There are many things to consider when deciding whether or not to outsourcing any of the tasks that are necessary for running your business. Labor costs, and the availability of human resources, are just two things that you must keep in mind while you are making this decision. However, the most important consideration that should be driving your decision on this matter is this; Are you able to dedicate the time and resources that you need to mission critical functions? In other words, are you and members of your staff able to execute the duties that support the reason for the existence of your enterprise, or are you spending too much time on tasks that are necessary, but not mission critical?

 There are actions that must be performed in order for any business to exist. Staff must be hired, maintained, and on occasion let go. Various technologies must be selected, implemented, and supported. Bills must be paid and payments must be collected from others. Contracts must be written and verified for legality. Orders must be taken and filled. Customer issues must be dealt with. It’s time to show your leadership qualities to delegate everything right. Sometimes it makes sense for these functions to happen in house, and for these functions to be executed by employees. On the other hand, there are times when doing this work in house stops making sense. This time comes when executing these duties gets in the way of executing mission critical functions.

 What are mission critical functions?

 These are the functions that directly relate to your primary business purpose. For example, if you own a company that builds custom playground equipment, your mission critical functions are the tasks that relate directly to designing and building playground equipment. Then, you could arguably say that tasks such as sales and installation are related closely enough to your mission to consider them to be mission critical. However, as functions become less and less related to your core business purpose, it becomes more difficult to define these functions as mission critical.

 Why Outsource Work That is Note Mission Critical?

 You are better off focusing your energies and the energies of your staff on mission critical duties. By doing so, you help guarantee the quality and integrity of your products and services. If you spend too much of your day working on administrative or technical functions, you are cheating yourself and your organization out of time that could be spent on sales, research and development, process improvement, and other duties that directly relate to your business purpose. In addition to this, outsourcing functions that are not mission critical provides you with the security of knowing that you can rely on the qualifications and knowledge base of outside entities in areas of business about which you are unfamiliar.

 When you outsource technical support, customer service, web development, accounting and other functions, you also save money. After all, there is significant upfront and ongoing cost to maintaining staff members to carry out these functions. Why waste your time, energy, and money on this when there are reputable firms and individuals who can take on these duties with no need for training?

 Which Businesses Use Outsourcing?

 Outsourcing is very common in  firms where the time, knowledge, money, and other resources to perform any functions beyond strictly mission critical functions are impossible. Firms that have difficulty keeping up with growth are also common users of outsourced talent. Industries related to startup manufacturing and technology tend to be heavy users of outsourcing, as do companies involved in transportation and distribution. However, no business owner should assume that outsourcing is not a viable option for them. All types of businesses have benefited from outsourcing regardless of size or niche.

 How Does a Business Owner Find an Ideal Outsourcing Company

 The first thing that you must do is to create your requirements. Which areas of your business do you wish to outsource? Why do you want to outsource these areas? What are your expectations of the contracting firm that you will hire? Are you looking for contract or temporary staff that will simply follow existing procedures, or are you looking to hire a consulting firm that not only provides manpower, but also provides expertise in a specific area? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you to communicate your requirements to potential consulting firms and contractors.

 Once your requirements are in place, your networking connections will be your best asset when it comes to selecting the best outsourcing firms available to you. Find out which consulting firms your competitors and business allies are using. Reach out to others on social media to get recommendations from others, and to make connections with firms that you may wish to work with. Then, when you have narrowed down your selection based on these recommendations, do some further vetting by researching the firms you are considering on the internet.