Networking Now

This is from one of my blogs:

Lots of small business owners seem shocked that anyone would suggest they outsource any of their work. I don’t outsource, I don’t need to outsource etc are just some of the responses (the polite ones anyway!).

But were you to look at your every day circumstances I am sure you would be surprised to know that you do outsource already.

Let’s look at what I perceive outsourcing to be: a system where you pass on to someone else work, projects or tasks that you are unskilled for, doing tasks that don’t move your company forward or bring in more money.

Have you ever ordered your grocery shopping online? Given someone else your ironing to do? Gone to the dentist for a filling? Gone to the hairdresser? Used a cleaner? These are all examples of outsourcing. I practice what I preach; I do my weekly shop online. It saves me an awful lot of time and it saves me money, no more temptations from those ends of aisle offers. I also use an ironing lady, she does a better job than I would, in less time than I would, and I make more money using my time elsewhere than the cost of the ironing. It just makes sense to me.

What value is there in you doing the task yourself? Because you feel you have to, because you feel you can’t afford not to, or because you don’t like to let go. Look at things a different way. If you concentrate on your core business how much can you earn in an hour? If you do certain tasks yourself is that common sense? Should you do your own admin or accounts? If bookkeeping takes you an hour then it has cost you your hourly rate. However, should you outsource, it could cost you a lot less, it could take a lot less time than it would have taken you, and in that time you could have won a new contract or client.

There are many experts out there who can make a huge difference to your business, you can outsource your bookkeeping, admin, website design and management, SEO, social media marketing, telemarketing, IT management and even personal tasks such as managing your diary or email, doing your shopping, or even walking your dog. Remember, it’s all about outsourcing tasks that someone else can do in less time, to a higher level or just tasks you don’t enjoy or have the time for.

Open yourself up to the possibilities of outsourcing today, and move your business on to the next level.

Brilliant post, I wonder how many people will answer this honestly, to them selves I mean, not insinuating N2 is full of liars :lol:

My wife is an accountant, yet we still have one, Kerri loves VAT and Tax and all that (She is strange, but i love her for it!), but she works a different side of accountants than the type we needed, and although we have all the books and reference we need, it was far easier and time saving (not to say more economical) to have our accounts done through a separate Accountant, in fact when you look into these things, you will soon realise that the money you spend on outsourcing is peanuts compared to the man/woman hours that you would need to put in yourself.

We are a Ltd company, UK Business Network Ltd, although it may look at face value that I am self employed, Kip FX is trading as (hence me outsourcing our legal email part to Doug of Digital Stationery).

I deal with online, sales and design, Kerri deals with keeping everything straight and is the kind of partner you want, as she sets out what needs doing and when, and we even have the little 'un doing distribution now, her wages are far better than ours, she gets paid in Dresses, Shoes and Clothes Show tickets!

I do not think I would have outsourced originally, but it is amazing at the cost savings and time savings you will achieve once you start to look into this seriously, we have so far on the forum, Accountant's, VA's, Digital-Stationery Specialist, Printers, Business Coaches, Designers (both Web and Graphic), Finance/Debt Recovery Expert, PC Security, Whizz and a whole lot more.

I am not suggested that you should only seek advice from them/us, but they are here to help in a non selfish way, so why not email or give a call to them, and see just how much outsourcing works.

Kip FX Design wrote:I do not think I would have outsourced originally, but it is amazing at the cost savings and time savings you will achieve once you start to look into this seriously, we have so far on the forum, Accountant's, VA's, Digital-Stationery Specialist, Printers, Business Coaches, Designers (both Web and Graphic), Finance/Debt Recovery Expert, PC Security, Whizz and a whole lot more.

Good posts, both. I think it's fairly apparent that I'm very pro-outsourcing (since we do a lot of outsourced development work for various clients - a lot of which is whitelabelled/transparent) and I have to chirp in that I agree with all of the above.

Certainly, when we come to expand (hopefully during the first half of next year), it will be on the "admin" front that the team needs propping up and we will probably be looking at outsourcing functions to achieve it - we're not in a situation where taking on what I keep calling "real staff" (I really should word that differently, though - it's not quite meant how it sounds) - is practical.

Outsourcing (particularly in IT) just has a bad name because of the "ship it offshore because it will be cheaper than chips - brilliant!" mentality and image which surrounds the concept - alas!

Out sourcing is the key to running a business rather than the other way round, like i said in another thread who wants to buy a business that means the owner has to work 80 hours plus, starting a business first starts by making yourself profitable and stable, then looking at ways to decrease your own input into the business so you can break away and do something else, another business more time with family etc, i know its easy to get emotionally attached to our businesses, but its just that, a business, something which you build up sell on ( thats where the money is) and do it again, or you keep it going detach yourself from it apart from the salary your still get and start another.

Not much more I can add really as the subject has been covered so well above.

I can look at this from two sides. As a Credit Manager I have always looked at outsourcing and thought :evil: how could anyone do that! I always hated outsourcing any of the company debt to a third party as I thought "it looks like I have failed". It struck we one day that it would be a bigger failure NOT to outsource and pretend everything was working perfectly.

The reason I started my own company was that I could see that if you took away all of the gloss; the big office, the flash equipment, top of the range computer equipment, the high salary & pension etc. then the job of credit assessment, cash collections or debt collections should be cheap. Why should it cost so much?

I spent a week working through all of the numbers and came to the staggering assessment that the company I was working for was paying £150K per year on collections. If I sat in my office on my own and did the job, I could achieve the same result for £25K! With an extra £10K I would seriously be able to improve the results for the company. If you scale this up and down there are serious savings to be had in any company.

The biggest hurdle is getting people to admit that they cannot do everything with a 100% effort and achieve a 100% result all the time.

As a small business person my first thought was always "how much will that cost", thankfully I have now started to think along the lines of "how much will I save in time and cash if..." and "how much extra revenue can I work on if..."

Sean

The one problem I always find is:- People talk the talk AND don't delvier.

Quite why I don't know. I've paid tons of people over the years for all sorts of things and I have to say, there are a lot of people "selling what they do" they get their cheques and don't deliver.

It seems to be 6 in 7 people don't deliver properly. I like to outsource, I like to spend the time with people before I do, but I don't like it when things are not delivered. Meaning on-time, onbudget, an on quality.

If you pay peanuts...expect monkeys. But if you pay the desired rate...you expect the desired result.

I still struggle with this. Always have and always will...it goes with the teritory.

Some really interesting comments above.

One thing I have noticed though is that there is a preponderance of people who outsource based solely on price. You only have to look at sites like Guru and People per Hour.

Time and again I see what looks like a really good project, with potential for both sides to work well together and it goes to the lowest bidder, more often than not outside of the UK.

I think we have seen in so many threads that you get what you pay for. So why do so many companies fail to address this and still go with the cheapest option. It is the short cut approach that leads to the negative image of outsourcing, though I do accept that as in Doug's case there are people who "talk the talk" and yet fail to deliver.

Yeah there is people out there that will do a bad job, always will be, but why let them bring you down, was taught many moons ago about 'Mood Hoovering' stay upbeat, affect everyone in a positive way, how often does Richard Branson look sad that someone let him down?

I agree about the 6 out of 7, but what about the 1!

You have to be realistic, but you have to be upbeat and positive, that's where the results come from.

I trust everybody, and I think everybody is excellent, if they convince me otherwise, I drop them like a stone. Simple.

For years I ran teams of people for 02, Network Three and 2 mobility companies, and the most results came from once I had them all thinking positively, if its raining outside and you need to hang the washing out, instead of worrying about it, imagine what flowers and trees will benefit, the scenery after the rain is stunning and without it we would not have all the wonderful colours we have.

Not one of my team ever came to me and said there is a problem, the all said 'Challenge', people rise to challenges, but never to problems!

getting off my rain soaked, colourful soap box now! :)

I suppose what I mean is:

People buy and sell all the time. Whether service or product.

It's just a shame you have to go through tons of providers to actually find one that works properly. Marketing speil, etc, is great...but I like people to do what they say they do.

I have great suppliers...it's taken me years to find them.
I would never move they're too precious.

But when trying to find a new suppliers...oh my god. What a palaver..!! And as a small business it ain't hard difficult to find the right people. Start booking a good level of work with them so you're both happy.

PS - You have ten fingers. I stop after 7 get burnt off. lol

Anyone have an opinion?

Now your talking! That I can relate to, but what a buzz when you get the right one, when my go-to printer ballsed up my first order, I just thought, shame, they seemed so great at face level.

But the speed they solved the problem with was outstanding, and I wonder just how many print companies would allow you in the back after your second visit, let alone each and everytime we have a print job through them now, doing a set of wedding invites at the mo, and spent a long time getting the gold effect lettering perfect, smooth etc, and I was in the back with the lady that runs the company talking about the proof run and options we have for solving the 'if it does not print well'.

A company that resolves a problem before it happens, has my business for life!