As a small business owner, your time is at a premium but so is your money. You want to do as much as possible in-house to reduce your costs but there are only so many hours in a day. So, how do you decide which roles to outsource?
Look for the roles that you can’t effectively do with the training you currently have and outsource roles that add value to your business by creating an air of success and professionalism to your brand.
Here are the top five roles your small business should outsource.
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1. Receptionist
No matter the size of your business, a receptionist is the first line of defense between you and wasted time. She’ll deflect the cold calls, take the messages when you’re in a meeting and reach out to you when there’s an emergency. However, you may not have the space, or you could be torn between hiring someone less than professional at a price you can afford or paying too much for a really effective receptionist. Instead of either of these options, invest in a virtual receptionist. You’ll get all the benefits of a receptionist without having to hire, train and maintain payroll and benefits for the person. Companies like Voicenation offer receptionists that are available around the clock and multilingual. You’ll never miss a sale or an important call, no matter when it comes in. You can even have a receptionist who can complete basic sales for you.
2. Marketing
Unless your background is in marketing you are doing your business a disservice by trying to do your own marketing. This field is changing rapidly and trying to stay on top of SEO, social media, branding and the like, would take a whole other person if not a team. When you outsource your marketing you’ll actually have time to sleep occasionally. They will develop your website and social media presence, presenting your style and values to the world. Too often small business owners who maintain their own social media take missteps in responding to customers, missteps that hurt their businesses. Outsourcing this role will keep your marketing plan on track.
3. IT
Hire yourself an IT firm. Yes, it’s great to have someone in the office who knows how to reset the router and reconnect to the printer, but when it comes to maintaining the privacy of your employee and customer data, securing your network and helping you make the best decisions about deploying in the cloud or running edge computing, you need the pros. Don’t mess around with data security.
4. Manufacturing
You don’t have to do it all yourself. Once you’re to the size that you have to consider whether to buy equipment and space to continue your manufacturing, it may be time to outsource. Look for multiple factories that are willing to make your product to your specifications so that you’ll never be stuck. Smaller manufacturing jobs may get pushed off if an order comes from a larger company. If you have agreements with a couple of factories, you’ll always be ready to meet your product’s demand.
5. Shipping
As long as you are outsourcing your manufacturer, there’s no point in having it all shipped directly to you just so you can ship it out again. Of course, you’ll need someone to verify quality, but once that’s established, you’ll be able to hire drop shippers or the factory to ship directly to your customers. Like manufacturing, it’s imperative that you hire someone you know and trust to get your packages to your customers in a timely and safe manner.
With these five outsourced roles, you’ll have more time to focus on the basics of growing your business.
I am Arjun Kumar. I am the owner and administrator of Finance Gradeup. I have completed my education in Arts & Technology. Arjun Kumar usually has interests in playing games, reading and writing. He was a brilliant student during his college days. He also works for many private companies, but the main interest of Arjun Kumar is digital marketing. He thinks that reading is a must before providing any quality information to his readers. You can find Arjun Kumar on much social media handles online, or you can learn more about him in about us page.