5 Things Your Small Business Can Outsource to Save Time

Time is money. It’s a truism that’s especially applicable in business. Every minute your staff spends doing something is a minute that you’re paying for. Most of the time, that’s fine—they’re doing their jobs and it’s business as usual. Sometimes, however, your company would be better off outsourcing certain tasks in order to save time. This is especially true in smaller companies, where it’s often all hands on deck.

Here are five things you might want to consider outsourcing if you want your small company to be more efficient.

1. Staffing/hiring

Staffing is an art—and a time-consuming art, at that. Crafting the perfect job ad, posting it to various places, sifting through candidates, and conducting interviews (and second and third interviews) all take an extraordinary amount of time. And the worst part is: the results aren’t even guaranteed!

An experienced staffing agency can make the hiring process much more efficient. With access to databases full of potential candidates, they can often fill positions much quicker than a company can do on its own. Plus they’re more likely to find a candidate that is a perfect match for what you’re looking for, the first time. Staffing agencies save companies time and money, every day!

2. Bookkeeping/accounting/tax prep

Large companies likely want to keep their bookkeeping in-house, but smaller companies can (and should) outsource their bookkeeping and accounting to a specialized firm. Smaller companies often have complex books that are beyond the owner’s ability to manage, but also don’t have the capacity to bring on a full-time accounting employee, making outsourcing the perfect solution.

Save yourself the time and hassle of managing your own books. And definitely don’t do your own taxes (just trust us on this one). Outsource these jobs to specialized professionals and focus on the work that only you can do.

3. Event planning

Events can be great marketing opportunities for small companies, but they are also very time-consuming (usually more so than people realize). Thinking through every last detail of an event is definitely going to take a lot of time, and let’s be honest—unless you’re a professional event planner, it’s likely that you’re going to miss something.

If you want to put on great events without taking up a ton of your own time, outsource your event planning. 

4. Social media

A social media presence has never been more important. Unfortunately, it has also never been more complicated. Keeping up with ever-changing algorithms, creating consistently engaging content, and growing an audience are just some of the necessary parts of managing a productive social media account. It all adds up in terms of time, and unless you really know what you’re doing, you could just be wasting that time completely.

Outsourcing your social media will be an investment, but it’s a worthwhile one. Specialized social media managers can give your accounts the attention they need in order to accomplish what they’re meant to accomplish.

5. Administrative tasks

Too many small business owners spend too much time on mundane, everyday tasks (think: scheduling meetings and phone calls, answering basic emails, booking flights and hotels for travel, proofreading documents, sending gifts or cards, etc.). It’s easy to justify doing these jobs yourself, since they don’t necessarily require any additional skills, but really, they’re just taking up time—time that could be spent on more important things.

Consider hiring a virtual assistant to handle some of these mundane tasks for you. If you can find the right fit, you’ll free up a lot of time without sacrificing productivity. It’s the ultimate win-win!

Saving time is important for small businesses. Stop spending time on things you could be outsourcing, and spend that time growing your business instead!