Last Updated on Mar 12, 2020 by James W
As a business owner, overseeing the day to day activities of your business can be challenging. Many business owners end up serving many different roles – accountant, marketing co-ordinator, sales representative, office manager, customer service leader, training co-ordinator and human resources manager all rolled into one. Trying to juggle so many activities at once can actually hurt your business performance as you cannot simply apply 100% focus and effort to every “role” or task. For this reason, many business owners choose to outsource various tasks relating to their business. In our opinion, there are 10 things which you should definitely consider outsourcing:
Bookkeeping
Even with the best online book-keeping solution, it can be difficult to ensure that you are consistently on top of recording payments, ensuring invoices are paid and managing debtors. You also need to have at least a basic level of accounting knowledge. Outsourcing your book-keeping is relatively inexpensive and means that accounts management is put into hands of professionals.
Payroll
One thing that you need to keep on top of is ensuring that all staff members are paid on time, every time, and that their wages are correct. Payroll can prove a headache even for business owners with experience and knowledge in the area. Outsourcing payroll is extremely low cost, and you can rest assured that you will not have to face any staff complaints for late payment.
Social Media
Understanding social media is a grey area for many business owners. Social media management requires know how, time, effort and dedication. It is practically essential for businesses to operate some form of social media presence and that your social media activities are conducted effectively and efficiently. Hence, it is probably best to outsource this activity to social media experts!
Call Answering
Outsourcing call answering can help you to avoid missing important calls and enquiries. Many companies offer outsourced call answering services that allow you to get on with the day to day running of your business.
Graphic Design
No matter what industry you operate in, you will need to design some form of promotional material be it store banners, leaflets, business cards or trade show materials. While you might not need to produce such materials on an ongoing basis, and therefore do not need to hire a permanent in-house designer, when you do need some graphic design work, outsource the job to a professional.
Office Administration
Filing, data entry and other office administration tasks can be tedious and take up much of a business owner’s precious time. Outsourcing these tasks can prove very cost effective.
Staff Training
Health and safety and other areas of industry compliance are of high importance to every business. Any form of training needs to be conducted by someone who is very knowledgeable in the area and up to speed on all rules and regulations. Unless you can afford to hire someone to take up a full time training role, whose responsibility is to keep up to date with training certification and industry compliance, it is best to outsource staff training.
Marketing
When it comes to marketing, it is best to outsource this activity as outsiders can best spot market opportunities and provide the know how to devise the most effective marketing strategy for your business.
Recruitment
Sure a business owner should be involved in interviewing candidates at some stage, but it is certainly worthwhile outsourcing the interview selection and assessment to a HR professional – it saves business owners a huge amount of time and effort, as well as a major headache.
I.T Services
I.T. Services is an area of specialist knowledge. Whatever your I.T. requirements, it is advised that you leave the responsibility of this task to a seasoned professional. If you don’t have the need for a full time I.T. services professional in-house, do outsource the task.
By outsourcing the above tasks you can free up a lot of your time and still keep productive. The money will be well-spent and you’ll have peace of mind knowing that those all-important jobs are well looked after by a competent individual.
David Dunne is an online marketing consultant and blogger based in Dublin, Ireland. This post was written on behalf of Kendlebell Kimmage in Dublin, Ireland.
