Running your own business is complex. You have many balls to juggle; you know what needs to be done, but often it can feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to achieve what you want to do. This is where outsourcing aspects of your work can be a great way to ease the load. Entrepreneurs thrive on being flexible and having a DIY attitude, but delegating tasks can bring many benefits to your business:
- Frees up your time so that you can concentrate on other aspects of your business
- Streamlines efficiency and boosts productivity
- Allows you to set budget and deadlines
- Assures quality – you can hire people with specialist skills to deliver the work
- Shares risk with a partner company
So, if you are struggling to complete your to-do list, outsourcing is a viable solution to tackling business challenges and buys you more time.
What should you outsource?
To get the most out of your outsourcing experience, you need to identify where you need help. You need to know where you are spending the most time, so journaling the time that you spend during the working week is a good start. Create a simple table to log the time that you spend on a task. Journal for at least a month to get a good idea of where you spend your time. Here are three roles that can be outsourced:
- Personal Assistant
If you are struggling to keep up to date with the administration side of your business, a virtual personal assistant could be the answer. Telephone calls and e-mails can be answered, diaries controlled, and invoices prepared remotely. It means that smaller businesses can focus on growing their business and have reliable and professional support.
- Marketing
There will be some aspects of marketing that you will want to keep in-house, but unless you are a digital marketing expert, it is unlikely that you have the skills to promote your business online to reach its full potential. A company like Click Intelligence will manage your digital marketing campaign and help you target your customers, getting your products or services in front of an audience who are your target demographic. The success of a digital media campaign is dependant on building relationships and links with influencers which takes time and effort, but an agency has the specialist skills and contacts to guarantee a return on investment.
- Bookkeeping
Keeping up to date with your accounts is critical to business success. You need to know how much money is coming in and going out so that you can make informed business decisions and know how much tax you will have to pay. Reconciling your bank accounts is a time-consuming task, and what may eat up a significant amount of your time, will take a professional bookkeeper a couple of hours. Yes, you must pay for the service, but compare the hourly rate with the cost of your time.
You know the adage time is money; by outsourcing time-consuming tasks, you can use your time more efficiently to develop your business. By identifying which areas of your business take up the most time, you will be able to see where you need additional help to streamline efficiency and take the headache out of tackling business challenges.