Why is business process outsourcing important?

If you’ve never considered it before, business process outsourcing (BPO) might seem complicated. However, it can be incredibly helpful for small businesses with limited working capacity or resources. 

Keep reading to learn more about why businesses find outsourcing so useful and how BPO could help your small business develop.

Why do businesses outsource processes?

When you recruit for positions within your organisation, you choose people with the right skills for that particular role. Sometimes, though, that can be difficult to do, particularly if you don’t have a full workload for the appropriate candidate. This can happen if you have seasonal surges and dips in work, but also when there’s just not enough work to justify hiring an extra team member. By outsourcing the work you do have, you can fulfil those workflow surges without having to pay a full employee in the dips when the extra help isn’t needed. 

Outsourcing can also be very helpful in the case of vacancies. When an employee leaves your business, you can outsource their work on a temporary basis. This can give you and your hiring team the time you need to recruit the right person for the role. This can then help you to build a more cohesive team without having to worry about work piling up while you’re searching for the ideal candidate. 

The same concept applies to expanding your business. When there’s too much work in a department for that team to handle, you can outsource the extra work while you focus on recruiting an additional member of the team to take over.

Additionally, introducing business process outsourcing can be a great way to streamline small businesses so your experts are working on the things that matter. In very small businesses with few staff, it’s often the case that some members of your team take on roles that are essential, but not aligned with their areas of expertise. While this helps to save money in the early stages of business development, it also detracts from the time your team spends on the tasks you need their expertise for. This slows down the productivity of your team, so why not outsource the task to a specialist so your experts can focus on the work that’s going to push your business forward?

How does business process outsourcing help small businesses?

Business process outsourcing helps to streamline your business so you can focus on the hands-on aspect of creating and selling your products or services to customers. Below, we’ve detailed just some of the ways BPO can help your small business grow and develop.

Get the best qualified person for the job

As well as allowing you and your team to delegate those extraneous yet essential tasks, it also allows you, as an employer, to access a far larger pool of talent. Where you would otherwise find someone you already have in your company to complete the tasks, BPO allows you to get in some fresh blood. Instead of having to source a full time employee – and the funds to pay them – you can simply outsource the tasks as and when you need to, to an industry expert who can get the work done to a high standard.

Take a look at the bigger picture

According to a recent survey by QuickBooks, 65% of small business owners think that they’d be better able to grow and develop their business if they had the time to step back from day-to-day operations and assess the bigger picture. At the same time, as many as 97% of small business owners claim they personally manage at least one area of their business, with the following areas being the most common:

Fortunately, many of these are areas where business process outsourcing can be a big help. For example, by outsourcing customer service, you can delegate the day-to-day running of that department to an agency. Then you can use the freed-up time in your schedule to plan your business’s next steps. 

Plus, it’s not just time you’re freeing up, but headspace, too. Having a personal hand in running several areas of your business can be stressful. That’s why larger businesses typically have department heads who manage day-to-day operations. Delegating business processes can take some of the pressure off you, which can help you to make better decisions in the long run. You can even outsource things like diary management and call handling to a virtual receptionist for even less hassle.

Improve your small business’s agility

Business agility isn’t something reserved for those in seasonal industries. In order for small businesses to thrive, they need to be able to move quickly and adapt to changes without issue. The fewer fixed costs you have, the easier this is. It’s far more simple to outsource to a third party than it is to hire in staff. Business agility also means that if you hit a quiet spot, you don’t have to worry about making employees redundant. You can just cut back on outsourcing temporarily, allowing you to manage cash flow easily.

In the end, when it comes to business process outsourcing, the world is your oyster. No matter which industry you work in, the chances are BPO can help drive your business forward.