5 Business Functions That You Can Outsource
You must accept the fact that nobody knows everything or is an expert in every industry because there will always be limitations in term of time and expertise, especially for newly formed companies. The solution to overcome the limitations is outsource certain functions of the company to the professionals. There are many benefits of outsourcing such as cost advantage, access to skilled resources and more. The idea of outsourcing is to allow you the business owner to focus on the crucial area of your business. Nevertheless, we will explain the benefits in detail in the coming week’s article.
The following are the 5 Business Functions That You Can Outsource:
1. Web design, web development and web maintenance
A business that is without a website will lose competitive advantage as compared to those with websites (read our article “12 Reasons Why You Need a Website”). This is because information about the company (including contact details) can be found on the Internet. Trust us, the “Google’s Micro-Moment” is very real.
That aside, it is very important to build a professional website that is presentable and able to represent your brand (read our article “10 Things You Need to Know before You Hire Someone to Create or Redesign Your Website”). With a website you can potentially reach to millions of people around the world on the Internet. Therefore, you do not want to give a bad impression to them as it will destroy your brand and business if your website are poorly done.
Professional developers like us will ensure your website is properly built and comply with our standards before we deliver the final product to you. Find out more from our previous article “DIY Website vs. Professionally Designed & Developed Website”.
What about Web Maintenance?
Website maintenance is very important to any business, regardless of size. Your website has a big impact on how the value of your product or service is perceived. There is nothing worse than having a website with a bunch of out of date information on it.
Not only will you be penalized by Google in search results, but occasionally – potential customers DO stumble across your old page and that doesn’t make a very good first impression. Web maintenance services will help ensure you don’t suffer from website embarrassment.
Read also: “5 Reasons Why You Need to Redesign Your Website”
2. Company Secretarial Services
As mentioned in our previous article HERE, your company secretary must be a professionally qualified or licensed person. The following are the extract from the Companies Act 1965.
SECTION 139A. Qualification for Company Secretary:
No person shall act as a secretary of a company unless –
(a) he is a member of a professional body, or any other body, which has for the time being been prescribed by the Minister by notification published in the Gazette; or
(b) he is licensed by the Registrar for that purpose:
Provided that a person who is a secretary of the company before the coming into operation of this section and who is not a member of a professional or other body as prescribed by the Minister may continue to act as the secretary for the company for a period of not more than twelve months after the coming into operation of this section unless he has obtained a licence pursuant to paragraph (b).
There are many laws that companies must comply with. If the business owners are not well verse with the companies act and do not know how to fill and file the forms, it is better to outsource this function to the professional.
Follow us as we will be sharing the Roles of a Company Secretary in the coming week.
3. Accounting Functions
If the business operation is not complex and do not need to balance the accounts every single day (FYI balancing the account daily is possible for outsourcing, but require a higher fee), there is no need to have an accounting department within the company especially for newly formed companies. By outsourcing to the professionals, they will advise and handle this function.
No doubt, business owners can handle this function by themselves if they have an accounting background and provided the accounting workload is not heavy. However, business owners must understand that the company can only survive if it start bringing in sales and cash flows. There is a limit as to how much the cost can be reduced. Business owners should focus on the crucial area of their business.
Try to calculate the annual cost of maintaining an accounting department (assuming 1 data entry clerk and 1 qualified accountant) then compare with the cost of outsourcing.
4. Human Resource
It is widely known as a “cost center”. What is a “cost center”? See the definition below extracted from Investopedia.com.
“Cost center doesn’t produce a profit directly from its activities, managers of cost centers are responsible for keeping their costs in line or below budget.”
Typical work involved in this function is handling staff payroll summary, forms for monthly EPF, SOCSO, Income Tax deductions and Bonus payout computation for purposes of EPF and Tax deductions and EA.
How about the charges?
(a) Handling staff payroll summary, forms for monthly EPF, SOCSO:- Monthly
(b) Income tax deductions & Bonus payout computation for purposes of EPF and Tax deductions and EA:- Annually
Try to calculate the annual cost of maintaining a human resource department (assuming you only need 1 staff with HR knowledge and experience to handle the function) then compare with the cost of outsourcing.
5. Marketing
Yes, you can outsource marketing functions to professional too.
You can outsource PART (i.e. Roadshows, one-time event or digital marketing) OR FULL (monthly services) function to the marketing agency based on your budget and your marketing strategies and objectives.
Marketing is one of the crucial areas of your business because it helps you generate sales. However, if you are not familiar with marketing, you can hire a professional marketing agency. Outsourcing does not mean you lost control of this function after you outsource. Basically you still have full control and is involved in the decision making process. The difference is that you have a team of professionals to advise and execute the marketing campaign for you.
Try to calculate the annual cost of maintaining a marketing department (assuming you hired a marketing manager and a marketing associate) then compare with the cost of outsourcing.
There you have it, the 5 Business Functions That You Can Outsource. If you find this article useful, please share it with your friends and family.
Looking to outsource your professional services? We can help, email us at hello@techstrongbox.com or contact us.