Getting ready to launch a new business is an exciting time. Once we’re at this point, it can seem that all the hard work is over. No more pitching ideas to investors. No more sleepless nights researching. No more trying to convince your family and friends that you haven’t gone insane.
Actually, the real hard work is just about to begin. You now have to set up your office, possibly recruit staff, and actually open your doors to the public to start trading.
One mistake that many bright-eyed entrepreneurs make is to neglect to decide which tasks will be handled in-house and which will be outsourced until they’re already up and running. It’s a mistake because it leads to waste, and being wasteful at such a critical point in your business start-up is potentially fatal to success.
Many people find it difficult to make this decision, but actually, it should be really easy. The way to do it is to think about exactly what it is that your business does. Then every task that is directly related to that activity should be considered to be an in-house task, and everything else should be outsourced.
For example, suppose you had a really simple hair-cutting business. This is not a mega-corporation, so most people running this type of business outsource very little. But there are many reasons why even a micro business should take advantage of outsourcing.
Considering the hair salon example:
| In-house | Outsource |
| Serving customers | General cleaning |
| Sweeping | Answering phone & taking appointments |
| Sterilizing equipment | Accounting |
| Opening & closing the shop | Creating business website |
| Advertising | |
| Reading & sending mail | |
| Paying bills |
See, the deal here is that if you’re not spending 20 minutes standing in line at the post office, then that’s 20 minutes regained that is spent serving customers and making money for your business.
Probably what you may find surprising is the idea of outsourcing phone answering and appointment booking. But specialist-outsourcing companies such as AlldayPA exist exactly for this reason. They save you the expense of having a dedicated receptionist and save you the awkwardness of annoying your customers by abandoning them while you answer the phone.
This venture is led by the well-known entrepreneurial expert Reuben Singh, and it has been an absolute success story from the outset because of the high value that it provides to business owners.
Another reason for outsourcing plans in advance is that it also helps you to plan your workspace more effectively and efficiently. For example, if you are going to be outsourcing your phone calls, then you really don’t need to build in space that would normally be used for that purpose. You can use that space for something else.
Outsourcing plan is not something that you should consider working towards. It should be something you intend to implement from the very start of your business because effectively outsourcing allows you to focus on providing the core service that your business was established for.
