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In today’s digital and mobile world, business owners and companies of all sizes are finding there are more and more jobs that can be done remotely. Some companies are abandoning the traditional brick-and-mortar office altogether, while others are simply utilizing the availability of remote experts online for some of their needs and tasks.
No matter what your business, service, or model is, you are sure to have some jobs that no one in your office is qualified for, or that no one has time for. By hiring a qualified expert, you will likely be happier with the end result, and it will be done faster and better. In many cases, by hiring an expert to perform specific tasks, managers free up their employees for more suitable work, increasing productivity and saving money.
Asset Management
Asset management is a daunting and complicated task for business owners and managers. Keeping track of assets, their value, maintenance needs, and location is best done with specific software. It can also be outsourced, in the case of businesses with a lot of assets or different locations.
Purchasing facility asset management software for your company can be the key to organized, easy-to-access, and understandable asset management. With well-designed and easy-to-use management software, you (or someone hired for the purpose) can easily manage and track business assets.
Bookkeeping and Accounting
Bookkeeping and accounting are constant tasks for business owners, and for many, they are a constant headache and source of aggravation. For those who aren’t trained in the task of bookkeeping, tracking inputs and outputs, monitoring daily money flows, and making sure everything is documented correctly becomes a time-consuming frustration.
It can make sense for many small companies to use a remote bookkeeper to handle accounting for the business. Remote bookkeepers have the experience and software to accurately and competently keep accounting tasks up to date. They can remove the headache and frustration of this aspect of management and free up owners and employees for other, more suitable, tasks.
IT Support and Maintenance
Outsourcing information technology, or IT, is a great choice for many small and medium-sized businesses. IT support is an ongoing problem for these companies because they don’t have enough work to justify a full-time employee. Instead, they often find themselves learning on the fly, DIYing, and assigning IT work to unqualified employees who were hired for other tasks.
Rather than wasting time and money on subpar information technology systems that break down often and frustrate your employees, consider outsourcing all your IT systems, maintenance, and repair. If you outsource everything to the same company, you will get faster and better repairs, because they already know your system, and you will often save money over hiring out bits and pieces of work. You could also consider hiring freelancers to set up and maintain your system. Many freelancers work remotely from anywhere, so you won’t be limited by a lack of professionals in your physical area.
Customer Service and Support
Customer support is a complicated and difficult thing to do well. Many businesses struggle to come up with a customer service policy that respects the customer’s needs while also protecting the business and guarding against potential scammers. Most small businesses or online companies don’t have trained customer service specialists, instead putting less-qualified employees in the position. This potentially undermines the business’s success and professional reputation.
Instead, consider outsourcing your customer service responsibilities to a company or person who is a professional in this area. Because this task is one that is usually done online or over the phone, it is easily done from anywhere. You can hire a freelance professional or company to help you develop a customer service policy, as well as support people to answer phone calls and email inquiries.
Social Media Management
Managing a business’s social media accounts can be a time-consuming and frustrating process. Not only do updates need to be posted regularly, but the accounts also need to be monitored and replies need to be posted on customer comments. Posting to social media requires content creation, an understanding of your marketing plan, and the ability to follow trends and stick to a brand voice. Follow-up commenting, answering questions, and responding to private messages also needs to be done several times a day.
When you outsource social media management, you allow the job to be done by a professional, usually someone with marketing and content creation experience, who can make sure your media accounts are updated and checked on a regular schedule, as well as make sure your social media strategy is being followed.
Content Creation and Marketing
Content creation is another part of marketing that many managers and owners are unable to perform well. Marketing and content creation requires a specific skill set, as well as experience and time. Unless a business has a large number of employees, they are unlikely to hire a full-time marketing manager or content creator.
Because of its difficult and time-consuming nature, the area of marketing and content creation is one that many businesses are outsourcing digitally. Marketing teams are knowledgeable about strategies, social media, and online advertising, as well as the more general strategies used in marketing, and they will be able to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for your business. The successful results and the time saved can easily pay for the cost of outsourcing.
Website Design and Development
Planning, designing, and developing a professional and functional website is not an easy job. For companies that have a large online presence or marketplace, a functional website that works the way it’s intended is not optional. Most small and medium businesses won’t have the money for a full-time designer or developer, and instead will either try to handle the job in-house, with less-than-qualified personnel, or they will hire a website designer.
Your website is the face of your company in the online world. Hiring a digital website designer or a freelancer with development experience is a logical choice. You will be able to choose a developer who you work well with, who understands your needs, and who can help you design a website that is the professional and attractive digital space your company deserves.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is a specialized part of marketing and advertising that helps businesses and content show up in website searches. The algorithms that these engines use to perform their searches are complicated and always changing, so most small businesses aren’t equipped to do SEO well.
Search engine optimization is one of those areas that just makes sense to outsource digitally. Consider finding a freelance SEO expert or hiring a company that can handle all your marketing and content creation needs for you. Outsourcing your SEO strategy and marketing plan to an online company or freelancer allows you to choose from a huge number of available experts with a wide range of experience at every price level.
Legal and Compliance Services
Every business needs legal representation and oversight. Having a local lawyer to handle things like contracts and compliance can be hard for some businesses, as they have a limited pool of legal experts to choose from and may not be able to find someone who is knowledgeable about their business and needs. They may also have a hard time finding someone local who is affordable or doesn’t have a conflict with another local company.
Choosing to hire representation remotely can allow your business to select the best lawyer for your specific field and needs. In many cases, it can also allow you to spend less or only pay for services you need rather than using a retainer. Whether or not this is a good approach will depend on your business and needs- some companies will be better served with local representation.
Conclusion
Using digital, remote, and freelance work for your business allows you to choose experts that you otherwise wouldn’t have access to, hire people on your own terms and for your own specific needs, and, in many cases, get work done for cheaper and better than you would if you were using your own employees. By hiring other people to do specific tasks that they specialize in, you will get better results while at the same time allowing your own workers to do the jobs they are best at and free up their time to be more productive.
