There are many hats a small business owner must wear, especially in start up phase.
As a soloist you can be the CEO, Vice President of Sales, Marketing Manager, Financial Strategist and Admin Assistant.
While it can make sense to be in control of all aspects of your business at some point you will need to outsource. As you grow you won’t have the time nor the expertise to ‘do it all’.
You need to be prepared for what those areas are to outsource and it will depend on your skills and your preferences – what you like to do and what makes economic sense. From an economic perspective consider this:
You charge your clients $80 per hour for your time. You have to take out 3 hours every week to to do your ‘books’. Alternatively you could employ a bookkeeper (who is ultimately more efficient than you) for $30 and hour and it takes them 2 hours. If you are confident you can fill your hours with sales why wouldn’t you outsource your bookkeeping (it’s been my excuse for a cleaner for some time now!)
Your small business growth will be inhibited if you can’t outsource, which is why I am such a big advocate of creating operations manuals right at the outset of your business. An attitude of ‘if you want it done properly do it yourself” will cripple your business over time.
The most common areas to outsource in are those that are highly repetitive or those that require specialised knowledge. The top 5 areas to consider outsourcing include:
- SEO management – the rules and tips and tricks change all the time – the experts are up to that
- Bookkeeping – while you need to know the ‘stories’ behind your numbers, data entry is a thankless task
- Designers – it’s an art and craft, best left to the professionals (unless you are one of course!)
- Administration – a virtual assistant can look after the most basic tasks from handling phone calls to managing your diary
- PR Consultants – the have the contacts and the know-how. Look for some one who has experience in your industry.
Taking the first steps towards outsourcing can be daunting and time consuming – you need to have all your systems and processes sorted, but in the end you will benefit from the economies of scale and the time to work ‘on’ your business rather than ‘in’ your business.
Don’t outsource just because you don’t want to do something – outsource because it doesn’t matter if it’s not handled by you personally and it makes efficiency gains and economic sense.
Find people by using your networks or consider the range of online services such as oDesk, BidModo and eLance serve as virtual marketplaces for contractors and business owners to connect and begin working relationships.
Whether you use a web-based marketplace, a personal referral, or HR consultant, the key to identifying the right contractor is to know exactly what you’re looking for and to have your systems in place to ensure they will be able to work effectively and efficiently for you.
“Small business, augmented by a global pool of human capital, can compete directly with the biggest players in their space, and win.” David Walsh, entrepreneur and author of Source Control
