With 30% of businesses in the UK planning to outsource more by 2022, it’s never been more important to consider – after all, it can help you achieve some great results for your business.

Not only is it essential you find the right functions to outsource, but you need to make sure the providers you choose have a good reputation and that your business will be in good hands.

It shouldn’t be taken lightly, and there’s a lot of planning and research that you need to do to make sure you get everything right the first time.

Here are some things to consider when outsourcing, the benefits of outsourcing and the best functions you can outsource to help run your business more efficiently.

What to consider when outsourcing

While outsourcing can have some huge benefits to your business, it’s important to consider what to outsource, and how to choose the right outsourced services.

Diving into outsourcing blindly can result in disaster.

Whether it’s hiring the wrong provider, or overpaying for services.

When outsourcing parts of your business, there are a few things you need to think about:

  • What do you want to achieve?

Do you want to free up time so you can focus on other parts of the business?

Maybe you’re looking to broaden your services without having them in-house?

No matter your goals, make sure you outline what they are first before outsourcing any parts of your business – it will help you figure out exactly which services you need and how successful they could be in the long run.

  • Which providers have the best reputation?

For everyday services like admin tasks or IT support, it won’t be very difficult at all to find service providers with good ratings.

But what if the service you need is more specific and niche?

It’ll be more difficult to find someone with the specialist skills you require and therefore harder to find someone you can trust; you don’t want just anybody experimenting with your business.

Ask yourself, can they prove their level of service?

What results can they show for their work?

Do they have any references?

Reviews will become your best friend when doing your research and hopefully make the decision process miles simpler.

  • What’s your budget?

While costs are important when deciding if you want to outsource or not, the value of outsourcing isn’t solely judged on the expense of services.

Today, it’s more about how it can help the growth of your business and give you access to a wider talent pool.

Benefits of outsourcing some functions

The benefits of outsourcing can be substantial – from cost savings and efficiency gains to greater competitive advantages there are lots of reasons why you should consider outsourcing services.

  • You can manage your time more effectively

Outsourcing services can free up yours and your staff’s time to concentrate on their main tasks and really focus on your business’s strengths, building your brand; having more time to invest in research and development.

  • It’s cost effective

71% of UK businesses say that cost reductions are their main reason for outsourcing.

Outsourcing allows you to control your costs as you have the option to only pay for services as you need them, rather than making big long term investments in softwares or full time staff.

For example, recruiting a full time receptionist would cost you a minimum of £18,000 per year without the costs of training they’ll need or bonus pay.

Hiring a phone answering service and working with already trained experts would not only cost less, but also help you generate more revenue by answering all new business calls as they come in.

  • You have access to a wider talent pool

When taking on full-time employees, you might only have access to smaller and more local talent pools.

Outsourcing gives you access to talent in other parts of the world and if you need specialised help, it often makes sense to expand your search.

For example, in the UK about 67% of UK start-ups outsource to bring in skilled workers for specific tasks.

Problems when outsourcing goes wrong

Outsourcing can be the best decision you’ll ever make for your business, but this doesn’t mean it doesn’t go wrong from time to time.

Making easy mistakes like choosing the first provider you come across, outsourcing all your tasks at once or looking for the cheapest option can all be detrimental to the success of your business.

If you don’t do your research, you could end up bringing someone in who doesn’t really understand your business – any mistakes they make will take time and potentially lots of money to put right and you could be the one liable.

4 Functions that are primed to be outsourced in the ‘new normal’

  • Call answering

Hiring a full time receptionist is expensive.

Their salary can easily exceed £25,000 per year plus sick pay and holiday pay.

What do you do when they’re away?

You’ll still be paying them and you’ll likely have to recruit somebody temporarily to make sure calls are still being answered – which is another salary on your list

Hiring a remote receptionist might be the answer to your problem.

You’ll never have to worry about taking a break and you’ll even be able to extend your opening hours and take multiple calls at once.

You’ll always have someone there to take details and messages from potential new clients which will be passed on for you to review when you have time.

  • Finances

Getting people to do your accounts or payroll can benefit your business in a few ways.

The biggest benefit is that it saves time and money on in-house recruitment and training your employees.

You’ll be able to put more of your budget towards training in other areas and spend time focusing on more important parts of your business.

Outsourcing finance roles is already a hugely popular thing in the UK.

More than a quarter (28%) of businesses already outsource Payroll for example, according to YouGov.

And 24% of businesses outsource their accounting.

  • Marketing

Obviously you want the best results and outsourcing marketing is one way to go about it, seeing as you’ll have access to wider ranges of technology, more tactics and more data.

Hiring in-house specialists can be expensive, with marketing executives earning between £20,000-£30,000 per year depending on their experience – you’ll have to hire a team of people for your marketing department to operate smoothly.

Working with an agency doesn’t come cheap either, but you can be sure you’ll get the best service possible.

More than 40% of businesses currently outsource marketing.

Depending on your needs, it’ll cost you between £1,200 – £5,000 per month.

You’ll have access to diverse specialities, such as web design, SEO and social media experts.

  • IT support

It can be very expensive to set up an in-house IT team that’s capable of supporting your business as it grows.

With IT professionals salaries costing up to £45,000 a year, they might have gaps in their knowledge or be too overrun to deal with every problem as it occurs.

Outsourcing IT support is not only cheaper, but it means you’ll have access to a larger team with a variety of specialisms.

Your business is less likely to be affected by knowledge gaps, sickness, holidays and out-of-hours disasters when it comes to IT.

Outsourced IT is probably one of the most popular outsourced functions among UK businesses.

And about a third of companies say they’ll be more reliant on outsourced IT in the future.

Is outsourcing really worth it?

On the whole, outsourcing is more budget friendly than recruiting in-house and it gives you access to a wider range of specialisms, tactics and technologies to help you achieve your business goals.

Your planning and executing of outsourcing is vital, but if you get it right you’ll become a more flexible and successful business.