How many hours do you work a week, and how many of those hours are spent on administrative tasks? How many hours do you spend looking up solutions and fixes on the internet and how many hours do you use trying to implement them yourself to save money? How long does it take to make sure all your customers are paying you and your suppliers are paid?
In 2017, IT outsourcing in the UK grew by 20% with 35% of those businesses expected to increase their outsourcing activity further in 2019. Whilst the most recent statistics aren’t yet available, there has been an increase in the number of companies offering an outsourced service, showing a growth in this area of the market as demand increases and businesses are realising they need to work smarter.
Streamlining Business Process
Your main focus should be on growth and profitability. Whilst establishing your place in your industry, you simultaneously need to keep an eye on employees, systems, administration and communication, accounts and finance – all whilst trying to make sure your core business runs as smoothly as possible.
How much time do you actually have left at the end of the day to make sure your business thrives? Have you considered what your time is actually worth? Is using that money to chase unpaid invoices from clients cost effective? Your time is valuable and you will end up in a perpetual cycle of trying to stay afloat without being able to move forward, thinking that you are saving yourself money.
Outsourcing is a smart move that gives you more time to look at the overall output rather than trying to generate it. You can then use these data to make informed decisions for business development, how to increase output, revenue and effectively grow.
Utilising Experience
Running a business is hard, but to keep it running is even harder. It is neither practical nor possible to understand the full workings of each aspect of the business. It takes years of training and hands on experience to gain such skills and handing this to someone with experience isn’t giving up control, it’s working smart.
Outsourcing to an experienced, qualified business removes administrative, training and process issues with problems passed back to be rectified at their time and cost. Any company you engage will have a contractual responsibility to ensure that your business needs are met and let you focus on the bigger picture.
Cost, Risk and HR
Doing work yourself may mean you’re not paying someone else or buying software, but it’s difficult to quantify the cost in terms of your time being spent on smaller tasks to the detriment of other areas of your business. You could be adding an additional 20 hours to your working week with the justification that you’re saving money which may be true in principle, but could those hours be better utilised? Costs aren’t just financial, they’re efficient use of time, physical, mental and social and should all be factored in.
Employees are expensive. Even at minimum wage you may have to factor in agency fees, National Insurance contributions, pension contributions, employers’ liability insurance, training, re-training, cover during annual leave / maternity / sickness, and you have to pay employees each month regardless of how the business performs.
Outsourcing mitigates all this and reduces associated risk. It allows flexibility during high and low workload phases (particularly useful for start-ups and small businesses) to control the costs where needed. There are no HR issues around hiring and firing people and the other employment law red tape to navigate.
What Can Be Outsourced?
- IT – With ever changing systems, services and cyber security can you afford the time and financial investment in learning them all and keeping up to date with them?
- Accountancy – This can range from generating customer invoices and supplier payments to VAT calculations.
- HR – Is there need to have someone manage all your staffing affairs? Do you have many staff issues?!
- PA / Admin – Answering phone calls, managing your diary, writing you letter and emails and transcribing dictations, translation and subtitling services.
- Payroll – This may not suit everyone, depending on size of business but it can be a huge time and cost saving exercise…
- Customer Support – Depending on your service, can your queries be dealt with by a third party?
- Marketing – Utilise their experience and create a marketing programme that suits you and your business.
What Can Transcribe This Do for You?
Audio transcription in English and Welsh- Welsh-English, English-Welsh translation
- Subtitling
- Proofreading and copy editing
At Transcribe This we are specialists in providing a professional audio transcription service, primarily in English and Welsh (other languages are available). We ensure that your dictated work is dealt with quickly and professionally.
We undertake all aspects of outsourced transcription work to the research, medical, legal, media, financial, health and government sectors to name a few. As well as audio transcription we offer translation and captioning services. Contact us to discuss how we can help you save valuable time.
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