What to Outsource From Your Growing Business
Entrepreneurs often believe they must take charge of everything to grow their businesses. While this can be a practical and cost-effective solution in the initial phase of growing the company, it can become a bottleneck once your business expands and your customer base grows. Internally handling everything can compromise your business’s momentum and slow down your pace.
To combat this problem, competitive companies outsource. Outsourcing can catapult operational efficiency, distribute accountability and allow key decision makers to focus on core business functions. However, knowing what to outsource is key to making the most out of it, as what you delegate can run the gamut.
What Does It Mean to Outsource and Why Do Businesses Do It?
As companies grow, they discover more ways to streamline their operations and address their evolving needs—and outsourcing remains the most popular means to do so.
Outsourcing is the business practice of hiring a third-party provider to perform services, handle operations or create goods. Traditionally, this practice was undertaken by companies as a cost-cutting measure. However, most companies recognize their role in scaling the businesses and making operations more efficient. Outsourcing also means that companies employ an expert that can take on responsibilities outside their workforce.
Some key benefits of outsourcing include:
- Increased focus on core strategies/business functions
- Access to skills and resources
- Elimination of repetitive processes
- Reduced operational costs
What to Outsource
When identifying what to outsource, businesses should review their current processes, set clear objectives, and organize tasks accordingly. Typically, companies outsource repetitive or specialized tasks that may require creative and technical expertise. Below are some commonly outsourced business functions:
1. IT
Most growing businesses lack the resources to support an in-house IT team. However, with the increased need for connectivity, cyber security, and technological know-how, you’ll still need an IT expert to set up devices and applications and secure your networks. Depending on your company’s needs, you can also opt to outsource an external IT team to help with troubleshooting and updating hardware or software.
2. Customer Support
Growing businesses often deal with an influx of customer calls and messages, and ensuring they are attended to is crucial to gaining their trust and loyalty. Unfortunately, even the slightest grievance can cause them to feel underappreciated, and they may move to another provider who can value their patronage.
This problem is easily solved by outsourcing your customer service support to third-party providers like ROI CX Solutions, who will take the time to learn about your business’ workflows and processes to support your clients seamlessly. You can even choose from a wide variety of solutions, from 24/7 telephone answering, live chat support, and direct mail.
3. Content Marketing & Creatives
Delivering quality content through effective marketing campaigns is key to connecting with your audience, generating new clients, and spreading awareness about your brand. Outsourcing content marketing and graphic design services can help you create customized materials to accomplish this. By outsourcing, you may collaborate with talented creatives or digital marketing agencies that take time to learn about your business.
4. Lead Generation
The capacity of your business to generate leads affects how fast you can scale up. This is difficult since you must consistently engage your target market to turn them into customers. Hiring experts saves time and money. ROI CX Solution’s lead generation services pre-qualify every lead using strict criteria, guaranteeing you reach out to interested and qualified prospects.
5. Sales & Order Taking
Some retail businesses opt for automated technologies to take orders. However, most customers still prefer having a live operator assist them. This allows them to verify a business’s legitimacy and raise their questions and concerns in real-time. Outsourcing your order entry process can help your business handle orders even after office hours and be present for your customers 24/7.
What Not to Outsource
Entrepreneurs can benefit from outsourcing certain business operations but shouldn’t compromise core functions. Here’s what third parties should not manage:
1. Core Competencies
Your company’s core competencies are the traits that give your business the edge amidst the tough competition. This can be the stellar quality of your products or services or anything that makes your business unique. Since this is your competitive advantage, you might want to avoid assigning it to outside providers.
2. Strategic Planning
Each business has a unique journey, and depending on where your company is at the moment, strategic planning should be tailor-fit to reflect this and your future vision for the business.
3. Company Culture and Traditions
The company culture is the north node and the backbone of your organization. It is built through time, alongside a series of impactful choices that can make or break the business. It also includes how you interact and care for your employees, customers, and other stakeholders.
4. Internal Communication Processes
Creating effective communication channels and processes within the organization that conveys business goals, build relationships, and provide clarity for everyone involved is a crucial task that should be performed internally. All organization members should be encouraged to practice proactive communication and be open to suggesting ways to improve processes.
Alongside learning what to outsource, choosing the right partners to share accountability with is just as important. Choose partners that will take time to learn about your business, objectives, and unique needs.
Support the Growth of Your Business With ROI CX Solutions
When choosing what to outsource, remember that effective communication is key to business success. Let ROI CX Solutions streamline this for you. We can help improve your customer support, sales, and overall customer experience. Reach out today to learn more about our solutions.
