Business Functions that Can Be Easily Outsourced

Most business functions can be outsourced, and there often comes a time in every business’s journey where the imperative to do so becomes pretty clear. When businesses start out, everything is usually handled in house. This means the sourcing of inventory, order fulfilment, packaging, and accounting is all handled by the company itself.

This is only to be expected at the start when the resources to outsource anything at all are generally nonexistent, and when the need for it is not as pressing as it will (or should) ultimately become.

However, this situation doesn’t last forever, and one of the most important bits of advice for small companies is to recognize when it’s time to invest and to expand. This takes the form of three main actions – expanding inventory offered, expanding in-house resources (hiring people and expanding infrastructure), and outsourcing tasks.

The last of these is a particularly good indication that a company is on its way to establishing itself in a real pattern of growth that can be expected to continue.

Nevertheless, outsourcing isn’t always the most affordable thing in the world; however, it very much depends on what you are planning to outsource. Luckily, there are some things expanding small businesses can usually afford to outsource. Of course, you still need to be ready.

When to Outsource

But how do you know when you are ready? Well, the most important sign, of course, is that you have the funds to outsource these business functions – that you can actually afford it. Nonetheless, overall profits are actually a poor indication of this.

Far better is cash flow. Once your business has a healthy cash flow, then you can be sure that extra funds can be safely invested in outsourcing. Invoice factoring services and cash flow experts fastFACTR say that a healthy cash flow means not only having enough money to meet your financial obligations but also being able to do so whenever they arise.

If you are ever waiting for payment before being able to pay a bill, for example, then you don’t have a healthy cash flow.

General Advantage of Outsourcing

A further consideration is why outsourcing is a good idea. Of course, the specific advantages depend on what you are outsourcing, but there is also one overriding benefit to recommend the practice.

Outsourcing means making use of resources beyond that which your company could provide in-house. This is the central advantage. For example, you might not be able to handle your order volume in-house so outsourcing to a third-party company makes use of fulfilment resources you yourself could never afford. This same advantage applies to all forms of outsourcing.

Business Functions to Outsource

But what can you actually outsource? Here follows some business functions to consider first:

Order Fulfilment

We mentioned this above. Outsourcing order fulfilment means being able to tackle higher volumes, achieving speedier delivery, and reaching customers further afield than you ever could before.

Accounting

Accounting is one of the most commonly outsourced business functions, one that is outsourced by even very small companies. Professional accounting services are widely available and their prices scale with what is required, depending on the size of the company.

Marketing

Marketing is great to outsource because it can be done in so many ways – and it can be very affordable at the cheaper end of the scale. This is also one of the best ways to ensure growth for your brand,

Outsourcing is one of the things all businesses do as they begin to expand. And not expanding means stagnation – and this in turn means collapse if it continues for too long.