So often, when talking to people, the question or comment on their mind is "I can't afford to outsource". Now some time ago this was the way to look at things. With limited income, there always has to be consideration of anything that impacts the expenses line on your profit and loss. There is also the concern you might have in outsourcing elements of your business to a third party, as this might in some way dilute your brand or the level of customer service you offer.

More recently it has become a consideration of whether your business can afford not to outsource. Nowadays there are specialists who are virtual assistants and have specialism rather than a generic function. Whether you are looking to outsource your telephony, telephone answering, credit control, email handling, holiday cover, marketing, social media (the list is endless), there is an outside Virtual Assistant that can help you. Now, with most things, these come at a price, but if you compare this to the amount of time you have to put aside in your diary to allow for these activities, there is much less time for you to do the job you enjoy.

When looking at tasks, I consider the tasks I dislike with a 50% time premium, and I think this is a good model to use. In a nutshell, if there are five hours of work you wanted to outsource each week, this is seven and a half hours of your time. If you bill out your time at £40.00/Hour that is £300.00 of time impact on your diary per week. If you outsourced these functions at a rough cost of £30.00 per hour, this will cost you £150.00 per week. This over the space of a year is a cost-saving to your sanity and profit and loss of £7,800.

A sign of a good business is the strength of the team they surround themselves with. Through my networks, I am connected to a number of outsource specialists, so whatever you are looking to outsource, give us a call on 01488 853193 or email at jon@jonshatford.co.uk