Covid-19 left the world reeling from pain and shock. Over four million died because of this disease. The global economy is in tatters. Although roughly 52% of the US adult population is fully immunized, we are still far from rounding the curb.
Economists and finance gurus have a dim outlook of the future. They might debate on how long the economic downturn will last. But they all agree that it will continue for a few more years. With this said, how will this affect US small businesses?
It is an unsettling time for entrepreneurs. They must deal with several problems on multiple fronts. You can be more efficient if you focus on your operations and allow others to handle the rest. That is the beauty of outsourcing.
Efficiency
A few months ago, the Wall Street Journal published an article stating that many companies find it hard to attract employees. It enumerated several possible factors why entrepreneurs are facing this problem. You might even attest to the accuracy of this report.
We already mentioned that outsourcing would increase your efficiency. It gives you the freedom to focus on your business’s bread and butter. Let us say that you have a manufacturing plant and need to cut back on labor last year. You are also having a hard time looking for people to help you with the operations.
In this case, you can hand the supporting roles to other businesses. This way, you and your existing staff can focus on operations. The team can work on manufacturing the blinds. You can concentrate on designing outside blinds.
Other than that, you can focus on looking for people to man your factory. You do not need people for the accounting department or your It department. Outsourcing these functions will help you concentrate on the training of your operations team.
Cost
You might be hesitant to outsource these functions because you are afraid that it might be expensive. But in the long run, it will leave you with savings. In this scenario, you do not have to train people to do these tasks for you. That is the responsibility of the company that you hired.
You can use these savings on infrastructure improvement. Or perhaps, you can use it to invest in new pieces of machinery. Outsourcing helps you to manage your costs better. You can divert funds from your support teams back to your operations.
Let us say that business forecast tells you that you need to move to a larger plant to make room for your HR, IT, and accounting teams. But if you outsource these functions, you do not need to make such a capital-intensive move. You can stay in your current location. That again equates to savings. You again save money because you do not have to for the salaries of the people managing these teams.
Expertise
We already mentioned that outsourcing could help you focus training costs on your operations team. This is possible because you are no longer hiring people for non-operation functions. It again equates to savings.
Let us say that you started with a staff of fifteen people. In this scenario, you were the one processing their payroll. Your company eventually grew to fifty members. Thus, you hired two to three people to help you prepare the salaries.
Your action to hire two to three support staff is still economically prudent. After a year, your company expanded to two hundred laborers. Your impulse is to hire a team to take care of the non-operations task, like HR and accounting.
This move is no longer economically prudent because it is costly to keep this staff. Other than their salaries, you would also need to invest in accounting software. Your original payroll system might no longer suffice your current business model. You also need to invest in their training.
All of these will cost you money. But if you outsource this function, you do not need to pay for all of these. What is best of all is that you get expert help at a fraction of the cost. Isn’t that a brilliant investment idea?
The pandemic has changed the world. We must deal with the death and the economic loss. But we can survive this crisis. We will be able to overcome the pain and devastation.
As an entrepreneur, you can turn things around. You only need a few carefully thought of investments and plans. If you outsource your non-operation functions, you can get your operations up and running in no time. Before you know it, you will be reaping the fruits of taking such a risk.
