Running your own business has never been easy. However, the last 12 months have created some challenges that nobody realistically expected. One of the very few upsides is that many businesses that have been forced to change due to circumstances have found that some of their long-established working practices were no longer fit for purpose and have found ways to improve them.
This has led many business owners and managers to look at their business with a more critical eye and see how technology can replace or improve an old, outdated way of doing something. In some areas, it has meant that parts of the business have been outsourced entirely to allow staff to focus on core business tasks.
When to outsource
Outsourcing is usually considered a cost-saving exercise. However, this may be erroneous because while money is often saved as a result of outsourcing, it is usually as an indirect consequence. Typically, when a company outsources purely to save money, it can lead to corner-cutting and poor service, which will cost the business more in the long term.
When a company outsources areas of the business being operated by staff with inadequate training or run on outdated technology, the benefits are two-fold. Initially, the cost of training staff or replacing an expensive piece of technology has been side-stepped, and then the long-term benefits of handing over problem areas to experts to deal with.
Areas that can be outsourced easily
Two examples of this can be IT support and social media. Both of these areas have constantly moving goalposts where the potential cost, both financially and in manpower, is very high.
Regardless of the type of business, it relies heavily on data and keeping it safe. If a company was subject to a cyberattack and the customer data was compromised or erased completely, it can mean the end of that company. In fact, 60% of small companies go out of business within 12 months after falling victim to a cyber attack.
With this much at stake, it is easy to see why businesses outsource their IT support to companies like VTech Support, Inc to keep their data safe. This means data is safeguarded as a priority and not an afterthought and is less likely to fall prey to hackers, and if the worst happens, recovery can occur quickly.
Experts can improve results
Another critical part of any modern business is the role that social media takes in promoting the companies brand and generating new leads. If this is done clumsily, it can damage a brand identity and turn customers away rather than attract them.
By outsourcing social media to a specialist agency, as well as releasing a member of staff to concentrate on providing a service to customers, a business can save money and increase sales. An agency will have the tools to do the job more effectively, as well as trained staff to create copy and graphics that might not have been possible while the task was being done in-house.
