As an entrepreneur, all you want is for your business to keep growing. And as an entrepreneur, you are often the one charged with making crucial decisions related to this growth. If all goes well, your business will flourish, and you’ll find yourself in this decision-making position. These two things are interchangeable because with growth comes more work and more moving parts to manage. When you find yourself in this situation, that is when you begin to wonder if any part of your business should be outsourced instead of keeping the work in-house so that you can ensure that your business environment fosters growth.
Your first thought may be, “Why should you outsource when you could just hire in-house?” That’s a common question and that’s why it’s important to look at all the in-house vs. outsourcing pros and cons before you decide on how to approach your business’s work.
For some entrepreneurs, they will find hiring vs. outsourcing a helpful, and necessary, strategy. These individuals decide to outsource some aspects of their company to a professional who can get the job done efficiently and professionally. For other entrepreneurs, they see having an in-house team being a cost-efficient strategy because these employees know the brand and it’s easier than taking the time to outsource external talent to do the work.
If you’re on the fence and wondering why you should outsource when you could just hire in-house, we’ve got you covered. While we could just tell you that the benefits of outsourcing will outweigh the money and work involved, or just provide you with an in-house vs. outsourcing ppt, we’ve taken it a step further.
Keep reading below to find a list of the steps you’ll want to take as you decide between hiring vs. outsourcing. When you follow these steps, you can make the best, educated decision for your business.
Make a list of all your company’s work
If you are taking these steps to decide between hiring vs. outsourcing, you want the work you are putting in now to last. That’s why it’s important to frequently go through this step for in-house vs. outsourcing maintenance. You’ll want to make a list of every aspect of your business and then categorize that list by department or job function.
As you make this list, you’ll uncover that:
- This process will allow you to look at each team. For instance, your in-house marketing team may be doing a fantastic job with coming up with new and creative ideas, so you don’t have to outsource that department.
- If you’ve had difficulty finding a qualified employee for a role, outsourcing that role could be the solution you have been looking for.
- While this process is time-consuming, it will help you look at your business with a finer lens. Once you see what areas of your company aren’t thriving, you can think about how outsourcing can be applied to that department or job function.
Determine what work needs to be outsourced
The most important step to take as you decide between hiring vs. outsourcing is determining what work you can part with. You will never want to outsource your essential work. To ensure you aren’t outsourcing essential work, examine your company in the prior step and look at what the core areas of your business are. Once you determine that, be sure that you aren’t leaving any critical aspect of your business in external hands. As your business continues to grow it’s important to continue practicing in-house vs. outsourcing maintenance to ensure you are only outsourcing non-essential work.
As you take this step, you’ll want to consider the following in-house vs. outsourcing pros and cons:
- Outsourcing smaller projects allows for your in-house team to put more attention on their core projects.
- If you don’t outsource essential work, you can double your output by having external partners efficiently work through smaller projects while your employees work on your core projects.
- Having in-house employees, in addition to an external partner, provides you with a constant flow of new ideas.
- Your in-house team is a part of your business and when people feel like they are part of the bigger picture, they are inspired to continue sharing new ideas.
- If you outsource core areas of your company, your external talent may not have new inspiration and could get into a rut. It’s important to let external partners get continuous inspiration from your business.
Decide what is the best decision for your company
You are the one who launched your business, and you are the one who will ultimately decide what the best decision is for your company. As you decide how to move your business forward, it’s important to take the work you did in the last step even further to look at additional in-house vs. outsourcing pros and cons.
Some examples of these pros and cons are:
- Just because you have someone working in-house, you aren’t guaranteed work that will be up to your standard.
- Workloads change and outsourcing work means you never have to worry about your in-house team not having enough work. This can be a cause of stress because if someone is on salary, you need to pay them regardless of their workload.
- With an in-house team, you have more control over your employees, and you can establish strong habits and inspiration with them.
- Regarding the in-house vs outsourcing supply chain, there are always contractors around that are willing to take on work, which allows for you to try them out and see if they are a fit. Good employees can be hard to come by, so you aren’t hurting your business by waiting if you outsource.
If you decide to outsource, document everything
If you outsource work, those individuals do not have the benefit of being in-house employees. These external partners don’t have the same knowledge or experience as yourself so to set them up for success (and to make your money worth it), you’ll want to have a brief onboarding with them to educate them on your brand and their projects.
When it comes to documentation, you’ll want to consider:
- Documenting your work as clearly as possible so someone with minimal experience would still be able to complete that task,
- Creating a flowchart of the different steps to take with each task or project,
- Or, using a video service to create videos of how to complete a task or project.
When you choose to document instead of verbally sharing these details, your outsourced team members will always have access to this documentation to review later if they ever are struggling with a task at hand.
Track and measure your business’s performance
Just because you decided to outsource work, or stay in-house, doesn’t mean you have to stick with that one strategy. Determining how best to grow your business is continuous progress, that could change course.
Since outsourcing often allows for entrepreneurs to look at their strategies in place to scale up, you’ll want to be sure you are regularly asking yourself these questions:
- What performance indicators do you want to measure?
- Are you inching closer to your goals?
- How has the outsourced work impacted our business’s performance overall?
- Have we used our saved money or extra time to implement any new strategies or to be innovative?
When you become a student of your business’s data and metrics you will have a better understanding of what is and isn’t working for your company. When you continuously monitor your business, you’ll be able to ultimately improve your business as a result.
Hopefully, as you go through these steps, and weigh the pros and cons of each, you can choose whether you should hire in-house or outsource. Every company is different and there is not a one-size-fits-all approach. If you have enough work and opportunity for work to be outsourced, then great! If you have stellar employees that deliver high-quality work, then maybe stick with your in-house team – only you can decide! What the decision comes down to is what will work best for your company and what will allow your business to continue to grow.
