Back-office outsourcing for small businesses

When a business is in its initial stages, the goal is usually to cut costs wherever possible. It is fairly reasonable as startups or small businesses do not have inexhaustible resources at their disposal. But how one goes about saving money and cutting costs can impact the business’s success.

Businesses are complex. There are various functions that need to be handled to keep a business running, and they don’t necessarily have to be roles focusing on the area that your company was built around. Every business has basic activities that need to be addressed. Some of these functions are back office. As startups or small businesses cannot afford to have an in-house employee for each of these jobs, they usually delegate these tasks to their existing employees. While it indeed allows them to cut down costs, it often impacts employee productivity and business efficiency. Saving money at the expense of quality can hurt a company in the long run. To be able to compete with the big shots in the market, a company has to be on par with its quality standard as well. Overworked or distracted employees cannot provide you that quality. While back-office jobs may not be client-facing, they support the other activities in the business and should not be overlooked.

Offshoring is an ideal solution for companies looking to cut down costs and get quality services. Back office outsourcing with offshore service providers can help small businesses improve their business efficiency. Under this model, a company hires a service provider in another country where the cost of living is comparatively less to find and hire employees for them. These employees are qualified and experienced in their fields and cost much less than the employees locally. They will be working for your company remotely.

While companies offshore all kinds of functions and roles nowadays, back-office roles are still the most convenient functions to outsource. These functions are not client-facing and thus do not require to be in-house. They can be performed just as easily from an office in another country. It is an ideal solution for startups or small businesses looking to cut costs. Still not sure about back-office outsourcing? Let’s take a look at the advantages it offers.

Cost-cutting

As has been stated above, back-office outsourcing allows you to hire employees at a lower price. Furthermore, as the employees will be working remotely, you will not have to pay for any overheads such as extra office space, electricity, office supplies, IT hardware and software, etc.

Talented employees

With offshoring, your hiring pool expands, and you get to hire talented and qualified candidates. No matter the nature of work, you will be able to hire employees who have experience in the field and provide quality results.

Focus on core competency

With the back office roles outsourced, you will be able to focus on the work that improves business value and increases profits. You can now concentrate on the core competencies and grow your business.

Increased productivity

When you outsource the tasks that are taking up the efforts and time of your in-house employees, you are rewarded with an increase in productivity. Your employees can focus on their jobs with no extra workload.

Retain control over the work

One of the added advantages of offshoring is your company keeping control of the work you outsource. As opposed to outsourcing, offshoring vendors do not dictate the terms of the operations you outsource. Your remote employees work according to your instructions and guidance.

Scaling up and down as needed

Since the employees are hired by an offshore service provider for your company, you have the luxury to scale up or scale down your team as and when required with just a short notice.

Time zone advantage

As the offshore employees work in a different country, you can take advantage of the time zone difference. When your workday is over, the offshore team will be starting.

Back office outsourcing has a lot to offer to small businesses. Analyze and evaluate your business to know whether you can benefit from outsourcing. If you or your employees are spending time and energy on jobs that you don’t need to be doing, you can surely benefit by outsourcing it. Your efforts should be put towards growing and expanding your company, not towards making payroll or hiring employees. While each company is unique with its own requirements, below are some common back-office functions that can be outsourced.

• Data Entry
• Bookkeeping
• Accounting Services
• Payroll services
• Hiring and recruitment
• IT support
• Human Resources

Back office outsourcing can help your small business increase efficiency, which is just what you might need to step up to the next level. With each passing day, more and more companies are realizing the importance of offshoring for their businesses. If you haven’t already, you should consider it too for your back-office jobs.