Whether you’re still in the start-up phase or you’re already riding a wave of success, there are probably some tasks in your business that you do yourself but might be better served by someone else.

There might be cases where other people are better suited to a task based on skills and experience alone, but the primary concern for most entrepreneurs is time. It’s great to have an idea of what an hour of your time is worth. When you reach a point where it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day and someone else can do it for less, it’s time to consider outsourcing.

Your hired help can help you better organise your business and yourself and take care of anything you haven’t the time for or simply don’t want to do. By getting your outsourcing plan right, you can cut significant tasks from your to-do list, safe in the knowledge that they’re being taken care of.

Here are some of the most popular everyday tasks that are primed and ready for passing on to someone else:

1. Making Sure Your Blog Is Up to Date

Your business probably has a website, and it probably has a blog. Content marketing is a supremely cost-effective component of any digital marketing strategy, and if you’re not already blogging, there’s no better time to start.

Creating blog posts to be proud of requires specific expertise and can take several hours. Fortunately, there are plenty of people out there ready and willing to take it off your hands. They’ll not only take care of putting posts together but will often make a point of staying up to date on the latest news in your business, finding the correct queries and keywords to target and putting posts live.

2. Keeping People Engaged on Social Media

If your business has social pages, but you’re not posting regularly, you’re missing out on a great way to build your brand. Consistent posts are among the best ways to build up your following, but leaving your accounts untouched for long periods can have the opposite effect.

Similarly, if you have those accounts but don’t use them, they might even cost you business. For example, some prospective customers might check your social pages, see that they haven’t been updated in a long time and wonder whether you’re still in business.

When you outsource your socials, you can expect more than regular updates. For example, a social media manager might keep an eye on your latest news and posts, check up on the competition and repurpose your existing content for a new audience.

3. Accounts and Invoicing

Since before the internet age, hiring an accountant has been one of the first outsourcing tasks for many businesses. It’s no less valid today than it was then, especially as accountants have specific skills and experience that even the most knowledgeable entrepreneurs might lack.

Generally, the more an accountant does, the more they cost. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with keeping hold of some of the financial tasks in your business, like payroll and invoicing, for example. However, a professional can often do more than you can in less time, making it cost-effective while keeping you on the right side of tax rules.

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4. The Technical Side of Keeping Your Website Online

If you’ve got a business, you’ve probably got a website. If everything’s going according to plan, that website will have a part to play in your continued success.

If it goes offline, you’ve immediately got an issue. An offline website can’t take orders, won’t let potential clients book calls and, as with social media, might wonder whether your business is active.

If someone finds your website through a search engine and it’s not there, you’ll probably never see them again. After all, your closest competitors are only a couple of clicks away.

We know the importance of time, and you can’t watch your site for outages around the clock. Some hosting providers offer what is known as remote hands, which are essentially a spare pair of hands in your data centre. If your site goes down, they’ll get it back up by working directly within the hosting environment.

5. Calendar Management

Some business owners love managing their own diaries. However, there often comes the point where you spend so much time attending things in your diary that you don’t have time to curate and organise it as best it could be.

This option often ties in with more comprehensive virtual assistant services. You might just forward meeting requests to them to manage, but they might take calls, attend meetings with you to take minutes or do a whole host of other admin tasks.

6. Research

We’d like to finish these tips off with an outsourcing opportunity that some businesses don’t do. Unlike the tasks outlined above, which you probably do yourself already, many companies and owners overlook the importance of research.

It’s easily done – it’s much simpler to focus on doing and improving than to spend time keeping yourself up to date. Nevertheless, knowledge is power, as they say, and it’s worth keeping on top of the latest industry developments, what competitors are up to and what potential customers expect from a business like yours.

The best part is that this is easy to outsource. You only need to decide what topics you’d like to stay up to date on. You can then task someone with reading the news, following competitors on social media and anything else that comes to mind.

From there, they can create curated reports, ensuring you have all the info you need to make the best possible decisions without spending time filtering out irrelevant information.

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In Conclusion

Outsourcing can be considered a skill in its own right. Even if you already have plenty of employees, it’s worth keeping track of things you do that someone else could do just as well or better. These tasks are often on the smaller side and won’t necessarily warrant full-time employment. Fortunately, in these times of the gig economy, there are freelancers worldwide who are more than happy to pick up the slack!

Businesses turn to many different professionals and services when it comes to outsourcing, such as project management, digital marketing, or administrative assistant services. By outsourcing certain tasks, you can look forward to a host of benefits, and you can aid the smooth running and efficiency of the business.

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