It is the tendency of business owners, especially new and small-business owners, to assume they can and should handle all business functions in-house. Especially when starting a new business they feel they can’t afford to pay for staff or services. When in fact it is recommended by many business experts that new business owners as well as small and mid size business owners should outsource non-essential functions like bookkeeping and administrative tasks to let them focus on the functions they specialize in; important functions that will add value to their business and in turn their bottom line.
Small and mid size business are discovering that outsourcing bookkeeping and administrative tasks saves payroll and overhead cost as well as being a giant step in freeing up their valuable time. And the bonus to their company is that those outsourced functions are being performed by experts in their field. It is often difficult to find and hire the right person with the required experience for any job but for functions as important as bookkeeping or your legal compliance requirements it can be very difficult or very expensive. In addition the time to hire, train and manage an employee can take many hours that take the employer away from the important functions related to building or maintaining his business. If the employer is doing these tasks with no employees and no experienced help the results are even more lost time.
Some outsourcing companies claim as much as 65% savings over the cost of the annual salary of an employee they will be replacing with their outsourcing services. Commonly quoted in business articles are savings closer to 50% of the annual salary when you factor in wages, benefits, taxes, and time spent in managing the employee; the savings to the employer is substantial. Not to mention relieving the employer of worrying about tasks being completed when an employee is absent due to illness or perhaps vacation. Outsourcing also eliminates the need to deal with possible personnel issues leading to disciplinary action, termination, or perhaps an employee chooses to end their employment with the business.
Some have had bad experiences with outsourcing companies who do not provide the professional level of service that should be expected. I can understand the frustration that these individuals have experienced. I myself have had experience with being disappointed in the service the business I worked for received from an outsourcing company. At CBS we knew we could offer professional personalized service for a much better value than some of the overpriced outsourcing companies out there. We have extensive professional experience in the services that we offer and with our many years of experience it is our mission to offer our clients the best service available.
For companies big enough to warrant the cost of a full time staff to handle all of their bookkeeping, administrative, and human resource needs outsourcing is not needed. But outsourcing is a valuable financial tool available to small and mid size business to allow them to have the same professional experience handling their finances and personnel issues in a very affordable way. In the end the advantages to outsourcing is savings of both time and money.
