Marketing, accounting & finance, IT, payroll, back-office and other basic departments required to run a successful business do not have to be done in house.
While large corporation’s often have dedicated departments for all aspects of business, a smaller company may not afford to have those dedicated departments or even skilled employees.
In these times, more than ever, Australian organisations need to be well equipped and agile to challenge their competition and become successful businesses. Outsourcing is a great way to align yourself with a team of experienced professionals who support your organisation and its goals without the on cost and interdepartmental issues.
For any business, it’s important to balance the cost of doing the work yourself against the cost of outsourcing it.
Ask yourself, what is the cost of you doing all this work? If you take your salary, and you multiply that by three times, then divide that by 220 days (the number of actual workdays in a year), and then you divide that by 8 (no. of hours you work each day), that will give you an hourly rate guideline for the value of your time.
Once you have that number, you have to ask yourself, is there someone else who could do this job, someone who may be more skilful and knowledgeable, or someone who might have more experience? How much is it going to cost to have this person do the job? If the amount is less than your hourly figure, it should be a no brainer to outsource that work to someone else, freeing up your own time to focus on what you’re good at and enjoy.
For example, a company may outsource its IT services (help desk, computer support and maintenance), and the cost to do so would be significantly less than what they would have to pay for a full time IT person to provide the same support. Consequently, this means that the company always has the necessary IT skills available but does not pay the specific employee.
However, while the cost of employing someone to do a specific service used to be the primary reason to outsource, now it’s more focused on strategy and freeing up valuable time to utilise core expertise to carry out core value-add activities in-house. In essence, play to your strengths.
The function of all the aspects of business can be complicated. The size of your company, the employees available, and your own experience may all prevent you from performing the necessary functions at a consistent and reasonable cost. Outsourcing can help maintain this consistency and help you run your operation smoothly.
Outsourcing also provides organisation flexibility. Suppose you need contractors/freelancers for a specific project for a few months. In that case, it is easier to outsource their payroll, saving time and money on personnel, training, software and support for a fixed period at a consistent fee.
Outsourcing is a solution to make your work life easier. It can be utilised by sole traders, small business and even large corporations.
You have to ask yourself, if you can’t solve a problem by yourself, do you sit there staring at it blankly, or do you find someone who can help you?
Similarly, if you think your business needs outsourcing assistance with back-office & contractor payroll services, please don’t hesitate to talk to us at [email protected] or alternatively give us a call on 02 9407 8700…