For small business owners, time carries considerable value. Outsourcing the logistical aspects of your company’s backend ensures that you have more of this valuable time to focus on where your business is heading rather than what it needs to do to stay afloat. In addition, outsourcing these overhead processes ensures that you have management, financial, and technical expertise on your side to make essential business decisions. Outsourced accounting, human resources, IT, and marketing professionals will allow your business to thrive and help you avoid the costs of hiring internally.

According to the United States Small Business Administration, more than a third of small businesses currently outsource to fill in vital gaps in the company’s backend. No matter what the current size or scale of your business is, outsourcing allows you to select experienced professionals to aid in running the business at a scalable number of hours. Outsourcing allows your normal operations to run with increased efficiency without sacrificing too much of the company’s end margins. Here are just a few of the services that you may want to consider outsourcing when considering your business’s organizational structure.

Accounting & financial services

Accounting and financial management services are essential for almost every small business in America. If you’re just getting started and aren’t sure how much professional experience you can bring on right away, you may want to consider a bookkeeper. If you’re more comfortable with your current operations but want to improve spending efficiency, you should consider hiring a CPA, or certified public accountant. If you’re seeking an experienced financial professional that can help you take your business up to an enterprise level, you may want to hire an outsourced CFO.

At the lowest level, outsourced financial services professionals can support you with balancing the books and making payroll every two weeks. When you sign on for an outsourced accountant, you’ll usually get a full audit of your company’s finances, which can identify areas where you need to cut spending or invest more. Once you’ve optimized the efficiency of your operations, you’ll have more bandwidth for taking a few financial risks. In addition, an outsourced accountant or bookkeeper can typically assist you with preparing for tax season so that there are no costly mistakes or surprises.

HR support

Managing concerns surrounding your company’s human resources can be incredibly challenging without professional expertise in this side of the business. If hiring and recruiting are too time-consuming, you may want to consider outsourced HR support. If keeping track of your employee's benefits is difficult, you may also want to outsource your HR. While HR outsourcing doesn’t usually make sense for a company that’s just getting started, it’s typically a handy addition to any company that’s larger than eight to ten employees.

Marketing

Marketing plays a key role in expanding the success of your business. For most small businesses, digital marketing, in particular, can be a powerful tool for increasing your lead generation by driving more traffic to your site and improving your content’s keyword rankings. A digital marketing agency can typically assist your company by fixing website errors or developing a new site, writing content, and managing your social media channels. In many cases, you’ll also get assistance with managing your Google My Business and Yelp profiles to improve interactions with your brand.

To get started with a new marketing campaign, you’ll need to reach out to a digital marketing agency with experience in your industry. If the content writers and website developers have worked with similar companies in the past, they’ll have a better idea of what’s necessary for outranking the competition and increasing traffic. Strategies vary significantly depending on your industry. Legal and medical services, for example, or two industries that are amongst the most competitive. If you’re an eCommerce company or otherwise do most of your business online, digital marketing is a must-have service.

Customer service

Outsourcing your customer service allows you to improve the digital presence associated with your business by increasing the responsiveness of your support and thereby generating more five-star reviews. If you can keep your customers fully satisfied with the products and services you’re offering, you’ll see a sharp increase in sales or lead generation. If you’re managing an eCommerce company, outsourced customer service can be just as important as outsourced accounting and marketing. Efficient complaint management and troubleshooting processes can decrease returns and allow you to turn your focus towards other aspects of your business.

Shipping and inventory control

Selling products online, whether it’s through a platform like Amazon or your own site, requires you to keep a close eye on the processes you have for storing and sending inventory. If you have items that are sitting on your warehouse shelf for too long, you’re likely not making as much money as you could otherwise. Outsourcing your inventory management and shipping processes means you’ll always have enough inventory on hand for meeting customer demand, but you also won’t have to take any financial risks by purchasing too much of a single product.

Branding Services

Setting up your business for long-term success requires you to spend a considerable amount of time and resources up-front to get your branding and company policies just right. Logos, website appearance, and visible processes usually require professional support that covers services such as graphic design and web development. 

Conclusion - 6 logistical aspects of your business you should outsource

Outsourcing the logistical aspects of your business allows you more time and flexibility to focus on where your business is going rather than its current operations. You’ll have valuable professional support for any service, no matter the size and scale of your business. Outsourcing your accounting is a great place to start.