Small business owners like to believe that they can do everything themselves. In a sense, they kind of have to. If you aren’t willing to get your hands dirty in every aspect of running a business, your small venture may never get off the ground.
But being self-reliant only gets you so far. Assuming you have hired employees to help you accomplish your ever-growing list of necessary operations, there comes a point when you have to ask yourself which aspects of your business are worth the investment of your time, and which are not.
Obviously, you can’t just cease certain operations within your business. But you can outsource some of your duties to make better use of your employee’s time and energy. The following five responsibilities can be outsourced (or automated) to some degree. How much more efficient could your business be if you didn’t need to spend time doing these tasks?
Bookkeeping - It’s dangerous to start a company that doesn’t include someone who can keep the books. But just because someone in your business organization can do this job, doesn’t mean they want to. If your usual bookkeeper also has several other duties, you may want to consider getting a professional service to do your accounting for you, especially as the company grows and the bookkeeping becomes much more complex.
Copywriting - A lot of business owners might balk at the idea of paying a professional to simply write and edit marketing material. Who can’t make sure i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed on text documents?
But the reality is that copywriting is a time-sucking process, and if no one in your organization is particularly motivated to do it, then you might be better off handing your writing jobs to a good copywriter. Not only can they give your employees (and you) more time to focus on other work, but they might also boost the overall strength of your marketing message. That can more than make up for the cost of outsourcing.
Graphic Design - Unlike copywriting, graphic design is not something that the average person can simply pick up. Not only is it far more difficult than writing, but the tools required to do high quality design work are much more expensive and difficult to learn than a simple word processor. Professional graphic designers have an eye for aesthetics and can turn a project over far more quickly than someone who is attempting to learn as they go. Why not free up your business’s time and give that design work to someone who does it for a living?
Payroll - Along the same lines as bookkeeping, as your company grows (particularly in the employee department) doing payroll becomes more complicated and more time consuming. Not only that, but states are frequently changing the laws regarding taxes and deductions that occur during payroll. It could definitely be worth your time to pay dedicated payroll experts to run your company’s payroll rather than try and keep up-to-date on all the moving parts.
Taxes - Speaking of trying to follow ever-changing regulations, keeping on top of all the taxes that your small business is responsible for paying can be a major hassle. Having a tax expert that you can call at any time, and who will go through your tax filings for you, can save a lot of valuable mental energy for you and your employees.
If you can’t afford outsourced tax services, you can at least explore some small business tax software. It will probably require more of your time, but the slashed fees compared to a real-life consultant might be the sweet spot of convenience and price for your budget.
There are countless ways that a small business can becomes more efficient. Hopefully, one of these five sparked an idea for your situation.
