Your business needs more for it to prosper and grow. It needs your focus on the important aspects and leaving the other business processes to outsourced services.
Relying only on the capabilities of your in-house staff is sometimes not enough. Running a business, regardless if it is a start-up or established, can feel like a delicate balancing act. On top of that, you may feel like you and your people are wearing too many hats to keep operations running smoothly.
If you are at that stage and are on the lookout to outsource then we have you covered. In this article, we are sharing the most commonly outsourced services your business needs today.
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7 Benefits Of Outsourcing Services
Before we get to the meat of this article: Why do companies choose to outsource in the first place?
There are a lot of advantages to outsourcing, here are a couple of them:
More Time For Core Business Processes
When you partner with a third-party outsourcing provider you immediately get a team who are experts in the processes and tasks that you outsourced. That frees up your time and mental load to focus on attending to the core processes and actually running your business.
Better Operational Control
You can leave the minute details to an outsourced service provider while you focus on the bigger picture. Basically, you now have a better perspective of everything that is happening and manage your business properly.
Access To Better Talent Pool
When you are looking for new talents the usual way, it takes a while to find the right fit for your company’s vacancies. Sometimes they require more training as well.
In contrast, by partnering with an outsourcing service provider, you have access to a seasoned pool of talent. These talents are experienced in adapting to different industries already and deliver results with less time on training and onboarding.
Increase Efficiency
Your third-party provider already specialises in the services you outsourced. Which means less time to adapt and more time to get the results you want.
For your in-house team, having an outsourced team allows them to shift their focus to other important stuff. Overall, just having more hands on deck increases efficiency.
Reduce Expenses
You get the best of both worlds when you partner with an outsourcing service provider: One, you avoid unnecessary expenses and invest the money to further improve your business. Two, you get a team of specialists for less than the price compared to hiring and training in-house.
Basically, you do not have to sacrifice quality and growth when you need to reduce expenses when you go for outsourced services.
Minimise Risks
Because your outsourcing service provider is already a specialist in their field, minimise the risks you might incur. Compared to relying on the capabilities of your in-house team, the risks are higher when mistakes are made.
Develop Internal Staff
Lastly, a collaboration between your outsourced and in-house teams provides a learning opportunity for your internal staff. As specialists in their field, your staff can learn the best practices and expert tips throughout the duration of your project or partnership.
12 Most Commonly Outsourced Services Your Business Needs
There are plenty of reasons why you should outsource, just like the ones we shared here. But, there are even more services that you can outsource today.
Here are the most common outsourced services that your business might need right now:
IT
In today’s heavily digitalized era, your business has a lot of IT needs, such as:
- Understaffed in-house IT developers
- Not enough IT expertise
- Ensure smooth tech operations
- Assistance to troubleshoot IT problems
- Front-end and Back-end support
- Desktop and Mobile application development
Whichever may be the reason, cutting corners or doing anything IT-related half-baked is an automatic no-no. Instead, businesses avail IT outsourcing services to third-party specialists to ensure quality work for these highly technical tasks.
Web Design & Development
Are you a start-up that is setting up your first website? Or, a company that is looking to revamp your web pages? Whichever may be the case, you will need skilled graphic designers, preferably with experience in UI design, and developers to apply the approved designs.
A website is a business’ online storefront. You can create a positive and lasting impression with a good website. A lot of business owners know this, and that’s why they avail outsourced services for graphic designers and web developers.
Accounting
Accounting and bookkeeping are best done in-house since these are money-related matters. However, for start-ups that are not financially savvy, opting for outsourced services to take care of this is a better option, here’s why:
- Lessens any money-related anxieties
- Ensures all legal matters are covered
- Government taxes are settled
Just remember, it is encouraged for business owners to at least understand accounting and bookkeeping. This is to ensure that you avoid any irregularities that can cause problems down the line.
Marketing
Whether you cater to B2C, B2B, or even B2G, marketing helps get the word out about your business. It touches on a lot of aspects and requires a blend of creative and data-driven strategies for it to be effective. It requires time, money, and skills to achieve this.
Companies with a limited marketing budget and team opt to partner with digital marketing firms. Some even partner with more than one, depending on the firm’s specialty.
Social Media Management
Sometimes getting a complete outsourced team is not necessary. Your business has a capable in-house marketing team and a good-sized budget. But what you lack is the knowledge on how to get the numbers and engagements on social media.
Just posting consistently on all the social media platforms that your business is not enough. You need tailor-made content that effectively engages and (ultimately) prompts your target audience into paying customers. A digital marketing firm with outsourced services specialising in social media management can help you achieve this.
SEO & SEM
It can be that you have a content writer, graphic designer, content specialist, and even an SEO specialist in your in-house team. But getting first-page results on Google is a tricky thing to do.
SEO and SEM are long-term plans that deliver compounding interest when done right. For this, you need more than just posting blogs. You need the outsourced services of SEO specialists to optimise your website and content to achieve this.
Sales & Lead Generation
Lead generation helps cultivate the interest of potential customers in your business’ products and services to secure future sales. While sales take the final step: Encouraging these potential customers to become paying customers and close the deal. These two go hand in hand to help your business make a profit.
However, wooing and persuading potential customers requires specific interpersonal skills. It will take a while to train your in-house team or hire in-house expert salespeople. To save time, outsourced service providers can lend their expertise in sales and lead generation.
Customer Support
Customer satisfaction is important. Because a happy and satisfied customer is a future loyal customer. This is why customer support before and after sales is crucial. However, most companies do not have the manpower to answer each and every customer inquiry in a timely manner. Outsourced services that provide customer service automation and agents can reliably handle all customer needs.
Human Resources
A human resources department is important for any business. They ensure employee satisfaction, retain and acquire talents for your company, and reinforce positive company culture. However, it can be costly to maintain it, especially for start-ups. Outsourced services of HR firms can cover these and more, such as:
- On-boarding & Training
- Employee Management
- Payroll Management
Administrative Functions
Repetitive administrative functions and other menial tasks eat up too much of your time? Admin outsourcing providers offer automation and virtual assistants to take these off your plate. This is especially handy for solo entrepreneurs and small start-up businesses.
Shipping & Logistics
Shipping and logistics management is a delicate orchestra with a lot of moving parts: One, you need to deliver the products within the specified estimated time of delivery to the customer. Two, you need to ensure the quality of the products supplied and delivered is maintained. Three, you need to keep track of everything in your inventory that comes and goes.
The outsourced services of shipping and logistics firms can handle this aspect on your behalf and minimise any possible damage to your business’ integrity.
Research & Development
Research and development cover a lot of things, such as:
- Pharmaceuticals
- Cosmetics products
- Skincare formulations
- Financial research
- Market research
- Customer demo- and psychographics
These require specific firms that possess the expert and technical knowledge to conduct and execute the research and development methodologies to deliver the results you want.
How To Determine If Your Business Needs Outsourced Services
Replacing some of your in-house operations with outsourced services to run your business functions can help grow your company. But the question is: How do you know you need to outsource already?
First, take a close look at your business and how it is currently functioning right now. Is it operating efficiently? If not, are there functions that you can outsource?
Two, assess the allotted budget for each business function. Is the budget for each department justified? Do the results they generate in proportion to their budget?
Three, specify what is important for your business right now and prioritise it. How much money will it take if you do it in-house versus outsourced services? What is the timeline for you to achieve a set goal?
Four, determine how outsourcing will affect your in-house staff and operations. Will it improve productivity and efficiency? Will it boost or impact employee satisfaction?
Carefully assess all these factors, to make an informed decision on the specifics when you partner with a third-party provider.
Already decided to outsource? Flexisource IT can help you! We offer IT and Marketing services to help boost your company’s growth.
