You are a business owner! Great! What does that mean to you – that you are able to follow your passion – providing goods or services and meeting a need for others! That is wonderful. Did you also realize that being a business owner means that you are now responsible for the following areas – legal, accounting, marketing, human resources, graphic design, distribution, purchasing, vendor negotiation, communications, writing, photography, sales force, product design, engineering, IT, office administration, energy consumption and so many other areas, too many to mention here. Running your own business allows you to follow your passion; however it is much more complicated and detailed in areas that you may not have any inclination, knowledge, skill set or desire to even deal with. That is where outsourcing comes to fruition! You are an expert in your business. Leave the other areas to the experts as well and hire them to handle what they know best.

For example – you should have a lawyer available to review contracts, prepare filings and assist you if there are any legal issues that arise. If you have the time and the expertise, you may decide to perform the detailed tasks, however, always consider if your time is more valuable doing something else within your business.

In terms of financial information, you should have a bookkeeper, tax accountant, and possibly a controller. The bookkeeper will keep the accounting books on a day by day basis, record your expenses and sales, while the tax accountant will assist you in tax planning, tax filings and estimated tax payments.  If the company is large enough, you may also consider outsourcing to a controller or CFO position.  As a company grows, the financial aspects get more and more complicated.  The controller is able to prepare the financial statements that need to be given to the bank for loan requirements or develop internal controls, within the business. In addition, the controller is able to develop systems and prepare the analysis to enable you, the business owner, to know your sales, overhead and cash flow at any time.  The bookkeeper and the controller are completing the detailed tasks, while you, the owner, spend your important time and expertise in other areas of a business.

Outsourcing is using others to do what you cannot or do not want to do. For example, about a year ago, I decided to change the name of my company and wanted to have a logo. Please understand that I am a left-brained person – that I cannot draw anything – I use a ruler to draw a straight line! I decided to have one designed for me and spoke to a graphic artist to discuss colors and what my business represented to me. He provided me 6 designs and I narrowed it down to 3 that I liked. The important point to note is that the designer was working with me. Outsourcing is collaboration – the person (or company) doing the service is in communication with you at whatever frequency you need to know the situation. Remember, it is your company that is being affected. Getting back to the logo situation, I then asked the designer to slightly modify the 3 that I selected. The 3 were modified as instructed and I then showed the finalized 3 logos to colleagues to get their opinion as to which one reflected my company and me best. A colleague suggested a further modification to the logo that most had picked as representative of me. That final change was completed by the designer and I had my logo!

By outsourcing, you are delegating the detailed tasks to someone who can handle it with a higher level of expertise. You are NOT abdicating the accountability. You, the business owner, need to know the information; however, you do not need to be in the details. Remember, delegate, NOT abdicate. The end result of outsourcing a task is freeing up your time to spend it in your area of expertise.

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