When an entrepreneur starts a business, or is running a business that is in its infancy, there are never enough hours in the day. Chances are that the ultimate responsibility for most tasks stops with one person – the boss. However exhausting that may prove, in the early years it can be difficult to justify the expense of taking on a third party to manage matters that the business owner could, in theory, deal with.

That approach may be a false economy. There comes a point in most entrepreneurs’ working lives when they are so overwhelmed with tasks that their efficiency starts to drop. It simply is not possible to do everything, particularly for extended periods, and when the business owner stops performing, the business will often suffer a downturn as well.

In this situation, the challenge is to identify what the boss really needs to focus on, and free up the time for them to do that. But what should be done with the rest of the workload? There are several options available.

The options
The apparently obvious solution is to employ somebody; however, this can be expensive and possibly inefficient. If the business’ need for certain services fluctuates, or is at a relatively low level, or if there is a wide variety of tasks that do not easily fit within a single skill set, it simply does not make financial sense to have an employee adding cost to the business throughout the year. In such cases, outsourcing may make much more sense.

Outsourcing
Outsourcing is no longer a matter of taking on temporary employees or an agency. With technological advances, the market for outsourcing is now much more flexible than previously and business owners are likely to have greater choice about the level of support they purchase. Many services, such as accounting, payroll and administrative services and even public relations and marketing, can be provided via the internet, giving managers a great choice of potential providers.

There are no hard and fast rules about the types of work that can be outsourced, it largely depends upon the nature of the business and the priorities of management. In today’s connected world there is almost certainly an outsourced solution to virtually all types of business requirement. However, some areas are more frequently outsourced than others because they particularly lend themselves to remote solutions. Examples include supply chain management, customer service, reputation management/public relations, marketing, social media management, administrative support, bookkeeping and payroll.

In summary, there really is no need for the brains and driving forces behind a modern business to be burned out on tasks that can be outsourced effectively, reliably and at little extra cost. Indeed, outsourced solutions can increase the performance of a business because they remove the need to employ staff where need fluctuates or is not large, allow businesses to find optimum solutions and work creatively and they free up the minds and time of the bosses to do what good bosses do best – take the business into a better, more profitable future.