Most people start businesses to improve their quality of life. The company they found offers the potential for a real purpose in life, as well as a much larger income. Sometimes, though, starting a company can go from being something positive to an activity that eats all your time. Accounting activities take up a lot of time and as your business grows, your accounting tasks will only increase! And when that happens, the entrepreneurial process ceases being enjoyable and makes your life worse. Problems like missed accounting deadlines and incorrect submissions usually stem from a lack of outsourcing, not some fundamental issue with the business itself. Founders don’t realize that they can pass many bookkeeping tasks over to third parties, free up their time, and achieve a much better quality of life. Outsourcing accounting specialists generally start at around £500 a year, which actually saves money in the long-run. Instead of trying to learn all the ropes yourself, you hire people who do the job every day and can get it done affordably and efficiently. You don’t have to be a jack of all trades and master of none. Instead, outsourcing lets you focus solely on the areas in which you can create the most value. So, how do you know the time has come to outsource your accounting and free your time. Let’s take a look at some of the tell-tale signs. Working on a business should be a passion. After all, you have the freedom to pursue your enterprise in virtually any direction you like, winning new clients and making a success of your life. When mundane, stressful and time-consuming tasks overwhelm your day, though, it can take some of the joy out of the process. After a couple of years, you can dread going to work on a Monday morning. Your business becomes an emotional burden – the precise opposite of what you want. Outsourcing, however, helps you delegate many rote tasks to third parties with the expertise and time to carry them out correctly. When you farm out roles to external agencies, you can get back to focusing on the creative sides of your enterprise, such as your products or overall strategy. You no longer have to focus on robotic, yet highly technical activities, like accounting. Everyone knows that people who run businesses work long hours. But sometimes, you can wind up spending too long on your company, leading you to have a lower quality of life than if you worked at a regular firm. Again, that’s not what you intended at the outset. To make matters worse, you often find that the same kinds of activities eat up all your time. You spend hours every week doing simple things like invoicing or creating marketing materials when you could easily farm these out to third parties. Almost always, the cost-benefit is worth it. It lets you convert all the time you save into productive work that enhances the capacity of your business to generate profit. An even worse situation is one in which you’re working all the time and your sales plateau. Thus, not only are you losing week after week of your time, but your business is also failing to reach its potential. Please note that specialists are often able to do a job of specific tasks related to running a business than you can internally – and at a lower cost. Entrepreneurs, therefore, can often find themselves with more time and money when they delegate tasks to others. Some people love work for its own sake. The thrill of success and achievement is a reward in itself. But even these people – which probably includes you – need some time off to do other things in life. Existence isn’t just about solving problems and achieving excellence – it’s about having fun too. Many business tasks are just procedural and don’t require you to deploy your unique talents, skills and originality. Things like filing your taxes or optimizing your marketing campaign are all fairly robotic and easily farmed out to other people. Yet, these are precisely the tasks that eat up the majority of your time. Doing the accounts late on a Friday night is not anyone’s idea of fun. Yet, this so often happens in today’s startup companies. In summary, there are multiple signs that it is time to outsource and free your time. Remember, when you outsource, you’re eliminating the opportunity cost of doing tasks yourself. And this process potentially frees you up for higher-value activities that will make your business way more rewarding.How Do You Know That You Need To Outsource And Free Your Time?
You Dread Working On Your Business
You Work Too Many Hours
Your Sales Have Reached A Plateau
You Haven’t Got Time To Pursue Your Interests Outside Of Work
When to Know It’s Time to Outsource and Free Your Time FAQs
Outsourcing can help businesses gain access to specialized skills and expertise, reduce or control operating costs, increase efficiency, and improve focus on core business activities.
When you find yourself overwhelmed with tasks that could be handled by someone else more efficiently or effectively, it may be time to outsource work. Consider outsourcing if you have a lack of resources, need extra capacity quickly, or want access to a specific skill set not available in-house.
Virtually any task can be outsourced from administrative, operational, and marketing tasks to customer support and web development.
When considering outsourcing, it is important to think through the scope of the project, time frames, quality control measures, and cost to ensure successful results. Additionally, research potential vendors to find an experienced provider that fits your needs.
Establish clear communication channels between both parties early on in the process and be sure to provide detailed instructions for each task or project you outsource. Additionally, keep lines of communication open throughout the project by providing feedback as needed to ensure successful results.
True Tamplin is a published author, public speaker, CEO of UpDigital, and founder of Finance Strategists.
True is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF®), author of The Handy Financial Ratios Guide, a member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, contributes to his financial education site, Finance Strategists, and has spoken to various financial communities such as the CFA Institute, as well as university students like his Alma mater, Biola University, where he received a bachelor of science in business and data analytics.
To learn more about True, visit his personal website or view his author profiles on Amazon, Nasdaq and Forbes.
