One of the best ways to grow and scale your business is to outsource. Outsourcing doesn’t necessarily mean having to hire someone, either. You could outsource to technology, process, systems, automations – and yes, virtual assistants or other forms of human capital. 

At the end of the day, your best role as the founder or creator is to work on high-value activities so that you can focus on GROWTH vs. keeping the wheels on the bus. Outsourcing frees your time to utilize your woman-power to build your business!

Running a business requires many moving parts, which makes hiring the right small business management services critical for your success. A good service frees up your time, so that you can make decisions no one else is qualified to make as your company grows. Using the right basic business management resources will keep you rolling forward and make your job easier. In this post, we’re going to go over some of the benefits and ways to think about hiring the right small business management services. 

How do you know when it’s time to outsource basic management services?

When you start a small business, you’re wearing all the hats from marketing to fulfillment, to customer service, tech guru, to everything in between. So, how do you know it’s time to outsource?

Quality of Life

Starting a business takes hours of hard work that only you can do at the very beginning. But if the reason you started the business was to improve your quality of life, and if you don’t have time to do the things you enjoy with the people you want to be with, it’s time for a second look. We’re all about hard work here – but if your mental health and quality of life are starting to take a hit, it’s time to re-evaluate what’s on your plate and how you can work smarter, not harder.

Quality of Business

Is the quality of your business going downhill? Are you facing costly mistakes, taking too much time on the basics, or is your team overloaded with multiple roles, and quality is starting to suffer?

If your personal life and business are starting to feel regular adverse effects, it’s time to look at outsourcing as a way to save money, headaches, and to improve your business.

How do you hire the right small business management services?

Focus on finding leaders

Tactical skills are more easily learned and acquired than leadership abilities. Focus on finding great leaders that can own the tasks and take things fully off your plate.

Seek referrals

The easiest way to find great service providers is to network with other colleagues and listen to their experiences with various companies. Your needs will not always be exactly the same, but starting with a warm introduction is always better than cold calling service providers.  

Don’t settle on the first one – interview

When you are already buried in daily tasks, it seems daunting to undertake a process of finding the right individual or company to outsource to – it’s definitely time well spent though. Hiring the wrong service team can have detrimental effects. Take your time and really vet your options, even if you’re small and new!

Five Small Business Management Services to Outsource

As women, we understand having a team is essential. Lining up your resources is key to building success. Outsourcing time-consuming tasks that yield small results frees your schedule to focus more fully on high payoff activities.

Here are five small business management resources that can be outsourced to help you find time to focus on what you do best:

Social Media Managers

To expand your small business, everyone knows you must be on social media. A social media manager increases brand awareness through creating a strategy, implementing campaigns, and monitoring your social media engagement. The right social media campaigns lead to greater sales and visibility over time. This is a great place to start because it doesn’t require a full-time, in-house employee to be successful.

Marketing Resources

Your website is still one of your best tools. Hiring a professional web designer can take your branding to the next level. Your advertising, content creation, and strategic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) may be other areas that hiring an external expert can be a good fit. 

Financial Resources

Cash flow problems account for 82% of small businesses failures. Don’t let this be you! Become financially savvy and know how to manage your cash flow. Learning how and when to seek funding is critical for your success. We recently hosted an awesome workshop on Debunking Fundraising Myths & Facts for Womenpreneurs, by becoming a Sohuis member, you’ll get access to this recording, as well as all of our other courses and programs in our resource vault. 

If you’re ready for a loan, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has a lender match program you need to check out.  If finance isn’t for you, look to find a great partner that can give you and your money the guidance you need to succeed!

Logistics Resources

If your woman-owned business is product-focused, look at warehousing, packing, and shipping from a third party fulfillment company. If your company is growing, logistics managers strategize to efficiently supply your product, build relationships to assure delivery, and analyze changing needs.

Executive Board or Expert Advisors

Getting an executive board or expert advisors gives you a pool of experts to draw knowledge from. The management and operation of your company remains on your shoulders, but you can gain insight into many other areas such as legal matters, insurance, accounting or financial matters, and hiring employees. 

Even if you don’t hire a board, it’s vital to have a team to bounce ideas off of and for consultation – you cannot build a business in vacuum! If your budget doesn’t allow it yet, ask other business owners you know to be a mentor or take part in group discussions to gain additional insights.

At Sohuis, we are here to help you gather your small business management services. Our mission is to give women the resources and power to build meaningful businesses. When you become a member, we provide you with masterclasses and opportunities to connect with other womenpreneurs like yourself. We’re ready to be part of your team of basic business resources when building a woman-owned business. We can’t wait to hear from you!