Outsourcing is increasingly popular. It goes hand-in-hand with the growth of working from home – even regular contractors are fundamentally outsourced.
Outsourcing has also been a fact of life for small businesses for years. Could the growth in outsourced professionals be an advantage for small business owners? This article examines how outsourcing might benefit small businesses in critical areas.
Which Areas Should Small Businesses Outsource?
1099 Filing
1099 filing services are used to declare a large majority of income payments. Small businesses work with numerous contractors and other agencies throughout the year. Collecting data, examining, and reporting all these payments can be exhausting.
Most small business owners acknowledge that it’s more cost-effective (as time is money!) to outsource their form 1099 filing to an exterior agency. An external partner with 1099 reporting expertise, can take the time to review data and possible exposure to IRS penalties. .
1099 outsourcing professions can get in touch with business’s to ask about problems where they arise, ensuring compliance while reducing the need for small business account payable departments to run through every payment by themselves.
Form 1099 filing, as well as various other business tax forms, are jobs best left to professionals. This reduces the risk of getting in trouble with the IRS while saving valuable time and money for small business owners.
Digital Marketing
Many creative small business owners believe that they can manage their digital presence. Then they discover SEO and find that they’re facing an insurmountable wall.
This “wall” is known as the Top Page of Google. It features all their competitors who have spent on SEO and are enjoying the results. Their websites are sleek, their loading times are fast, and their content is immaculate.
Outsourcing a website’s SEO to professionals dramatically increases the chance that that website will appear on Google’s first page. This is especially important for home service industries like roofing, HVAC contractors, and plumbing. Most people search for these services online and likely won’t see a business unless it’s ranked highly by Google.
SEO isn’t something that most people can do themselves. It’s worth outsourcing to experts.
Development
Start-ups often fail at the first hurdle: finding a trusted development team.
This is because so many U.S. fledgling start-up owners envisage a tight-knit, utterly loyal team of experts who can handle every challenge and provide an innovative solution to every problem. These “experts” might happen to be their closest friends.
Sound familiar? This team is a myth.
It bears further examination: 90% of startups fail. Unrealistic ambitions and stubbornness are a bad combination in business leaders.
Hiring a crack team of devs in North America is astronomically expensive. Working with a reliable team of outsourced developers in countries with superb tech development industries like Argentina is more cost-effective and reduces the risk that a project will go bust.
Furthermore, outsourced professionals don’t take their work for granted. Business owners can expect the commitment that is required to get a fledgling start-up off the ground. Commitment is the #1 component that most start-ups lack.
Accounting
Outsourcing accounting is almost always a good idea for small businesses. It’s easy to find a firm at a competitive price and most small businesses don’t need an in-house accountant. Most small businesses that outsource their accounting do so for the peace of mind that comes from knowing the pros will keep you compliant with all laws and regulatory policies.
As with so many outsourced roles, professionalism is guaranteed and the price is affordable. Finding a trustworthy accounting firm is almost always advantageous for small businesses.
Final Thoughts
Any small business can benefit from outsourcing. It’s not rocket science. Lower costs, superior staff, fewer headaches: what small business owner doesn’t want these?
