Finding The Middle Ground Between Going DIY And Outsourcing

There are some tasks that are worth doing yourself as an entrepreneur in order to save money, and there are some tasks that are better to outsource. Finding the right balance of what to do yourself and what to outsource is important – get it wrong and you could spend too much time handling tasks yourself, or too much money outsourcing experts. This guide can help you to find the right middle ground. 

Marketing

A lot of small companies do their own marketing to save money. There are many tasks like posting on social media and sending out promotional emails that generally don’t require outsourcing experts, however you should be careful when it comes to more complex specialist marketing such as producing your own marketing videos or conducting your own SEO.

It’s often worth outsourcing these more specialist jobs unless you have the expertise and resources. With some tasks like web design, it can sometimes be worthwhile doing some of it yourself and getting help from third-party professionals. For example, you can use a website builder to design your site yourself and then use professionals to polish it off. This allows you to create within your image while giving it a professional sheen. 

Recruitment

Some companies find the recruitment process time-consuming and exhausting and so prefer to hire recruitment agencies to find new talent. If you’ve got a large workforce and fast turnover, it can be worth hiring this help – but you may still want to involve yourself partially in the recruitment process.

For example, it’s still worth getting involved in interviews so that you can judge for yourself whether you are likely to get along with new recruits. You should also occasionally try doing some of your own job marketing to see if it gets any better results than what your recruitment agency is achieving.

Accounting

If you’re a small company that handles very few transactions, it makes sense to do your own accounting. If you’re a larger company that handles lots of transactions, it’s likely you’ll need an accountant to help you full-time.

Businesses that sit somewhere in the middle may find that they benefit from a mix of DIY and outsourced accounting. This could include doing your own weekly bookkeeping, but ultimately hiring an accountant to do your tax return each year, or simply keeping an accountant updated every month with your accounts. 

IT maintenance

IT maintenance is something that everyone should outsource (unless you are an IT expert yourself). Hiring in-house IT support is very expensive – it’s typically much cheaper to outsource talent.

As a small business, you may only need a single IT technician on call. Larger businesses may benefit from outsourcing an IT team who can carry out ongoing tasks like network monitoring to keep your business secure.

General admin

Some businesses outsource virtual receptionists to carry out all kinds of tasks from answering phone calls to responding to messages. Outsourcing these tasks is generally only worthwhile if they’re a real inconvenience. 

For example, if you’re getting constant calls throughout the day that are stopping you from carrying out your work, it could be worth outsourcing someone to answer the phone. If you only get a few calls throughout the day, it’s probably not worth paying someone to answer the phone.