Growing a successful small business requires a range of skills that very few people have in their entirety. Bringing specialist people into a company is vitally important to its success, but hiring full time staff to your business can be both expensive and can potentially drain businesses? resources.
One alternative to hiring is to outsource certain specialist roles to ensure you are getting the best results for your business, but without the worry of employing full time staff.
Xenios Thrasyvoulou is the founder and CEO of PeoplePerHour, a global online marketplace that connects businesses with freelance workers. Here, he give Business Matters his views on some of the areas of business that are vital for driving growth, but can also be successfully outsourced.
1. Branding
No sooner has a business idea come to the mind of an entrepreneur, thoughts will turn immediately to branding. If your staff are the muscles of your company that help things move forward, and the accounts are the beating heart that ensures the business ticking along, then branding is your soul.
Branding represents everything you are and personifies your business, so getting it right is vital. And that means everything from the design and feel of the website, designing a company logo that stands out, to producing materials such as business cards, compliment slips, email signatures and and company branded documents.
Outsourcing to a branding expert does not mean that you sacrifice your thoughts or dreams about how your company is represented, but a professional marketer will be able to help you communicate your vision in a way that both inspires and engages your customers.
2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
For those of you not familiar with SEO, this is the process of improving the visibility of your website on search engines. Recent figures suggest that when using a search engine, 79 per cent of people will automatically click on the first link that comes up. So in order to attract new business through your website, it is important that your company appears near the top.
Unless you have the technical expertise to build an SEO programme you are almost certainly going to need to bring in an individual or agency to help you out ? but the value of rising in the search term ranking could make a massive difference to your business.
3. Copywriting
Writing engaging and informative content is a skill. While it may seem in the first instance that developing content for a website or sales material is something that can be done in-house to help save money, ensuring that the content is suitable for the audience and will help attract new business will ultimately serve your business better and is worth the investment.
4. PR
While most companies will initially invest in extravagant (and often expensive) marketing campaigns to help promote their business; PR can be a cheaper and more impactful alternative. PR is more of an art than a science and so getting the right team or individual on board is essential. As well as being able to write and have a creative flair, a good PR will have a calm head and a good book of contacts.
Building relationships with journalists, is key to building a media profile, but it can be frustrating and ultimately time consuming. That?s where the experienced PR comes in.
PR is not rocket science, but it will eat into your time if you decide to take responsibility for raising the media profile of your business.
5. Accounts
Businesses are built on the foundations of good accountancy. It may not be everyone?s cup of tea but ensuring that your finances are under control is vital to ensuring the success of your business. Outsourcing this role to a professional accountant will not only mean that you are aware at a moment?s notice of how your business is performing, but will also allow you to free up vital time to help you focus on growing your business.?
Source: http://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/advice/11767/five-tasks-that-you-should-outsource-to-grow-your-business/
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