Most small business owners start their business with the intent to scale — in many ways, it’s show you know the business is proving successful. Even if you start your business from a hobby, if it’s going to be sustainable, it needs to scale. To do this, you need to use part of the profits to outsource or hire parts of the job.
As a self-employed business owner, you might have a difficult time resisting the urge to do everything yourself, but to be successful, you’ll need to start delegating. When the time arrives to expand your small business, you may decide that taking on new employees is too complicated and expensive for your new company. If you want to be smart, then you could decide to use outsourcing as the primary means for growing your business.
Here are some of the outsourcing methods that you can use to grow your business:
Web Development Is a Must
If you don’t have a website, then outsourcing your own business website is the number one thing you can do to scale your business. In today’s business environment, customers demand that businesses have a website — it’s a 24/hour identity. Without a website many customers will feel that you are not trustworthy and choose to use a different business instead.
Graphic Design Portrays Professionalism
One outsourcing task that many small business owners delay doing is having graphic design work done. Graphics design however is a necessity. You should have a logo for your business created, get business cards designed (Vistaprint being a good resource) and have graphics designed for any advertising that you may use.
Many business owners make the mistake of trying to do all of their graphic work on their own and frankly, unless you have experience as a graphic designer, it’s best to rely on the expertise of those who have studied modern design and color theory to ensure your brand is representative of your professionalism. Make certain to outsource your graphic design work to someone who is skilled, so your customers will have confidence in your company’s image.
Sales and Marketing is the Lifeblood of Your Businesses
Outsourcing sales and marketing is one of the most overlooked outsourcing duties business owners make. When you outsource your sales and marketing, your business will grow at a much faster pace.
You may be remarkably talented at your service or product, but if you don’t have clients to vouch for you, it’s going to be hard to continue growing. Seek out people with strong sales skills to focus on generating new customers for your business.
Customer Service Can Make the Difference
Every business should implement customer service outsourcing as part of their overall business strategy. If your business starts to grow rapidly, then you might find that you need to hire more customer service reps to handle the increased workflow. A great alternative to increasing staff is to outsource the extra customer service needs. Outsourcing customer service tasks can be a great help during peak busy times; also, it will save you a tremendous amount of money when business is coming in slower than usual.
Accounting and Payroll
As you start seeing a profit and outsourcing assets, then you need to outsource your accounting. A CPA firm can tally your assets, explain where you’re losing money, where your margins are excelling, and what you should budget for for taxes year round. As for payroll, it should be a given, but if you’ve started hiring people, then you’ll want to make sure they trust you to pay them on time. Instead of adding that stress to yourself, outsource it.
Outsourcing can be a tremendous way to assist you with scaling your small business without the cost that you traditionally undertake when hiring and training new staff. Outsourcing allows you to expand at your own pace and with a budget that your business can afford. Start outsourcing some tasks that need done today, and you will see for yourself the growth that it can bring to your business.