When you’re running a small business, there will come a time when you have some tough decisions to make. Do you plow on doing everything by yourself or with an in-house team, or do you look further afield for a helping hand and embrace outsourcing?
In today’s guide, we’re going to attempt to answer that question for you and reveal the best times and situations for keeping things under your control, and when to let go. Let’s take a closer look.
Keep it in-house
OK, so first of all, the temptation for most small business owners is to keep everything in-house. It’s easy to see why. After all, it’s your business and you want to keep a tight control of the reins when it comes to running your company. And there is a lot of merit in keeping things company-run.
If you are starting to make good profits, it can be cheaper to hire people full time, as long as you are sure you will keep making those profits regularly. And there are definite advantages to keeping everything under the same roof, too.
Not only will you have complete control over every single task done in your business, but you also get to shape your employees exactly as you want them through in-house training schemes.
Outsource it
However, there are a lot of areas in your business where it can be worth outsourcing. Take something like your IT systems as a good example. Handing it over to IT consulting services can be a good idea as it removes a lot of pressure from you and your team in what can be a very heavy-resource environment.
But it’s not just complex tasks that should be outsourced. The little things can be passed on, too, such as your administration. For example, if you spend two days a week updating your records and drawing up employee timetables and work schedules, it’s taking you away from your money-making role by a significant amount of time.
Instead, you could pay an admin assistant to do all that work for you, for what would effectively be a fraction of the price. And finally, there are a lot of benefits in using outsourced companies that cannot be ignored. You are paying for the best of expertise and relying on people that don’t need training – and could even give you access to skills you need that you don’t have.
Plus, outsourcing can help you bridge the gap that needs covering while you are growing from a small company into a larger one. By outsourcing, you only have to pay people for the work they do, whereas there is a risk attached to hiring full-timers if your plans for growth don’t work out.
So, which is best? The truth is it’s all down to your unique situation. Building an in-house team has a lot going for it, and it’s a sign that you are making serious headway in your business. But there is also risk involved – in which case, it might be worth exploring the opportunities offered by outsourcing. Good luck!
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