The ins and outs of outsourcing

Written by Faith Howard

Business owners need to outsource when their own workload gets too much, this could be due to seasonal surges or business growth. If you’re lacking skills in a certain area, such as accounting or technology, outsourcing can be a great help to avoid errors and save time on learning new skills. 

Outsourcing can be extremely beneficial to businesses of all sizes, and there are multiple business aspects that benefit from being outsourced. 

Here are some ways you can outsource for your business:

Marketing: Using someone such as a social media manager to create ads and social media content as well as scheduling the posts, creating and utilising strategies and putting their own creative ideas into your business. Packaging and website design can also be outsourced. 

Accounting: If a business owner isn’t familiar with accounting or is yet to use software such as Quickbooks or Xero, hiring a bookkeeper and/or accountant could be extremely beneficial. This would depend on how much work you’d want to offload; bookkeepers handle day to day financial tasks whereas accountants analyse the data and generate accounting reports. 

Technology: It can also be useful to have some help with, whether you’re hiring someone to create or update a website for you, or help with new initiatives or tech issues. 

Researching: Researching can be time-consuming, but there are people that you can hire to do research! For instance, before a new product is launched, you’ll want to know about the current market, preferences, target audience, and prices. Hired researchers should have extra resources they can utilise.

Shipping: There are various couriers to outsource shipping to that ensure your products get delivered safely.

Manufacturing:  Outsourcing your manufacturing gives you access to the knowledge, skills and expertise of those with experience in production.

So there’s some ways you can outsource within your business. Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing:

Advantages:

• Giving the business owner extra time to focus on the core of the business and develop new business ideas, in turn, creates more profit through these new ideas and having more time to take on new ventures.
• Increased efficiency- rather than one person jud=ggling everything, you’ll have multiple skilled professionals working together.
• You can have help with your business without the need to train and permanently employ others.
• Collaborate with people with great knowledge and experience in the area, therefore maximising your business efficiency!

Disadvantages:

• Higher risk of mistakes happening due to not being in complete control.
• Paying fees etc, extra monthly expenses. 
• Take the complete control out of the business owner’s hand, you’re trusting others with your business reputation; there’s always a risk to a business’s reputation if something goes wrong, with outsourcing you’re putting the responsibility in someone else’s hands.
• Quality or services may not meet business owners’ expectations.

As you will be entering a professional relationship with whomever you’re outsourcing to, it’s important to consider legal factors, such as insurance and contracts. Attached below are some articles outlining the key legal factors.

https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/9-501-5068?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)#co_pageContainer

Business Blogs – An outsourcing arrangement: a quick guide to key legal issues