In the past, only the largest companies could make outsourcing a profitable venture. For the small businessperson, the costs of outsourcing outweighed the benefits. That is all changing. With the improvements in communications and the globalization of society, every business now has the ability to make outsourcing an extremely valuable option.
Here are 6 reasons why you should consider outsourcing your business’s non-core operations:
1. Improved Focus
The small businessperson has to be a master of many jobs. You must be an accountant, a lawyer, a marketing guru, a designer, a customer service rep, and countless other duties in addition to what your business actually does, let’s say bike repair or flower shop. The time you spend trying to master these other jobs takes away from time you should be improving your core skills.
Outsourcing allows you to focus on what you do best. Instead of having to learn to design a website or program accounting software, you can get someone else to do it, so you can concentrate on what you are really good at.
2. Save Money
Every small business is looking to cut expenses. Even though you have to pay to get someone to do the work, you are reducing opportunity costs. Instead of doing something that you are no good at or wasting time learning how to do something of little value to your core business, you can be marketing your business or improving a product that will be making you money in the end.
With the Internet and the global economy, businesses now have access to world class professionals from across the globe who can provide equal or better services than your local counterparts at 80% of the price.
3. Gain World Class Capabilities
Many small businesses are limited to what either they can do themselves or what they can find in their local yellow pages. If you live in a rural area, it is possible you won’t even be able to find someone with the skills you need at all, let alone someone that will do a good job for you.
The Internet has expanded a business’s horizons in finding talent. Posting your project in an outsourcing marketplace can reach world class professionals from across the globe. Many marketplaces proved multiple communication tools, escrow, and payment systems to make sure your outsourcing experience is as productive and hassle-free as possible.
4. Free up resources for other purposes
You may have all the skills you need to make your business successful, but you may not have the time to do everything. Some will do one task quickly and half-heartedly in order to start working on another task that needs to be done. Rushing through tasks will result in mistakes and every business wants to keep mistakes at a bare minimum.
If you don’t have the time to do everything that you need to, instead of rushing through one to get to the other, you can outsource some of the tasks. This will ensure that you get all your tasks done right and on time.
5. Resources not available internally
No one is good at everything. If you own a flower shop, you probably know flowers, but do you know how to design a logo or code a website? Probably not, but that shouldn’t stop you from getting on the web or having a nice logo. Outsourcing allows your business to obtain the skills you need without having to hire a staff.
6. Reduce time to market
Outsourcing also reduces time to market. If you are a small software company consisting of just you and you have an idea for a killer application. You want it done now. You know that doing it by yourself, it would take a year or years to finish a project of that scale. The simple solution is to outsource the project to a team of skilled programmers. They will get your project done in a fraction of the time would’ve taken you to do it.
Scott Schwartz is co-founder of http://www.zewy.com – Your Outsourcing Marketplace. Small Businesses-save up to 80% on professional services. Professionals-expand your client base. Zewy provides escrow, project management, and much more.
