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As a small business owner, you know you have to wear a lot of hats and have a lot of varied skills in order to help your business grow. Whether you’re an entrepreneur still working from the spare bedroom, or you’re running a small business from an office, it can be very easy to lose all your time to juggling things like the admin, and have no time left to actually run your business. You can free up some time and get some control back by outsourcing some things to a third-party vendor or a freelancer. But which tasks should you think about outsourcing?
Reception
If your business gets a lot of phone calls, you can lose the whole day to answering the phone. Answering the phone yourself also shows that you’re a small business, which can make some clients worried about your ability to perform the service they need. Get back some time by hiring a virtual receptionist. They can answer your phones from a remote location, and then forward calls to the relevant people. This makes you seem more professional and frees up time for you.
A virtual receptionist can also do things like take messages, manage your schedule, check emails, and more. Some will also offer a live chat service, so you have another way to respond to customers. However customers get in touch with you, they’ll be greeted by a professional receptionist. These services are often provided by freelance specialists, which can be very affordable.
Managed IT Services
One of the most common things to outsource is your IT. You may have not thought about outsourcing your IT before, especially if it did not occur to you that it would be a good course of action for your particular business, however, there are multiple benefits to outsourcing your IT. Plus, wherever you are based you will be able to find IT companies that can support you with your work, whether that is managed it services australia or services in your area. You can, of course, manage your IT in-house, but this will mean you have to pay to hire and for the salary of a staff member. This is less than ideal when your business and budget are still small, especially as in the early days, this team member might not have much to do at first. Outsourcing means you can get specialist help that you need when you need it and avoid coughing up for a member of staff who you don’t need all the time.
Graphic Design
Graphic design is an important part of your marketing campaigns. The right design will make your website, adverts, and print items look a lot more appealing and professional. There are a lot of very skilled graphic designers who work freelance, so you can outsource design very easily, and get great skills at your disposal without paying a full-time salary for them. There are lots of lists of graphic designers online so you can find the right person to take on this kind of work for you.
Taking on graphic design yourself when you don’t have the skills as a risk, as your marketing won’t look as professional and won’t impress potential customers and clients. Bad design is off-putting, so don’t risk it.
Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping, payroll services for small businesses, and other accounting services are among the most common tasks for start-ups and larger businesses to outsource. It’s essential for your business to get the accounts right, and if you’re not an accountant yourself, managing the finances can be a major challenge. If you get it wrong, you can get into a real mess or even into legal trouble.
Look for a company that can also help you to get your tax return ready for you so tax season is a lot less stressful and you have peace of mind that the accounts are right.
Web Design
Your website is one of the first things that make an impression on potential customers, so it’s important that your site is designed to be functional, on-brand, and simple to use. You should have a website that is responsive so it will be functional on mobile devices, in order to generate more conversions.
If you aren’t sure where to start, you can outsource web design to agencies or freelancers to make sure you have a website that does what it needs to.
Customer Support
If you don’t have the time to properly manage your customer service needs, then you can outsource this to someone who has the skills to do it for you. Effective customer support options are very important if you want to keep customers loyal.
You can hire a freelancer to manage customer service, but an agency or other professional company is usually a better choice, as they will have more staff to manage each customer.