When you are running a business, the hardest thing is to achieve sustained profit and growth year after year. One of the best ways to do this is by staying lean and reducing your costs as much as you can without affecting productivity or revenue generation. Outsourcing may be one of your best ways to save money so that you can increase your profit margin. There are several ways that a business can leverage the experience and knowledge of an outside partner to not just cut costs, but to perform better in those areas as well. It’s one thing to be a jack of all trades, but with effective outsourcing your business could be a master of everything.
Payroll
As a business owner or manager, the payroll might be the number one thing you want to take off of your plate. It can involve extreme attention to detail and organization. It can be time consuming to make sure that everyone’s numbers are correct, and if you pay by the hour, it gets even more complicated. Not only that, but if you make a mistake, you will have to spend time fixing it, not to mention possibly upsetting someone on your staff. Outsourcing payroll means that you will have an expert to handle all of that for you. You won’t have to spend on someone on your staff to do it, and you can be sure that it will be done on-time and properly.
Virtual Assistant
There are many day-to-day tasks and obligations that take you away from focusing on growing your business. You could hire someone to handle these things, but you need to make sure they are done correctly. That’s where a virtual assistant can come in handy. They can handle a number of tasks, including simple things like data entry and research. However, the best virtual assistant companies can also offer more involved services, such as marketing, social media, or web design, just to name a few.
Recruitment and Training
Many business owners don’t realize how expensive it is to simply hire someone. By the time you’ve finished recruiting and training, you’ve spent a significant chunk of your staffing budget. Not only that, but you’ve probably spent a lot of your own time on it. However, using a staffing agency can help alleviate these costs. Yes, up front it will require an investment. However, it will save you time so you can focus on other things, and also help to ensure you get great candidates. Not only that, but if you hire someone and it does not work out, then you have to go through the whole process again.
Staffing agencies will have candidates on hand who meet your specific requirements. If you choose one that proves to be a poor fit, there will be others waiting in the wings to fill the void. A misstep in staffing can be remedied in days, and your business will barely miss a beat.
Outsourcing your staffing will also allow your workforce to be more flexible. Does your business ramp up during a certain time of year? Do you have unusual staffing or scheduling needs? An agency can help fill those gaps and ramp you up quickly if something unexpected happens. Hiring on your own can take up valuable time and money.
Customer Service
One of the most important aspects of any business is customer service. You want to be able to respond to customer inquiries quickly and informatively. In some cases, this can be impossible. If you are not open overnight, you might miss important opportunities. Outsourcing your inbound calls and customer service will allow you to connect with customers and answer their questions when it is convenient for them, not necessarily when it is convenient for you.
Even during the day, if your phone is ringing off the hook it would be much more efficient to have someone screen out the calls you need to handle and deal with the rest for you. This can also include automated responses. You don’t necessarily need all of your services to be outsourced to live people. You can also outsource to a bot service that can set up chat bots on your website or social media pages to answer simple questions and connect with your customers.
For some, outsourcing is a dirty word, or they just figure it’s simpler to have someone in-house for everything. However, especially as we’ve seen with the pandemic, nothing is guaranteed. Staying lean by outsourcing certain things can save you money and allow you to be more flexible going forward. Doing so means that you can reach your growth and profit goals much faster.
