be available in-house.
A typical example is hiring a web agency to manage your website, as hiring a full-term developer might be too costly. A less obvious example could be to hire a specialist consultant in a particular market or area. This consultant’s knowledge might be essential at the beginning of a project to help set up systems and processes, but afterwards, they might not be needed day-to-day.
By entrusting these tasks to experts, you free up your team’s time to focus on core business activities that directly contribute to growth.
Top tip: It’s sometimes natural to assume existing employees can learn new skills and take on new challenges. While this can work, you should always consider the learning curve (how long it takes someone to become proficient at a task), the source of their skills (is their tutor trusted and qualified?), and the impact this will have on existing workload.
Two: Start new projects quickly
Hiring external support can help you scale your business up or down and start new projects quickly.
Outsourcing provides the flexibility to scale your operations up or down based on demand. Some short-term or new projects may require considerable investment to achieve the end goal. An outsourced agency will already have the experience and tools to start quickly and can reduce the complexities of internal staff management.
Three: Reduced risk & invested partner
Working with a partner to deliver projects and tasks can reduce the risk of handling things alone.
Firstly, outsourcing services can reduce the initial setup costs needed to take on a new project. Also, the partner you choose will also be invested in your success – as they will want to retain the business for as long as possible. This partnership can increase the chances of success and retention.
Top tip: You should regularly evaluate the advantages of your outsourced resource to ensure you’re maximising efficiency. While it might not be beneficial to bring everything in-house, it can sometimes be more cost-effective to bring certain elements back into your business to allow your partner to focus solely on the areas you can’t. Not only does this strengthen the partnership as there are more dependencies between you, you slowly grow your internal knowledge and skills.
Four: Focus on core competencies
Outsourcing lets you concentrate on what you do best: growing your business.
By delegating non-core tasks to external professionals, you create more time and space to innovate, develop new products or services, and strengthen customer relationships. This strategic focus allows you to accomplish more, increase market competitiveness and develop a stronger market presence.
Five: Gain a competitive edge
Outsourcing enables small businesses to level the playing field with larger competitors by giving you access to high-quality resources and expertise.
Enhancing your skills can help improve your offerings and provide your customers better service. This enhanced quality can result in higher customer satisfaction, increased loyalty, and a competitive edge in your industry.
How ETC can help
If you need help streamlining your business operations and identifying the best tasks to outsource, please get in touch.
If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.