How can outsourcing help your home biz?

Business industry gurus say outsourcing is the wave of the future. Those that have tried it seem to have differing opinions. Bottom line? It’s a personal choice as to whether or not you think it will work for YOUR business.

Outsourcing means taking internal company functions and paying an outside firm to handle them. This supposedly saves money, improves quality, or frees up company resources. Whether or not it saves money, and improves quality is a major debate. If you’ve called for information about your mortgage and wind up talking to someone in another country – you’re going to have serious questions about the merits of this practice.

Outsourcing is supposed to cover non-core or non-important functions – i.e. landscaping duties to someone who specializes in the area. However, more and more companies seem to be farming out their call center and customer service areas – both of which are actually critical to the firm’s bottom line. If they’re handing out things like payroll, billing and data entry that’s not quite as public relations sensitive.

Another area you’re likely familiar with is information technology outsourcing – like getting a service tech on the line for a computer problem and finding out you both have trouble understanding each other, and face cultural and time zone differences.
If you want to outsource what do you need to do?

Develop your organization’s philosophy about the role of outsourcing in its activities. Decide if it will help YOUR business. Then, decide what to outsource, where to do it, and whom you want to do it. Work out the legal, pricing and service level agreement terms, and figure out who is going to manage this. If you’re going to outsource, you will need skills in negotiation, communications, project management, and a good understanding of the terms and conditions of your working contracts.

Is this for YOU? Only you can make that decision. Take time to check out all the angles before you jump in. Anecdotal evidence is a good indicator of whether or not outsourcing is working.