The vast majority of business entities in the United States of America — likely the entire world, for that matter — are small businesses, many of which have only two or three employees. The United States Small Business Administration identifies 28 million unique small businesses in America. What’s equally impressive is that small businesses consist of more than half the United States’ transactions, totaling an astounding 54 percent.
Unfortunately for small businesses, they’re significantly less cash-strapped than their larger counterparts. As such, small businesses find it difficult to hire employees or departments of their own, being forced to outsource their functions to independent organizations.
Let’s look into five reasons why small businesses should outsource their information technology (IT) services — they likely apply to your organization, too.
1- Helps protect your business against liabilities.
Independent service providers are often bonded and insured, meaning any wrongdoing they inflict upon their clients are financially covered up to a certain dollar amount. This often spills over to legal issues, although they don’t often occur. Confidential information about customers, clients, and business associates could be hacked into by cybercriminals, or inadvertently leaked. Plans for patents might be shared with other businesses, allowing the opportunity for our business to collect financial compensation. These situations, among many others, would normally set your business up for legal liabilities and financial losses. However, outsourcing these information technology functions prevents your small business from having to dole out money it doesn’t have, instead placing liabilities in the hands of IT providers you outsource business functions to.
Also, the risk of being hacked into is also possible. Outsourcing your IT needs reduces this risk significantly.
2- Allow employees to focus on what really matters.
Because small businesses aren’t strapped with piles of cash like corporations are, they often find themselves delegating business functions to employees that aren’t trained in them. For example, a small business with three employees has far more than three functions. One employee might be responsible for accounting and marketing, two responsibilities that aren’t ever paired together in larger, more financially-capable organizations. Similarly, that employee might be responsible for IT functions, paired with other unrelated obligations that aren’t related to IT. This distracts employees from what they’re trained to do, experienced in, and skilled at. Outsourcing IT functions will help employees perform tasks for responsibilities they’re more familiar with.
3- IT companies are better at IT than you are.
Small business owners are far too often faced with tasks that they aren’t trained or experienced in. One of these obligations is information technology. It makes more sense for your small business to trust IT professionals with these tasks, rather than delegating them to yourself or your employees that aren’t skilled in IT. Many people who’re professionals in this line of work go to university or trade school for preparing themselves. Doesn’t it make more sense to trust tried-and-true computer pros than delegating the functions they live to perform to yourself, or one of your employees?
4- Outsourcing them is more cost-effective for your business.
Organizations that provide IT services for a living often provide their offerings to a number of clients, meaning they charge individual clients less than employees hired by small businesses whose sole function is IT work. Your small business can save money it likely doesn’t have much of by trusting an independent organization to take care of IT-related obligations for them. Even if your business doesn’t hire an employee specifically for IT, you and your existing employees are better off taking care of functions they’re used to dealing with.
5- Makes employees more satisfied with their responsibilities.
When employees are asked to take care of things they aren’t used to, their morale is likely to drop. This is equally true for job duties outside of those agreed to when being hired. If you outsource IT services for your small business, employees will likely appreciate not being delegated these responsibilities.
Small businesses make up the bulk of the United States economy. Unfortunately, they don’t have as many resources or working capital as corporations do. Do your business a favor and outsource information technology functions, saving it money, beefing up security, and improving its effectiveness, among many other benefits.