7 Signs It’s Time to Consider Outsourcing

Here’s a question: When was the last time you spent quality time with your family or with yourself? Can’t remember? It is highly likely that you’re overwhelmed with managing your business – your inbox is overflowing with emails full of software development jargons you can barely make sense of, people expect you to assist them with development tasks that you are not hands-on with and other important tasks just keep piling up.

Definitely not the life you intended when you first started with your business, right? The worst mistake that most SMB owners make is wearing too many hats and doing way too much on their own. This leaves them completely stressed out and unhappy. It's time you recognize the signs and realize that you need more help with your business.

Here are the 7 glaring signs it's time to outsource your business tasks:

1. You can’t keep up with the demand

When sales are swift and orders are stacking up, the pressure to get orders out quickly and efficiently is fierce. Throw a promotion into the mix and fulfilling all those orders can be a major challenge, especially for SMBs. Therefore, the first question to ask leading up to any busy period is: Are we properly staffed to keep up with the demand?

If not, do we have enough time and funds to hire in-house experts? Chances are low for both these cases to be true at one point. Choosing a right outsourcing partner should fix this.

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2. Your employees are performing multiple roles

It’s not uncommon in smaller businesses for people don more than one hat to keep the ball rolling. But overworking your employees is the fastest recipe to disaster as the output of their work will likely be unsatisfactory or rife with errors.

It is highly unlikely that you need to be convinced that keeping customers happy is paramount in business. Yet, to reinforce this further, let me give you a quick stat, “91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with you again.” While there are several causes for customer dissatisfaction, one of the most common issue is bad service that can crop up when your team is overtaxed.

Although outsourcing may seem like the last option that you’d want to do in struggling times, outsourcing can give your team the bandwidth to focus on the activities that got you those customers in the first place. It could actually be the move that can stop the slide.

3. Mistakes are costing too much

Distracted by daily tasks and critical goals, small business owners often tend to neglect some crucial details that could prove to be major revenue leaks. Some common mistakes that lead to these leaks include impulsive purchasing of shiny technology that doesn’t deliver ROI, hiring the wrong candidate for the job with an intention to save money, spending substantial time on non-core areas, etc.

Besides, small business owners may even overlook small tweaks that could do wonders to the bottom line.

Such mistakes can end up costing a significant amount of revenue over the course of time.

4. Budgets are getting tighter

Hiring in house-employees is always expensive, so much so that it leaves you feeling like your budget is on a tightrope. With high salaries and other costs such as paid vacations, sick leaves, infrastructure, you'd definitely be better off with outsourced developers.

In fact, by delegating software development to experts will not only help in cutting down operational expenses but also increase profits.

5. You can’t find the right talent

Let's say your company is looking for the top Salesforce developer to optimize the website. Weeks and months have passed, yet no candidate has passed your standards. Seeking the services of outsourcing companies that provide highly-skilled candidates positive work ethics is a better decision any day.

6. Routine tasks take too much time

If you notice that your company has been stuck in the same place for quite a long time, something is definitely wrong. For example, your tech team may be too busy dealing with everyday routine tasks so much so that they don't come up with new ideas that can benefit your product anymore. Outsourcing non-core tasks that need to be done gives you time to focus on your core product and to lead your company to success.

7. You realized that by paying someone else to do your work can actually save your money

Take a hard look at how much billable time you lose over tasks that you could pay someone else to do. This could be a warning that you're losing money by not outsourcing. Remember, people buy your product instead of developing their own because they aren’t the experts – you are. But you probably don’t know everything about software development or have never worked with niche technologies, that’s when it makes sense to hire folks who do that for a living.

Companies outsource as per their needs and financial capabilities. While some companies delegate two-three functions only, some are comfortable with having very few employees and outsourcing maximum amount of how. However, the ultimate goal is always the same - to increase the flexibility of the business model and to lower operational costs.

The overall trends of the past decade suggest that outsourcing is a highly popular route among small businesses. But, if you haven’t tried it yet and you can see any of the above signs in your own company, go ahead and test it for yourself.