When should you start thinking about outsourcing some of your tasks?
As a web entrepreneur, time is always scarce, and you find that you just can’t do everything yourself the way you would like to. Maybe you’ve thought about outsourcing, but it’s not a simple decision because you need to compare the cost and quality of the person or company that will be working for you.
A simple search for companies using the terms “virtual assistant” and “outsourcing” will reveal a plethora of firms and virtual assistants that offer outsourcing services for everyday business tasks – such as customer service, tech support, bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounting, and even social media marketing. You really have to explore whether there is a way to do these activities yourself at a very low cost with high quality or whether there is a lower cost, high quality way to get these jobs done by an outside assistant.
You may even be able to find inexpensive software tools that would let you do business accounting and tax-related tasks yourself with high quality and a lower cost than hiring an assistant. However, if using these software tools takes up too much of your time, then the more vital tasks won’t get done, and your business could suffer.
When considering the costs of doing these tasks in-house, whether by yourself or as part of your startup team, make sure you estimate how much time you’ll spend on them and the opportunity cost of doing the work in-house versus outsourcing it. Either way, there will be a trade-off, but in the long-run you, like most entrepreneurs, will benefit from outsourcing some tasks as your company grows.
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