You don’t have to go offshore to save money for your small business. Outsource your work locally.

Follow these pointers from Bob Sibley, chairman of Richmond SCORE, Mark Wilson, CEO of The Growth Coach in Clifton Park, N.Y., and Barbara Weltman of Millwood, N.Y., author of small-business books and the national newsletter, “Big Ideas for Small Business.”

Why outsource?

You don’t have anybody trained for a project that you need to get done, and you don’t want, or can’t afford, the expense of putting someone on payroll to do it.
“The economy is improving, there’s no question,” said Sibley. “But, it’s not improving to the extent where you should take the risk of putting on personnel on a full-time basis if you can outsource to your advantage.”

You’re no good at certain tasks. “What they’re not good at, they should get somebody else to do,” said Wilson - even if they enjoy doing it.”
The dollar amount you’re worth per hour as the boss is far more than what you’d pay somebody to perform a task that you’ve been doing in order to save money for the company, such as mowing the grass. Your valuable time should be spent doing more lucrative tasks, said Wilson.
What can you outsource?

“Just about any aspect of running a business can be outsourced,” said Weltman (www.bwideas.com): payroll, graphics design, marketing, computer services, bookkeeping, inventory, sales, order fulfillment - almost anything.

But, “you don’t want to outsource what your business is about. If you’re providing a service, you want to go on providing that service because your name is on it.

“You want to do it yourself or at least have control over the end product because your reputation is on the line.”

Where should you start?

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