What’s best for a small business to outsource?

Small businesses have a limited budget and can’t always afford to have full-time employees on their payroll to handle different tasks. This doesn’t mean you need to handle all essential business tasks on your own. Small business owners should focus most of their energy on business tasks and processes that require their particular skill and attention.

They can delegate ordinary business processes to a third party through outsourcing. You can maintain a lean organisation, stay within your operations budget and still get work done.

What can you outsource?

Different businesses have different requirements so it’s important to study your business processes, understand your budget and look at your employees’ skills and abilities before you determine what you should and shouldn’t outsource. Mentioned below is a list of services you can easily outsource. You can study the pros and cons of every option and make your decision.

HR outsourcing

When you have employees, you need to manage their needs and requirement though a Human Resource system. The HR department of a company maintains employee records, keeps track of their insurance cover, performance reports, leaves and absences, complaints and requests and other such information. All of these records need to be properly managed and maintained.

HR is also responsible for employee development and helps organise training. If your employees don’t have proper support from HR, they might not be inclined to remain in your company and seek employment elsewhere.

As a business owner you need to provide this support system and you can do it by outsourcing the task to an external HR company. They will handle all aspects of HR support and development, so your employees will be satisfied and perform well.

Payroll outsourcing

Business owners often underestimate how complex payroll management can be. It goes beyond keeping a record of employee payments and salaries. You need to keep track of their working hours, record leaves, bonuses and make sure all the employee information is up-to-date. Mistakes can lead to penalties, fines and sanctions, so it’s important to keep a good payroll record and ensure all the information in it is accurate.

One of the best ways to achieve this is to hire a professional bookkeeper and use a software program to manage the data. If you outsource payroll, you don’t need to worry about the details involved. You can trust the outsourcing professionals to keep all the information up-to-date and ensure there are no mistakes in the records

IT outsourcing

Modern businesses, especially small businesses, rely heavily on their IT systems. They use IT to get work done, store information, manage business processes, handle marketing and provide customer support. Unfortunately, IT systems aren’t infallible and can develop problems like viruses, data loss, software glitches, hardware issues, etc. Big companies have IT departments that can handle these problems and provide essential maintenance.

Smaller businesses can get the same security by outsourcing IT support and maintenance. IT support companies have expert technicians on their staff that can handle all kinds of computer and IT problems. They offer both remote and on-site maintenance and repairs.

IT support and maintenance companies also provide additional services like cloud system, processing power from their server, hosting services, etc. You don’t need to invest in data banks and servers to store your information; you can simply purchase one of the many cloud plans offered by IT support companies

Small business bookkeeping

All businesses need to keep track of their expenses and income through bookkeeping and accountancy. If you don’t keep track of your financial information, your business will suffer and eventually fail. You also need to maintain accurate financial data in order to file your taxes with the government at the year end. If you make mistakes and don’t pay as much tax as you’re supposed to, you’ll face penalties, fines and may even lose your business license.

Unfortunately, bookkeeping isn’t easy, even for small businesses. You need to keep track of all expenses, look at your cash flow, maintain a record of your income, determine what expenses are tax deductable and perform other related tasks. While accounting software can help you maintain the records, it’s not easy to consolidate all the information at the end of the financial year.

How to hire an accountant that meets your business requirements? A well-trained and experienced accountant can help you consolidate information, determine your tax burden, look for tax deductable expenses and provide other financial advice. This can be easily outsourced as well.

Legal process outsourcing

Businesses need to handle a number of legal processes like registering trademarks for their brand, developing terms and conditions, creating contracts for customers, employees and business associates, etc. You need advice from a legal professional with experience in the industry to ensure there are no mistakes. Errors in legal process management can lead to law suits and other legal difficulties, so it’s a good idea to hire a company to keep track of all legal aspects of your business.

There are a number of third-party companies with excellent legal experts and lawyers on their team. They can advise you on all aspects of your business and ensure you stay on the right side of the law.

Business process outsourcing

A business is a complex machine with several moving parts. All of these parts must function well and without interruption for the business to move forward. Every business has a number of background processes like customer service, sales, marketing, internal maintenance and repair, etc. A business owner must keep track of these processes and ensure that they’re on track.

Thankfully, you can outsource a large number of these processes as well. For example, you can hire a company to clean and maintain your commercial property instead of creating a permanent cleanup crew.

Wrap up

Outsourcing is easy and affordable, so all you need to do is find a reliable service provider to handle all your processes. Outsourcing allows your business to grow at a reasonable pace and minimises the initial investment. You can direct your resources to areas of your business that truly need it.