If you, as a business owner or manager, are finding it difficult to find quality employees, try using an agency to outsource certain business functions. When you outsource, you can cut overhead costs because you don’t have to spend money on the costs of salaries for in-house employees to fulfill these tasks in addition to other common employee-related benefits such as retirement, health insurance, vacation, and health insurance. Below is a list of five business functions that businesses commonly outsource that can save your company time and money.
Accounting
Accounting is the perfect place to start to illustrate how outsourcing is an effective business strategy. When a company outsources accounting functions, it can save time and money that could be used in other areas of the business. There is no need for in-house accounting which would require additional facilities, equipment (software + subsequent upgrades, hardware, supplies, the most recent technologies), and employee benefits.
A business that outsources its accounting services can expect to receive accounting services of the highest quality in addition to counsel for financial decisions. Outsourced accounting services from accounting specialists will also include:
invoicing
audit support
statutory compliance
cash flow management
mistake-free bookkeeping
financial and year-end reporting
accounts payable and receivable
integration with your current equipment
reconciliation of credit card, bank statements, and payroll
IT Services
What is IT?
A broad definition of IT (Internet technology) is technology being applied to fix problems for both business and organizational purposes. Types of IT services include in-person technical support, telecommunications, web design, security, network configuration, app development, and infrastructure.
IT services can also involve monitoring, advising on IT-related decisions, and expeditiously relaying important IT-related information to the appropriate decision-makers within an organization. Other IT services include administrative services, support, management, hardware and software support, and security.
Then there are the more hands-on areas of IT services that involve the physical aspects of IT infrastructure including equipment maintenance and set-up. Many of these types of services obviously need to occur on-site or at a nearby computer service shop.
Advantages of Outsourcing IT Services
IT services that are outsourced give your business many advantages. It will save you from having to hire and pay for someone full-time thus reducing additional labor costs, it saves on training and certifications, it ensures you’re getting the latest technology and security systems, it cuts down on risk by having guaranteed work from an outside agency, your company will have received top-quality IT service, and your business can spend that money in other ways that will benefit the company.
Marketing
Marketing can be an extremely important part of your business, and you want it done right. When you hire someone in-house, it’s hard to be sure that what you’re getting is worth the salary you’re paying them while simultaneously receiving no effective marketing for your business.
Outsourcing your marketing will allow you to save money by only paying for marketing as it happens, and you can check reviews and references to see if what you will be paying for seems to be authentic and effective. Marketing outsourcers have the latest technology and methods in addition to a wealth of segmented audience information systems at their disposal to equip your company with the best marketing possible.
Benefits of Outsourcing Marketing
Marketing companies that you outsource have so many more resources than your company would want to invest in. They have access to the latest and most advanced technology in addition to a massive number of of tactics and resources they can pull from to find new ideas that will boost your marketing to a level your company deserves.
Outsourcing your marketing will allow you to quickly increase your marketing efforts if necessary, you won’t have to worry about your only marketing employee quitting on you, and it’s no big deal if you choose to refocus your marketing in a direction that an in-house employee may not be familiar with.
In marketing, outsourcing will always have the latest technology and fresh eyes to ensure you receive the best product possible. You can be pretty sure that more than one person will be working on your account. An agency like that also has several departments where each department has its own professionals who specialize specifically in that aspect of your marketing plan. That creates a high level of efficiency.
No matter what size or level of marketing you’ll need, marketing outsourcers can handle it. You don’t have to worry about overloading or overworking an employee and risking not getting what you pay for. Outsourcing allows you to get the results you want with a tangible ROI that will land your company more money in the bank.
Sales
Why should your business outsource sales instead of using someone in-house? Cost savings is one of the main reasons. Of course, there are always the costs of necessary extra overhead in addition to salary, hiring and training, and having to purchase expensive equipment and software. And these costs might be incurred before even knowing firsthand the expertise and quality of an in-house employee’s work. It might not be worth it. With outsourced sales, you can be sure you are purchasing years of expertise, training, and results. You may not know much about it, but the company outsourcing your sales surely does. Don’t worry about managing your own sales staff when you can hire someone else to lift that burden from your shoulders.
A company you outsource sales from will make your sales efforts happen more quickly, mainly because you do not have to waste time hiring and training. A sales agency will jump right in, full force, with enough employees that you don’t have to worry if someone quits or get sick for a period of time. If your sales need to increase, it’s easy to make that happen. A company that outsources sales usually has a large staff of experienced professionals that know how to obtain and work leads and explore new markets. A sales agency will also provide you with weekly or monthly reports so you know the current state of your sales efforts.
Administrative Tasks (virtual assistants)
As the world quickly learned during the recent pandemic, it is not necessary to be in an office somewhere to do your job effectively. Virtual assistants are in high demand now and are great for some businesses.
What Are the Benefits of a Virtual Assistant?
Again, the overhead in salary you’ll say from hiring a virtual assistant cannot be overstated. And if you don’t have work for them at the moment, that’s okay. You do not have to keep paying them for the time they are not working. You pay them by job or by the hour with a maximum number of hours to complete the job.
Virtual assistants are also known to stay on task better than someone in the office. The office has friends and coworkers who like to chat or take cigarette breaks with a friend. When you’re at home working on your own, those distractions are not there. And if there are some distractions, a virtual assistant will simply work around them and maybe work later in the evening than they had planned. It happens all the time. If a virtual assistant wants to spread their hours late into the afternoon or evening or even into Saturday, that’s okay. A VA (virtual assistant) will get the work done no matter what and they’ll attend to other matters such as emails, children, or dogs when they have time to.
You, as the owner or manager, don’t have to bog yourself down with the tedious tasks of scheduling, sifting through emails, answering phone calls, paying bills, hiring freelancers, or many of the other tasks that can consume so much of your day. Having a VA will free up time for you to focus on the really important issues.
Another really nice benefit is you can always find a virtual assistant with a special talent that your current virtual assistant does not possess. You don’t have to fire anyone; you simply just hire someone else for that one specific job.
If your business is burdened by having to hire so many people that require so much overhead and presents so much risk that you cannot relax, you need to outsource these tasks to professionals and lighten your workload and the workload of the key individuals in your business. You can usually find attractive pricing to have work done, and there are a lot of high-quality outsourcing agencies that will take your business to the next level.