Starting out in business is going to be time consuming, draining and, at times, plain difficult. Building an empire from scratch is never going to be a simple and straightforward process. Instead, you’re going to have to take the entire journey step by step, learning lessons along the way and consistently doing what you think will be best to sell the products and services you have in mind. Now, one area that many new business owners and small business owners struggle with is knowing when to take on staff. At the end of the day, taking on employees is going to be a huge responsibility. You’d have to commit to paying set salaries not knowing how much you’re generating and what you have demand for. You’ll also find yourself tied to providing all sorts of other benefits, such as annual leave, parental leave, sick pay, pension contributions and more. Instead, you may find that – to start with at least – you benefit more from outsourcing. Here’s some information on areas, tasks and roles you might want to start out with while your business is still finding its feet.
Manufacturing
One of the most logical areas to outsource to begin with tends to be manufacturing. This process requires warehouse or factory space, machinery, tools, equipment and trained staff to keep the entire operation ticking over. When you’re still unsure whether your proficy will sell consistently or not, you may want to outsource manufacturing. This will prevent you from spending a fortune on all the things outlined above, only to find nobody wants your products. If you outsource, you can do one run and then choose to continue if you experience success, or change paths if you don’t.
IT
Nowadays, most businesses find that they need some sort of IT support. The majority of staff work online, using hardware like laptops, computers, tablets and smart phones to complete most of their daily tasks. Of course, hardware and software can fail sometimes and having a good IT support team on hand can really help to resolve problems quickly and maximize productivity. If you don’t have a huge team, managed it services could prove ideal. This gives your team reliable professionals to reach out to, as and when they need, rather than trying to resolve IT issues themselves.
Product Photography
Chances are, you don’t have new products that need photos taken on a day to day basis. Instead, this is more of a task once a season when you release new collections or make new launches. Having a dedicated but freelance photographer at hand can help you to receive high quality pictures as and when you need them, for an agreed fee. This reduces responsibility but also ensures you get what you need.
Of course, you will likely need some full time staff on board when your business experiences success, expands and has consistent demand. But for now, hopefully, some of the suggestions outlined above will help you to know what areas you could outsource for the better.
