SAVE MONEY BY OUTSOURCING
Whether you have a new small business, are in the midst of project planning or trying to figure out growth strategy, a key part of your business strategy should include having access to talented people, staying flexible enough to ramp up for new projects quickly, and keeping your business lean and overhead costs low. Flexibility is key to small business growth. One smart move: outsourcing staff.
The concept is simple - rather than hiring an employee to take care of certain tasks, you hire a freelancer, consultant or company to take care of it for you. As part of your tactical planning you can outsource individual tasks, or entire departments.
You might already be outsourcing your lawyer, bookkeeper, or payroll. That’s been standard practice for years. After all, most small businesses don’t have enough legal or accounting work to keep someone on staff full time.
But what about outsourcing your receptionist? Your Director of Marketing? Your sales force? Or an entire project from start to finish?
Large companies have been outsourcing everything from their call centres to their manufacturing for years.
And some industries – like film industry visual effects – have always relied on outsourcing work to artists and software designers working from their living rooms.
I’m thinking about outsourcing time-consuming tasks like transcribing taped interviews and project research, for example.
The first step to making this part of your small business success is to look at what people, expertise and resources you already have on hand, along with those you wish you had access to. Now ask yourself – could this work be done just as well, or better, by an outsider? Are you having trouble getting through all your tasks in a day? Could you take a few things off your plate to focus on priorities?
If the answer is yes, then think about what you might save on capital and overhead costs. But keep in mind that you’ll still need someone to manage and coordinate the work done by outsiders.
The next question is – where do you find someone to outsource your work to?
For project based work and individual experts, start with websites like Guru.com, oDesk.com, elance.com, and even Craigslist.org. You’ll find thousands of people and companies with expert skills make themselves available for short and long term contracts. You might even find some in your social networking circles, and when you're doing network marketing.
These are people who are good at what they do, and decided to build a business around it. Kind of like you.
Hiring them is easy: You just go online, post your project parameters and what you’d like to pay – and people will bid on the chance to take on your project.
As always, be sure to check references and review samples of their work.
For information on where to find virtual employees read on.
Cheryl Binning is a Vancouver based freelance TV, digital media and print writer, publicist and small business owner. She's been writing about business, entertainment, the media and communications for fifteen years, and isn't sure if the highlight of her career so far was interviewing Nick Nolte in his bathrobe, or meeting Alice Cooper at the Music Video Awards.
Follow her on Twitter @cherylbinning
