New business owners are very conscious of every penny. When you mention sending anything out of house to be done by someone else they often feel the need to blow into a paper bag.
       Too expensive! Too expensive they scream. But is it really? Let’s look at some numbers.

What’s the Cost of Each Task?
       If you’re the owner of a business what’s your hourly wage? Many owners don’t really know. They might take a $20 or $100 out of the till as needed or they might pay themselves like an employee.
       Let’s assume that your time is worth $40 per hour as a business owner. That means if you’re waiting on customers, a $40 an hour person is doing it instead of an $11 an hour person.
       An $11 an hour person will gross $440 a week for 40 hours. Or, about 11 hours of work at your rate of pay. If you work along side that employee doing basically the same tasks, then pay yourself $1,600 a week. Or looking at it another way your hourly pay rate could pay for about 3 employees who don’t yet exist.

Anything you’re doing as an owner that should be done by someone lesser paid costs your company money. You should be doing owner stuff not employee stuff.

What Should Be Outsourced?
The answer to this question depends on the education and experience of the business owner but in most cases there are some common business elements that should always be outsourced. Not because the owners can’t do them but because the changes are too much to keep up with.

Taxes and Payroll
The biggest one is accounting. Who can possibly keep up with all the tax laws, overtime rules, minimum wages rules and profit sharing stuff? A good accountant or CPA should save you more in waste, fines and penalties than they cost.

Web Site
Next think about your web presence. More and more people are using their smart phones and online resources to find you. If you are not web site savvy then bite the bullet and get the best web site design you can afford.
      Ask for templates so you can go in and make changes to things like sales, online coupons etc.
        Most important your page should show up correctly on all devices regardless of screen size. Desktop, laptop, tablets and smart phones should all show your site correctly.

Social Media
You may not like Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites but your customers probably do. There are over 1 billion active users on Facebook. Your social media sight should be a place to help customers.
       No one is going to visit your social media page to look at endless posts about your sales and specials. Customers need to see you are the expert they need to solve their problems. Show them how you can help solve their problems.
       You can either promote your website or Facebook page for a very modest amount. You can select the demographics you want and the geographic sales area and people will be directed to your web site and social media pages. You can also set the monthly or daily amount you would like to spend on
advertising.
       It’s a very inexpensive way to test ads before putting then in more expensive mediums.

Some Final Thoughts
Customers are gravitating to social media in greater numbers every year. More and more people are searching for you on a smart phone or tablet.
The flyers under windshield wipers from days gone by are the Facebook posts of today.
       You are still reaching people; just reaching them in a different way. Getting the right people to outsource to should pay for itself over time. Otherwise a $40 and hour person is going to have to do it all.