In most large businesses, employees perform specialized functions. Secretaries handle all of the filing and related tasks. Marketing people handle the advertising and public relations. Accountants keep the books. Salespeople make the sales.
Many small businesses do not have the luxury of being able to hire employees. So the business owner must handle everything herself. While this may work out reasonably well in the initial stages, as the business grows it gets more difficult to keep up with it all. There are some compelling reasons that business owners should consider outsourcing.
- You can’t learn everything. No matter how smart you are, you simply can’t. Even if you could, learning takes time, and there are only a set number of hours in a day. If you try to learn every minute aspect of the things that need to be done for your business, you’re going to end up disappointed and frustrated.
- You have a life outside of your business. Everyone needs time to spend with family and friends, even if they’re running a business. If we try to tackle everything ourselves, we won’t have time to enjoy the finer things in life.
- The stress of trying to do it all can adversely affect your health. There are enough stressors in life that we don’t need to add to them unnecessarily. But if we put pressure on ourselves to run a business on our own with no help at all, it can really stress us out. Besides affecting our state of mind, too much stress can cause high blood pressure and put us at risk for many other ailments.
- People who are trained well in their fields may be able to do a better job. If you barely know HTML, it would take you quite a while to learn how to make a good-looking and functional website. An experienced web designer could have your entire website up and running before you were finished learning what you need to know. In situations such as this, it makes more sense to outsource than to try to do it yourself.
- Outsourcing can save you money. Some tasks require special equipment or software. If you’re not going to need these things in the future, it doesn’t make much sense to buy them for one project. Hiring someone else that already has what is needed to get the job done is usually more economical.
In many cases, outsourcing makes good business sense. It allows us to concentrate on the things we’re best at, and it can save us time and money. So the next time you find yourself with an over abundance of work, consider outsourcing.
At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.