Not every small business can afford to hire experts as full-time resources. These companies are just starting out, trying to make names for themselves, and the best candidates may not be attracted to these organizations in the first place. How is a business supposed to excel if it does not have access to the people it needs?
For many small businesses, the answer has been outsourcing. This process removes costs for keeping people on staff, but it also can harm the community at the same time. As with any major business decision, there are both positive and negative outcomes to be considered, and getting financial investment advice can help narrow a business' choice to the right option.
The benefitsEspecially for fledgling entities, outsourcing can be a boon to business banking. Instead of paying to keep someone on staff for a specialized function like IT maintenance, mobile app procurement or tax accounting, the business can contract this service to an individual somewhere else on an as-needed basis.
"We decided it was essential to outsource some activity to promote business growth, without the expense of early recruitment," Nick Green, owner of Printed.com, told Financial Times. He told the source that he used online resources and freelance workers to do the tasks he needed accomplished without spending nearly as much money on retention, technology or human resources management.
The drawbacksUsing outsourced employees robs the local economy of jobs and money that could be generated by hosting in-house the facilities that other companies send to online talent or even overseas. While sending tasks to a third party reduces overhead, it can also result in a sub-par product, Small Business Trends wrote. Without proper oversight, a project could be completed in a way that an owner did not intend, and since there is little if any recourse in the freelance process, it is possible the company will have to pay to have it done a second time with similar lack of assurances that it will come out right this time around.
Considering the array of options available to an organization today, it is important to pick the right assets to complement a company's needs. If the best way to spend money is to outsource, that should be a primary choice, but if there are ways to keep costs down and have someone on staff, that could also be a viable option for interested organizations.