How to measure the pros and cons of outsourcing
Outsourcing means outsourcing your business to another person or business. It's not new, it's been happening since the early 1990s, but the amount almost doubled after 2000.
Usually, the work is outsourced to an overseas location, saving businesses time and money.
If you have an irregular job, there is no need to hire someone full-time for that job, they will sit on standby. It is better to outsource the work to someone who can do it. If you or anyone in your business is not qualified to do the job, give it to someone qualified and experienced. No need to do it yourself.
Manage the business yourself, and outsource the work. You will miss deadlines less, and you will not lose work due to a lack of skills.
If you are thinking of outsourcing any work, then this article is for you. Here you will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing.
What tasks can be outsourced?
The real purpose of outsourcing is to save money and time wherever possible in business operations. The tasks that can be outsourced following this policy are:
Accounting and Bookkeeping
Sales and Marketing
Copywriting
Design and Manufacturing
Administration and back office assistance
Customer service
Web development
Website maintenance
Graphic design
And much more
In many cases, some freelancers or companies specialize in a particular task, such as web development. Other times, it appears that he or they are good at multiple tasks together, such as graphic and web design or coding and development.
Benefits of Outsourcing
The advantages of outsourcing to small and medium-sized businesses are highlighted.
1. Greater talent pool
You can find talent from anywhere in the world. You can recruit the best candidate for your job through the Internet. Now no one is limited to local jobs. Businessmen can also hire someone who is on the other side of the world.
There are many benefits of outsourcing work to someone outside your own country. For example, 24/7 customer support is easy to outsource to people from other time zones.
2. Outsourcing is cheaper
No matter where you outsource work, domestically or abroad, it can be done online cheaper than employing a seasoned employee. Outsourcing the work to someone for the number of days required to do the work reduces the cost.
And it is possible to save a lot of money if people are hired from a poor country for less money. In this way, you can do the work at a very low cost.
In this way, the work does not require a large office, so many other expenses including rent are saved.
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3. Business processing
While all businesses need a business document, small businesses may not have the time to do so. However starting outsourcing requires maintaining documentation of all tasks, so it doesn't need to be done separately.
Through outsourcing, employee work quality and process can be tracked. One can sense whether he has done what he has been given to do or not. So accounting becomes easy.
4. Skilled talent and advanced equipment for specialized work
You may be the best florist, but you're not good at graphics. So it is better to outsource graphic design work. Someone skilled in this task should be outsourced.
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Thus work becomes more meaningful and efficient. You can also do your work professionally. Outsourcing accounts become profitable at tax return time.
5. 24-hour customer support
If the core of your business is providing customer support, then it is usually done around the clock. There is no better way to do this than outsourcing. By having someone from another time zone do this, it is possible to support the customer even when you are not there.
6. Outsourcing saves a lot of time
Outsource the work you can't do to someone else, saving yourself time. If you save your time, you can focus on your work with that free time. This is the time when you can prepare a new marketing plan for your product. You can do more business without doing the business work.
7. Scaling business by outsourcing
Another benefit is scaling the business. By offloading the responsibilities of the employees, they can spend their free time doing things that help scale your business. The business cannot be extended after the business hours are exhausted. For this reason, outsourcing is vital to grow your business by working with others.
The disadvantage of outsourcing
Along with so many benefits, there are also many dangers of outsourcing. Most people don't want to outsource because of this fear. We will now discuss the disadvantages of outsourcing. This may change your final decision:
1. Security Risks of Outsourcing
Outsourcing sensitive work is risky.
NDA needs to be signed before doing this. Otherwise, there is a fear of information leakage. Or it is better not to give such sensitive work to anyone outside?
If you outsource work regularly, it's a good idea to do a background check on the person you're outsourcing to.
2. Some control has to be relinquished
Many prefer to keep full control of their business in their own hands. Outsourcing is not possible. Again, scaling costs is a very poor way to reduce costs.
It is not possible to handle all the functions of your business unless you have multiple institutional degrees. But doing them with the help of others also costs a lot of money.
3. Problems with quality control
When work is outsourced outside the country, it becomes very difficult to control its quality. To avoid this danger it is important to have detailed documentation of work. Then there is less deviation from the service process. References and testimonials should be checked before hiring someone. Then this danger can be slightly avoided. So the job should be given to someone after doing research.
4. Possible language discrimination for outsourcing
Outsourcing is not uncommon, many people do it. Renting someone from Asia and Europe is very cheap based on currency exchange rates. It is also possible to get the work done cheaply from nearby districts. However, not all freelancers may have skills in your language. Also, most Western clients speak a language other than English, so communication can be complicated.
It is not possible to outsource customer support. So many times you have to be in danger. Check whether the freelancer and the customer have equal proficiency in the same language.
Should you outsource?
Weigh the good and the bad and see what to do or not to do. Think about whether it makes your job easier, or saves time.
You can outsource if you can. If not, there is no harm in not doing so. Small tasks like social media maintenance can be outsourced by all kinds of companies. Graphics work, brochure design, update work, maintenance work, etc. can be outsourced to save time.
Depending on the data, the data entry work can be outsourced if it is not something sensitive. If you work with sensitive data, it is better not to give it to anyone outside. There is no risk of leakage. It is better to do accounting, and bookkeeping work yourself. An outsider's knowledge of the business's money accounts can pose a lot of risk. Permanently hire someone to do this.
Consider these few things before making a final decision:
Do you have this knowledge of how to do what?
Do you have time to do that?
Are there security risks at work?
If the answer to all the questions is yes, do the work yourself. No need to outsource. But if the answer is no, then outsourcing may be necessary.
Outsource work to third parties, maintaining quality of work. It reduces security risk. Sensitive and private information should not be leaked.
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