Outsourcing is a crucial way to boost your business’s bottom line in the short term, however, one of its main advantages is that outsourcing as a competitive advantage fuels sustainability and growth for years to come. In today’s accounting landscape, adopting a strategic business model around outsourcing is not just a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity if you want to stay ahead of the curve – and most importantly, your competitors. Many businesses are adjusting to the effects of an ongoing pandemic and are now moving beyond the long-standing ways of doing business to more efficient strategies.
Read More: An Extension Of Your Accounting Team: How Outsourcing Fills Your Roster
If you’re looking to expand your team without going over budget, needing to offload projects, or wanting to streamline operations, outsourcing may fit the bill. Read on to explore a few ways that you can leverage outsourcing as a competitive advantage for your growing organization.
Compete With Larger Companies to Stay on Playing Field - Outsourcing Competitive Advantage
Many small to mid-sized organizations don’t have the funds or resources necessary to push them into the next phase of their business. And when those companies try to compete on the same playing field as larger companies, the end result can be crushing.
Outsourcing can help businesses in growth mode feign “big” by giving them opportunities to the same talent pool, efficiency and expertise that large companies relish.
When a smaller company is looking to be on par with larger businesses, outsourcing can bridge the gap and create a competitive advantage - this guarantees that work doesn’t become a huge undertaking for small- to mid-sized companies.
Reinvestment of Time and Money Into Things That Matter
Accounting is essential for any business, but it’s not a competitive advantage. It’s necessary of course, but accounting is often not the differentiator at many companies. And while accounting is important to the overall business, hiring a new team member to your finance and accounting department can be costly. Recruitment, onboarding, training, payroll and overhead costs add up quickly when you hire someone through in-house methods. The monthly salary and benefits alone can set a company back financially.
By partnering with a virtual accounting provider or outsourcing company, you can spend a fraction of what you would on a full-time employee. Many businesses find that the right outsourcing provider allows them to bring on a new employee without needing to choose between the accompanying financial burden or foregoing the benefits and perks they’ve already afforded their current finance and accounting team. With the cost savings attained in the talent arena, finance leaders are able to reallocate funds where it matters most.
Maybe you want to bulk up sales and marketing spend. Perhaps there’s a product launch that could use those savings and turn them into that competitive advantage your team is looking for. As the controllers of the budget across organizations, CFOs know more than anyone that where you put your money matters. For mid-size businesses looking for growth reinvestment via outsourcing is a top strategy to implement for immediate results.
Not only is money a valuable (and much needed) resource, but time as well. If you’re bogged down by monotonous tasks day in and day out, outsourcing might be the answer to your ongoing dilemma. Choosing to outsource these mundane tasks frees up time to focus on value-added projects as well as investing that time towards cultivating the growth of your business.
Gain Faster Time to Market When Outsourcing
One of the top reasons why organizations choose to outsource (aside from cost-savings) is because work will get done quicker. There’s nothing more frustrating than having to wait weeks for a project to be completed in-house. It takes time to begin a new project – time to hire the right people, allocate the right resources, and more.
Working with an outsourcing firm gives you a competitive edge when it comes to speeding up your projects. For example, a business that doesn’t utilize outsourcing as a resource may experience an invoice turnaround time of a week. When you partner with an outsourcing company, that number significantly decreases to just a day or two.
If you’re looking at scaling a team quickly, outsourcing as a strategy cannot be beat. Because virtual accounting providers retain relationships in the industries where they hire (Philippines & India), they are able to build back-office teams at record speed, so you can get started on priorities even faster.
Get the Guide: Destination Manila - Outsourcing F&A To The Philippines
Gain a Fresh Business Perspective When Using Outsourcing as a Competitive Advantage
It’s always good to take a step back – no matter what industry you work in – and get a fresh set of eyes on a project or task. It doesn’t matter that you’ve done this task every week for the past few years or that the task is simple enough to understand and perform – everyone gets lax in their job. Don’t panic though – a fresh perspective adds to your existing processes and workflow, thus making your overall department more productive in the long run.
When you outsource, you’re bringing someone from the outside into your fold – someone with a different experience (and possibly skills) that is able to tackle normal tasks with fresh ideas. Accounting can be monotonous, but it’s definitely needed for any organization to succeed. A fresh perspective can produce new ways of performing specific tasks and fuels companies to take action towards becoming more efficient.
Combat Employee Turnover With Retention Strategies
If you’re struggling with trying to figure out how to get your employees to stay, you’re not alone. In fact, the accounting field has a churn rate that’s ten times the average when compared to other industries. Replacing employees is expensive and can affect every aspect of your business. According to Harvard Business Review, bad hiring decisions are to blame for 80 percent of employee turnover.
To avoid the pain points that ensue when turnover happens, consider outsourcing. By outsourcing the recruiting process, companies can rest assured that their new employees have a positive onboarding and training experience, greatly improving their team members’ job satisfaction and increasing retention.
On another note, accounting and finance outsourcing firms specialize in exactly that – accounting and finance. They understand the nuances of vetting and making sure that the ideal candidate will suit the open position and company to a tee.
Read More: Retaining Accounting Talent: How To Make Your Team Stay
Outsourcing has countless benefits – cost and time savings, access to a large talent pool, around-the-clock work, and more. However, harnessing outsourcing as a competitive advantage is one way to stay in front of your competition.
Interested in how outsourcing can work for your team? Read our blog post on all things outsourced accounting, The Complete Guide To Outsourced Accounting. When you’re done exploring the article, get in touch with one of our experts to see how you can utilize outsourcing to stay ahead of curve.
