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Should you hire or outsource? This is the question we’re answering today. Let’s go!

Whether you’re drowning in the day to day or you know you need to get help if you want to grow your business to its next level, this episode will help you decide whether hiring someone in house is a better option or whether you should rather outsource the work.

Know What You Want

Before we make a decision on hiring in or outsourcing, It’s important to know what kind of business you want to build. Not every business owner wants to grow a big team, and that’s perfectly okay. Knowing what you want and where you want to take this business will guide your decision on whether to hire in or outsource.

There are so many options for business owners today. Just because you’re aiming to keep things simple and lean, doesn’t mean that you need to stay stuck in the day to day. Doing everything yourself. Regardless of the type of business you want to build you do want to get yourself in a position where the business isn’t entirely dependent on whether you show up today. That being said, you get to define what TEAM means for you and what specifically it looks like for your business.

Team can be one person that takes all the admin off of your plate so that you can focus on serving your clients and marketing your business. Team may mean a small group of A players that support you in different areas so that you can get out of the day-to-day completely. Building a team also doesn’t necessarily mean hiring employees on a part or full time basis. It can mean outsourcing a few hours a week to a virtual assistant. It can be outsourcing an entire department to an agency, or deploying the power of automation in your business. 

You are the CEO of your business, you have the power to design the structure that best supports your growth but in order to do that you need to know what you actually WANT.

What Do You Actually Need?

Once you know what you want and what your vision for this business is, your decision to hire in or outsource will be easier. You will know what direction to go in. 

Regardless of the path you choose, you want to make an informed decision that will actually support that vision. So, knowing what you want is important and you need to establish what your business actually needs as well. The way you find out is by gathering the right information. More specifically, information about where your time (and your current team’s time - if you have a team) is actually going. Where is everyone spending their time? What activities are everyone doing? Knowing this in detail will give you a lot of clarity on what specific team member your business actually needs if any.

We gather this information by tracking everyone in the business’s time for 1 to 2 weeks. In some instances it may actually be worth tracking for longer so that you can capture the entire business cycle that typically happens in a 1 month period. We usually attract leads, convert those leads into sales, deliver to our clients, and collect money in a 30 day period. So tracking the entire cycle is a great way to see what your business actually needs in terms of support. 

The more information you have on where everyone’s time is really going, the better. Tracking your time might seem a bit tedious but will give you the following critical information:

• You will learn what your team’s capacity is and whether you actually need to hire or outsource. Oftentimes the business doesn’t actually need additional support, it just needs to streamline its operations so that the current team works more effectively. Sometimes, there are team members that have the capacity and the skills for the tasks you want to delegate or outsource and so instead of hiring or outsourcing you can just transfer the tasks to that person.

• If hiring or outsourcing is the right move, the time tracking exercise will also tell you how many hours need to be outsourced or delegated. Which will tell you whether it makes sense to hire someone full time or part time or perhaps even outsource a couple of hours a week. You might even have thought that you need one person only to learn that you need two! 

• Lastly, tracking everyone’s time will also give you an insight on the tasks and activities that are keeping you (or your team) away from your most important work. The things you do best and that has the biggest impact on the growth of your business. We want to trash, trim, or transfer anything that is keeping anyone out of their zone of genius first.

If you would like a copy of the time tracking sheet I use with my private clients, send me a DM on IG and I’ll send you the sheet and a few extra cool tools that will make the decision about what to outsource and when to do it easier. Head over to instagram and search Ilonka Ras Coaching.

Can You Afford It?

Once you’re certain you need to hire, the next question I often get from business owners is: How do I know whether I can actually afford to hire? One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is hiring before they’re financially ready. It’s tempting to think, "I just need to focus on getting more clients," but hiring too quickly can put a strain on your business, and keep you awake at night. Instead, hire slowly. In order to know whether you can afford it, you need to look at your cash flow projections. But if you’re still feeling uneasy, something that has been very helpful in my businesses is calculating the total cost to the company per month for this new team member and then putting that amount away in a high yield savings account…you can call it your future team fund…for 3 to 6 months before you hire them. 

This will help you build up a reserves fund so that when you do hire them you don’t need to worry whether you are going to have enough cash flow at the end of the month to pay their salary, it also gives you the time to make sure you have the right structures (ie systems and processes) in place so that you can smoothly onboard them into their new role when the time is right. 

When to Hire In-House

There are a few other things to consider when making the decision to outsource or hire in. If you need direct control over how things are done, hiring in-house might be the better option. In-house employees can give you that level of control and help you build a strong, cohesive team. But hiring can be expensive, both in terms of money and time, and frustrating if you get it wrong. So, you definitely don’t want to rush this process. 

Remember, hiring someone less experienced might save you money upfront but will require more training. Conversely, hiring an expert will cost more but save you a ton of time. So take the time to weigh your options and the pros and cons of each.

When to Outsource

Outsourcing is about leveraging specialised expertise and flexibility. It’s a great option if you need a specific skill set that doesn’t require full-time attention or if you want to tap into a specific skill set without the overhead of in-house staff.

When outsourcing, make sure the business you’re working with can handle the extra capacity. Have a clear service level agreement in place so you know exactly what’s included and avoid committing to long-term contracts unless you’re confident in their ability to deliver the results you need.

Making a decision isn’t always as clear cut as we would like it to be and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but when you empower yourself with the right information you will be able to make an informed decision that is right for you and your business. 

Do you have a question on designing a business that can run smoothly with or without you?

Send me an email at ilonka@ilonkaras.com and I will answer it in the next episode.

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