Categories: Small Business Info

Outsourcing for Small Business – Yay or Nay?

If you’ve ever worked for a large company, or even a small company, you are probably familiar with outsourcing. Outsourcing is the practice of turning over certain elements of your business to outside experts. What you may not realize is that small businesses can benefit from outsourcing, too. Going along with the trend of these larger companies, small business owners are outsourcing a wide range of services from HR to finance and customer service to creative. Before you begin, understand that outsourcing takes both time and money in order to find the right vendor at the right cost. You need to take the time to build a strong, working relationship and give your in-house employees time to adjust.

Here are some tips for evaluating the benefits of outsourcing for your small business:

STEP 1: Know the outsourcing ABCs! (from Kevin Gregson, CEO of Sherwood Solutions, a business advisory firm)

Alignment: Is outsourcing the right move for your business?
Business Case: Have you taken all costs into consideration?
Culture: Can you bridge the cultural difference between your company and the outsourcer?
Delivery: How will you define success?

STEP 2: After considering your ABC’s, go through these outsourcing Do’s and Don’ts from Microsoft:

Try fixing whatever’s not working on your own first.
Carefully evaluate what really can be outsourced.
Consider management costs.
Be prepared for challenges.
Don’t walk in blind.
If you outsource significant hunks of your operations, consider having an employee act as liaison.
Watch out for hidden costs.

STEP 3: Leaning towards outsourcing? These benefits can give you push you need to make your final decision!

Outsourcing:
- Helps control capital costs.
- Increases efficiency.
- Reduces labor costs.
- Allows you to start new project quickly.
- Lets you put your focus on the core of your business.
- Can level the playing field with your competitors.
- Reduces risk.

Are you considering outsourcing for your small business? Let us know in the comments below.

Cindy Berrier

Cindy is the Customer Care and Operations Manager at 123Print. A native New Englander, Cindy now resides in Pennsylvania. She enjoys helping our customers and ensuring that the website runs smoothly. When she has downtime, she likes to spend time with her grandchildren and ride horses. Any questions, please contact her at cberrier@123print.com . [Check out Cindy on Google+]

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View Comments

Linda Fuller says:

April 5, 2013 at 8:45 pm

At our small business, we have had good success using odesk.com to hire people to work on projects for us. Many of our projects relate to our web presence be in writing content, creating visuals or editing videos. The great thing is that each person sets his or her own rate. We have also used fiver, but the rate is always $5 which only works for simpler projects. Odesk has been great for the more important things we need to outsource.
- Rhonda Walinga says:
  
  April 8, 2013 at 1:32 pm
  
  Linda -- That's great to hear that you've had a very positive experience using outsourcing for your small business! Thanks for sharing.
  - Coltin says:
    
    April 27, 2013 at 8:03 pm
    
    That's a smart answer to a tricky qeutsion
Outsourcing for Small Business says:

April 7, 2013 at 9:28 pm

Small or big company can do this outsourcing. However there are some to be considered and yes those that are mentioned above are way useful to decide if the business is really needing to outsource.
- Rhonda Walinga says:
  
  April 8, 2013 at 1:34 pm
  
  Thanks! It's definitely a big decision to make and you should take several different things into consideration. If you decide that outsourcing is right for you, it could have a huge payout!
will smith says:

May 1, 2013 at 8:45 am

Call center outsourcing can be extremely beneficial in helping a business grow, but only after all associated costs are calculated. I personally recommend call centers for a small business if you feel overwhelmed or have plateaued in the number of new clients you can take on.
- Rhonda Walinga says:
  
  May 2, 2013 at 9:40 am
  
  Will -- great tip! Thanks for sharing with our readers.
sarah black says:

May 21, 2013 at 5:15 am

This article hints at the fact that it is beneficial for large companies to outsource customer service, for example, to keep down on labor costs and increase the efficiency with which companies assist customers. Small businesses, on the other hand, may not handle enough calls that they need to outsource. However, if you’re small business’s growth is starting to pick up, you may consider outsourcing to avoid reaching that point where you receive enough calls that your customer service starts to lack quality. Anser can help you ensure that your business’s customer care services don’t hinder your business’s growth.
joe says:

May 22, 2013 at 12:51 am

Outsourcing for small businesses is a huge yes! Of course it depends on everyone's needs individually, but if your goal is to grow and streamline business processes so that you have more time for core projects as the business owner, hiring a contact center is absolutely a great investment.
- Rhonda Walinga says:
  
  May 22, 2013 at 9:04 am
  
  Joe -- Thanks for the comment! Sounds like you've seen some success from outsourcing :)
Tara says:

July 24, 2013 at 4:22 pm

I completely agree that outsourcing your IT is a big no-no. It makes your company look cheap and of low quality.
- Rhonda Walinga says:
  
  July 25, 2013 at 8:29 am
  
  Tara - Thanks for your insight!