For a time, saying the word outsourcing left a bad taste in our mouths. It reminded us of large corporations “shipping jobs overseas” and leaving the little people to struggle to make ends meet. And while this is still a part of outsourcing (although it’s more accurately described as offshore outsourcing, or “offshoring”), it doesn’t tell the whole story about what this strategy can do.

Instead, outsourcing involves many different things, and when applied correctly, it can have a powerful impact on your business, one that will make it grow beyond your dreams.

One aspect of outsourcing involves using software and other computer programs to do work for you. These solutions remove you from having to do a lot of the dirty work you needed to do before, and they provide you with what you need to take your business to the next level. This is known as automated outsourcing

Nowadays, there is software for nearly every type of business. For example, you can find software specifically-designed for your garage door or other home services business.

This makes sense when you think about it. Every business is slightly different and has its own set of specific needs. Software designed to meet these needs is going to be most effective and have the most significant impact on your business.

Here are some of the ways you can expect your business to get better once you start outsourcing some work to industry-specific software.

 

Number Crunching

Good business decisions are made using data. Of course, there is always room for a little intuition and “feeling,” but success mostly comes from your ability to collect information about your target market and use it to make informed decisions.

In the past, to get your hands on useful data, you needed to have an army of interns updating a spreadsheet, and you probably needed several full-time employees as well. This was costly and time-consuming.

Now, though, you can employ software to help you automatically collect data which you can then use to make smart decisions for your business. A great example of this is an automated customer relationship management (CRM) platform. These tools help you gather information about your customers, especially those who visit your website.

For example, it will tell you which pages they visited, how much time they spent there, how they got there, their purchase history, etc. All of this will help you to better understand who is buying from you, which you can use to develop strategies that will maximize your profits and push your business forward.

 

Improved Efficiency and Productivity

Outsourcing will make your entire operation leaner. The work of an entire department can be filtered down to a weekly or monthly report, saving you the trouble (and expense) of managing all those people.

However, not only does outsourcing to automated solutions make it much simpler for you to perform some of your core business functions, but it will also free up your employees and allow them to focus on what they do best. This ensures they spend more time at work creating, innovating, and problem-solving, and less time worrying about paperwork and tedious, time-consuming reports.

This is an example of why outsourcing gets a bad reputation it doesn’t deserve. Choosing to optimize your business in this way may allow you to trim some jobs, but the boost in productivity you get from allowing your employees to work more on your core business functions will open up more opportunities for growth, which could cause you to expand your team in the future.

But instead of hiring interns and other low-skilled employees to help with housekeeping, you can offer career-type positions to well-qualified individuals, which will help your growth compound, sending your company to new heights.

 

Greater Accuracy

When it comes to matters of bookkeeping, accounting, and data collection, it’s imperative you be 100 percent accurate all the time. Mistakes not only create the possibility of making an uninformed decision, one that could put your business at unnecessary risk, but they can also get you in trouble with the law. This is especially true when dealing with taxes.

Outsourcing to an automated solution eliminates the possibility for human error, making sure all your records are in tip-top shape. A great example of this is automated payroll software. It will automatically calculate witholding and other tax considerations with 100 percent accuracy guaranteed. It’s impossible to beat the peace of mind that comes from knowing everything on the accounting side of your business is on the up and up.

But the accuracy provided by automated outsourcing offers you more than just peace of mind. More specifically, because you will be free from worrying about the accuracy of your data (and from having to spend time ensuring that accuracy), you can spend more time analyzing the data and thinking about it critically. This will give you the chance to spot trends, identify waste, and figure out what needs to be optimized. You can then implement even more solutions that will make you more efficient and productive, leading to further growth and prosperity.

 

Start Optimizing Now

Optimizing your business with automated outsourcing can have a tremendous impact on your business, but we don’t want you to think it’s a guarantee. For outsourcing to work properly, it’s important you outsource the right things. This mainly refers to anything that’s not a core business function. But this isn’t always the case. As a result, it’s probably best to start small. Start switching over a few things and see how things go, and don’t be afraid to make changes. However, when you do find the right mix for you and your business, you’ll quickly see how this strategy has the power to transform the trajectory of your company.