Top 5 barriers preventing businesses from outsourcing

23/10/2018

Whilst outsourcing certain key functions can often bring many benefits to businesses, there are sometimes barriers present that make companies reluctant to bring in external help.

From fears over the credentials of the provider to the impact it would have on your business, many companies use these obstacles as justification to keep things in-house, even though some processes can be made far more efficient with external expertise and resource.

Here, we consider the top five barriers to outsourcing that we see and offer tips on how you can overcome them.

Quality

Regardless of the task you are looking to outsource, quality will always be a big deciding factor.

If you’ve worked hard on improving a particular function, the last thing you want to do is outsource it and get worse results than you’re already getting.

However, if the supplier is a specialist in the task that is being outsourced, the quality is likely to be higher and possibly more efficient than you can achieve in-house.

To ensure that the company you partner with delivers a quality service, first do your research to ensure that they are the right fit.

Then, once you’ve found the perfect match, be sure to set clear objectives and monitor their performance.

Control

Many business owners are reluctant to outsource key tasks because they’re worried about having less control.

Whilst it’s true that using an external provider will take some control away, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

By handing the task over to the experts you will free up some of your time to focus on other areas of your business.

Plus, if the outsourced company is able to deliver better results, your business will benefit from the external expertise.

If control is something you’re worried about you can set goals and targets so that both parties know exactly what they should be delivering and when.

This ensures that everyone is on the same page and you can monitor progress effectively.

The more transparent the supplier is able to be, the more in control you will feel.

Trust

Knowing whether or not you can trust someone with any aspect of your business is always going to be a barrier.

So, when it comes to outsourcing, it’s not surprising that many business owners agonise over whether or not they can trust a potential provider with the task.

However, there are numerous ways you can ensure that you find a supplier who you can trust to deliver.

For example, recommendations from friends or colleagues, accreditations and awards or reviews and testimonials can all reveal a lot about a company.

The more you know about a company and how they work, the more comfortable you’ll feel putting your trust in the right one.

Cost

When deciding whether or not to outsource a specific task many businesses worry about the cost of doing so.

But outsourcing could actually bring significant financial advantages.

When you have full-time employees, you have to pay for overheads that go beyond their basic salaries.

There’s the cost of recruiting, training and retaining employees as well as holidays, sick pay and maternity/paternity cover to consider.

For small businesses, meeting these costs can be a challenge and it’s particularly frustrating when staff are not being fully utilised.

Outsourcing, on the other hand, allows you to agree a suitable fee for a service which can be adjusted to demand in a way that’s not always possible with employees.

To find the best outsourced provider at a reasonable cost, you should benchmark your options.

However, always remember that you get what you pay for, so be sure to consider the value of a provider as well as how much they charge.

Image

When you’ve worked hard to develop your brand and how your company is perceived, the thought of outsourcing can raise concerns about what it will do to your image.

However, a good external provider will get to know your business and adapt to deliver their service in a way that complements it, working as an extension of your company.

Plus, many outsourced services can be provided confidentially, so your clients or suppliers don’t even need to know.

If your image is acting as a barrier to outsourcing, the key is to find a company that meets your expectations.

You can discover this by asking questions about how they work and looking at case studies or reviews online.

Hilton-Baird Collection Services is a leading provider of outsourced credit control solutions. To find out more about how your business could benefit from our services, please call 0800 9774848 or make an enquiry.

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