In his NYTimes bestselling book,“The 4-hour Work Week”, Tim Ferriss outlined outsourcing as one of the crucial steps to freeing up your time to grow your business or change your lifestyle. Outsourcing or hiring experts to improve or run certain areas of your business is not only a smart approach but can be cost effective over the long term as opposed to hiring a full-time employee that requires superannuation, insurance, payroll tax, benefits and training.
But what are the signs that you should hire an expert?
Most small business owners don’t take time to plan or work on their business. Often, theycall in lawyerswhen they are facing a lawsuit,hire top accountants when the ATO comes knocking, and marketers when they have burnt a lot of money in advertising without much result. Sometimes they are stuck with an issue for years and need an objective third party to come in to give them a fresh perspective on running the business.
Here are the signs that you need to consider outsourcing for your small business or engaging with an expert such as a business coach, consultant or marketer.
1. You can’t cope with demand or the rate of expansion.
Although most business owners will say this is a good problem to have, it is still a problem. The people who suffer the most when you’re expanding beyond your capacity and capability are your customers. In a competitive market, you will be a fool to ignore teething issues when demands surge. Your competitors will be more than happy to lap up your customers.
Take a leaf from a few companies who grew themselves to failure. After 5 to 8 years,two-thirds of companies that appeared on Inc.com’s fastest-growing companies list had either shrunk, closed down or sold off disadvantageously. Most of them failed because they couldn’t be self-sustaining. Therefore, planning on how you will grow is equally as important as growing the business. Consulting abusiness coach, consultant, marketer or any expert beforehand can be crucial.
2. You’re not seeing the results you want.
There’s a saying that goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
Sure, there’s no big crisis in your business now. You or your employee may be able to complete jobs or handle issues on day to day basis. But are you getting the results you want?
This is evident if you don’t have a stand-out employee doing the job, whether in social media, advertising, sales or finance. Success can come down to having the right person doing the right job at the right place and time. When everyone is working on what they do best, the business can move forward. Put a half-skilled person on a job, and you may get just 50% of the result.
3. You have a long-standing issue.
Do you have an issue that’s been nagging at your shoulder for some time? If you can’t seem to solve it over the years, it’s time to hire the experts. A small issue that’s been left unchecked can snowball to a major issue that could threaten your business’s lifeline. It’s not worth burying your head in the sand any longer as the issue could be the Achilles heel to kill your business.
4. You’re missing out on opportunities.
This can easily happen when no one is proactively working at the helm, looking out into the horizon. That person should beyou, the business owner. The bulk of your time is better spent hunting for opportunities, whether it is a new market, client or just coming up with new ideas to improve your business and boost your employees’ morale.
If you’re not the captain of your ship, you can’t steer it to the right destination. Roping in expert help can free up your time to focus on the tasks that will really propel your business forward. In fact, it was Steve Jobs that said:
“It makes no sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
5. You’re out of ideas or motivation.
It’s easy to get demotivated or run out of fresh ideas while lost in the daily grind. You can always reach out to your peers, find mentors or network at industry events to get the creative juices and passion flowing again. Or you can hire the right experts to make a significant impact in your business. If you’ve been feeling stale for a while or worse, aimless, it’s time to admit that you do need professional help.
6. Your budget is limited
Hiring more employees do not necessarily solve problems for you. If you’re throwing more manpower without fixing the core issues, or improving anything, you’re just burning money – quickly. In fact, engaging with an expert in marketing, advertising, sales, finance, product development will not only help but will be cheaper than building a new team from scratch in your business.
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