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Every business has a host of complex and frustrating aspects to deal with. The less experience you have as an entrepreneur, the more likely it is for you to feel unclear about managing certain operations.
Thankfully, outsourcing is a solution that many businesses avail themselves of. When used in the right areas, it can tremendously help with keeping things simple. Of course, if you are particularly new to entrepreneurship, you might not even know which aspects to outsource.
In this article, let’s look at three specific areas that most businesses tend to outsource and the logic behind it. Let’s jump right in.
Isn’t Outsourcing Complicated and Only For Large Companies?
This is a common concern, but today, so many businesses, both small and large, successfully outsource at least some of their operations. While it’s true that in the past, outsourcing was mainly a trend among larger companies, that is no longer the case. Today, even the confusing and messy process of outsourcing can also be outsourced!
Say you’re a business based out of London and wish to hire people from Vietnam or the Philippines. You simply need to look up an ‘employer of record, UK’ and you’ll find services that can help you with the entire process.
Now, if you haven’t heard of an EOR, Remote, a global HR and payroll platform, explains it in simple terms. An EOR is a service that acts as a legal local employer on your behalf. So, they handle all the confusing legal and compliance obligations so that you can focus only on your day-to-day business communications.
So, no, you don’t need to waste time setting up discussion calls to coordinate with people on the other side of the world; an EOR can help you with that. With this clear, let’s take a look at what operations make the most sense to outsource.
1. Cybersecurity
This one surprises a lot of business owners. People think that if it’s related to cybersecurity, then in-house is the best way to go. However, that’s not how it works in reality. Most businesses simply lack the technical know-how to handle cybersecurity on their own. Moreover, hiring a team of cybersecurity experts in the U.K. is not exactly cheap.
This is why so many businesses are slowly starting to outsource cybersecurity to international contractors. The cost savings of doing this can be immense. That said, people are still scared, and recent survey data suggests that 45% of companies still manage cybersecurity internally without any third-party expertise. This is despite the fact that over the last three years, UK businesses have lost over £64 billion to cyber attacks.
Remote notes that if you choose to outsource cybersecurity, you do want communication to be seamless with your international contractors. Data breaches can happen at any time, and if either you or your outsourced team is unreachable, it’s not ideal.
2. Marketing
Many business owners share a common weakness in the form of overconfidence. Yes, it’s good to have a go-getter attitude. That sort of drive works well in many areas of business dynamics. However, it doesn’t translate to marketing efforts in the slightest.
All too often, you’ll see the responsibility of marketing fall on some intern or employee who has been bestowed the ‘tech-guy’ honour. As hard as these poor individuals try, their efforts are guesswork without the winning combination of strategy, analytics, and buyer psychology.
This is why global digital marketing business process outsourcing was valued at over $5.9 billion last year. The demand for third-party marketing is immense and manifests in a 10.3% growth rate. You simply can’t beat the kind of expertise that comes with hiring professional marketers.
3. Logistics Management During Growth
Who would expect success to be stressful? As weird as it sounds, it’s true. Good logistics is what holds a business together, but with growth, a lot of strain is placed on the system. If you’ve been hodge-podging and relying on flex tape solutions for your logistics, you might see a lot of ugly moments when expanding.
Even tiny lapses tend to create a host of annoying situations where customers have their shipments delayed or customer support gets overwhelmed with tickets. It’s these times that you will enjoy having an outsourced team keep you going.
These days, many logistics management services often come with everything a business would ever need. Think dedicated customer support, virtual inventory tracking, warehouse + trucking coordination, and more.
One study modeled an electronics company that shifted warehouse and transport duties to a third-party provider. Its annual logistics expenses dropped from $9 million to $7.5 million, saving $1.5 million per year. So, definitely consider outsourcing logistics if you plan to scale up soon.
All things considered, outsourcing has gotten something of a bad reputation these days, but it’s not wrong to see the value. Many businesses would go under if they tried to do everything on their own, and outsourcing simply saves the day.
Let’s also not forget that it doesn’t have to be a permanent arrangement. When you acquire the skills or funding to do things in-house, you can simply end your contracts and continue like nothing ever happened.