Entrepreneurship and solopreneurship are at an all-time high
in our country and that means there are more great minds than ever available to
help you run a successful business. Let’s face it, you are great at what you
do, but most small business owners don’t have all of the skills necessary to
fully run a business. One way or another, you need support. But it’s likely
that you don’t require full time staff to conduct every area of your business.
Outsourcing some or all of the core functions of your
business can provide you with a higher level of support for far less than it
can cost to have someone on staff. There are many small companies available to
help with your accounting, marketing and social media, IT, event planning,
administration, and more. These core business services are all vital to the
success of every small business. But not every small business can afford to
hire all of these positions.
Here’s an example. One of our clients is a small start-up.
They have 7 staff members, and all of them work on the core function of their
business. It is vital to their success that they have every one of those
positions. But they also work on government contracts, and that requires very
specific accounting, contracting, and administrative skills they don’t possess. Instead of hiring accounting, contracting,
and administrative staff that would have to replace those 7 key positions, they
have outsourced accounting, administration, and contracting to small businesses
that specialize in providing those services. For significantly less than what
they would pay for a full time bookkeeper, they have hired an accounting
consulting firm and they receive the benefit of at least five different
individuals with five different skill levels, from entry level bookkeeping to
tax experts and a CPA. Hourly rates paid are based on the level of skill
provided. The accounting firm understands the intricacies of the business and
serves as the organization’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), a function this
small company couldn’t afford at this stage in their business.
A marketing/social media consulting firm can provide
consistent, strategic outreach to your clients and prospective clients keeping
your time free to bring in new business and focus on your core business areas.
If you don’t already have IT skills on staff, it makes sense
to hire an IT consulting firm to cover those skills.
The impact to your budget will be minimal but the impact to
your business can be substantial if you take your time and select consultant
companies for the right tasks the same way you would hire someone internally.
Take a moment to think about what tasks you may be able to
outsource that would help support your business.
ProfessionalEdge
offers a wide range of marketing and support services to those who want to
increase their business success, but are not in a position to add to their
staff. They write a regular blog to help businesses navigate the world of marketing and
social media along with many other helpful business topics.
