Is It a Good Idea to Outsource Work as a Small Business?

Outsourcing is growing in popularity among small businesses. This year, around nine out of every ten small companies will outsource at least one business function. 

There’s a reason why so many business owners find outsourcing so helpful to their organization.   

If you are considering outsourcing, here is a quick overview of why it might be a wise decision for you and how to outsource work in a way that helps your company to grow.   

Benefits of Outsourcing

To help you establish if outsourcing is best for your business, you should first understand some of the advantages of your small business. Here are a few of the most impressive benefits: 

Expertise: You’ll get knowledge and expertise that you don’t have in-house. That’s faster and more practical than trying to train your staff in specialist subjects like accounting or website development. 

Efficiency: When using outsourced services, you can dip in and out of those services whenever your business needs them. It’s more efficient and cost-effective than having a full-time person on your staff. 

More responsive: Suppose you get a large influx of orders from new customers. Outsourcing allows you to ramp up production much faster than if you tried to scale your business internally. 

Drawbacks of Outsourcing

What are some of the downsides to outsourcing? There are some situations when outsourcing might not be the right choice for your small business:

Critical business functions: Business strengths that put your company beyond the reach of competitors are a natural advantage. So you want to keep that expertise in-house and help it flourish. 

Business-sensitive data: Perhaps you have commercially sensitive business knowledge that you want to keep within a small circle of trusted staff. That’s an example of where outsourcing probably wouldn’t be the right decision for you. 

How to Outsource

The best way to outsource is to examine your company’s most significant weak spots. Use that to determine where outsourcing can add the most value.

That tends to be support roles for many small businesses rather than core competencies. Prevalent outsourcing responsibilities include HR, finance, legal or technical.

A good example is website design. If you need support to develop your company website, click for more information on how to outsource this business function.

Before outsourcing, make a shortlist of outsourcing companies. Read through reviews from customers to establish if their approach is a good fit for you.

With outsourcing, you need to think about whether your company and the outsourcing service are a cultural fit as much as a competency match.

Does the company understand your values? Do they know how to best support your business to ensure those values are properly maintained? 

Are You Ready to Outsource Work?

If you want to give your talented staff time to support your business, outsource work that doesn’t sit high on their priority list. It will make your business more efficient, and you’ll have happier staff!

For more advice on how to help your small business grow this year, why not browse the latest articles in our startup section?