Outsourcing operations…or keep in-house? That is the question.
Some tasks are intended to be handled internally. And if you hand them off to someone outside of your organization, it could actually create negative consequences. Other tasks, however, are inefficient and expensive to handle in-house. These should be outsourced to someone who is inexpensive and/or more skilled. But how do you know when to outsource something? Try asking yourself the following questions:- Is this task a primary service offering for your business? (If the answer is no, you shouldn’t waste too much time on it.)
- Is it a specialized service or task that you only do occasionally – like a specific marketing campaign? (If it takes more time to learn how to do a task than it takes to execute it, you should outsource.)
- Is there some sort of competitive advantage gained from doing this task in-house? (If you can’t discern an advantage, you might as well hire it out to someone else.)
- Is it a commodity service – meaning there are hundreds or thousands of other professionals who can do it? (If the answer is yes, you should outsource it.)
- Is the task taking away valuable time that your employees should be using to handle more important core tasks? (Definitely outsource.)
