It can be difficult for business owners to let go of certain core tasks when they’re expanding. Many of them are used to having full control over their operation, and that comes with a certain level of comfort.
But sometimes in the cut throat world of business, comfort can mean complacency. In such cases, business owners may end up overspending or underestimating if they’re hellbent on handling everything on their own while in a process of expansion. Handling everything in-house can seriously stunt a business’s growth, or even be its undoing. If your business is growing rapidly, here are some functions you should consider outsourcing right now.
IT Support
Small businesses can sometimes get away with hiring a consultant to come in and install systems and provide updates or having someone on their payroll to put out fires from time to time. But it’s usually a better idea to let a third-party team handle things once your business starts expanding and your network becomes more complex.
Hiring an in-house team at this point doesn’t usually make sense for many reasons. First of all, you probably won’t need someone to monitor your systems around the clock, but you may still have to deal with very complex problems from time to time, as Impreza, provider of Kent IT services, gently caution. You may also have difficulty attracting top talent.
An outsourced team will overlook your systems without charging you by the hour. They will usually charge you a fixed fee that will often be much lower than what you’d have to pay for a full-time in-house team. And we can almost certainly guarantee you that their level of expertise will greatly surpass your team’s.
Texaport.co.uk, an acclaimed IT support provider in Scotland, tells us where IT systems and support is concerned, it’s often best to defer to the professionals. Doing so means that not only will they look after your systems and make sure that they’re safe at all times, but they can also help deploy solutions for you. They will enhance your company’s cybersecurity as well and will be able to scale with your business.
Payroll & Human Resources
Payroll is something most businesses can benefit from outsourcing, no matter their size. If you’ve been handling payroll in-house up until now and you never had issues, you were probably very lucky, but it’s not recommended that you handle it on your own if you’re expanding. You could easily find a service that will handle the payroll for you and handle many other things such as human resources as well.
Some people may be asking themselves why a growing company would want to let a third party handle something as personal as human resources, but there are plenty of reasons to do so.
Again, there’s a strong chance that you’ll have a limited talent pool of HR professionals to choose from as a business compared to a company that does nothing but HR. HR companies are experts at what they do and will transfer all of that expertise to you. This means that you’ll be able to recruit better talent faster and for cheap.
Outsourced HR doesn’t stop at interviews either. They can help set up structures for onboarding, implement an effective leave management system, and help with training too.
They can help build your company’s culture and improve your brand as an employer. And they will play an active role in resolving conflicts. So don’t assume that a third party will be disconnected from your operation as it is their job to merge with it and mould themselves to it while providing their insight.
Online Marketing and Social Media Management
Though it’s perhaps not imperative to hire a social media manager unless they’re a massive operation with tons of different accounts to manage and a very heavy social media strategy, you may benefit from online marketing expertise from time to time.
If all you need is to manage your Facebook or Instagram, then you could instead hire a freelancer. Even a virtual assistant could do that for you if it’s not a major ingredient of your marketing mix.
Online marketing is also something you should outsource. This is a very passive function that doesn’t require active monitoring, so having someone clock in to perform things like SEO or managing online campaigns will be a waste of money.
Customer Support
Customer support is something that no small business that is expanding should handle in-house. Coordinating a growing support team in-house can be difficult and finding great support employees as well. You’ll be spending lots of time looking for managers and employees, and many of them will let you down. Instead, you could go with a good outsourced customer support service and have a fully formed and proven team at your service.
The Bottom Line
Expansion can complicate a company’s structure, and outsourcing is a good way to keep it as light as possible. So, consider outsourcing some or all the functions in this article if you don’t want your business’s structure to become too heavy.