There comes a time when your new business is going gang busters and there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Outsourcing can be the solution to managing your work overload. Why should you outsource?  Here are five reasons.

Hire expertise
There are lots of tasks running a business that you personally may not have the expertise to tackle.  While you could learn to do these tasks, the learning curve costs you valuable time.  And the results may not be as high quality as you would like.  Hire an expert, save money, save time, and get the job done correctly the first time.

Hire someone to accomplish tasks you don’t like to do
You may be great at accounting, writing, or graphic design, but it’s something you just don’t like to do.  Hiring someone to take over those types of tasks makes sense.  It relieves you of a chore that has to get done one way or the other, but you don’t waste your time doing it.  You can focus on those tasks you like to do.

Use outsourcing instead of employees
Hiring an employee is a decision not to be taken lightly.  It means extra cost for you as the employer because you’ll have to pay taxes, social security, complete extra paperwork, as well as pay a wage.  Outsourcing a project by using an independent contractor means you’re not responsible for taxes.  You don’t have to put someone on your payroll.  When the project is completed you’re finished with the independent contractor as well.

When outsourcing don’t hire blindly
Ask for and check references.  Pay as the project is completed. It’s not entirely fair to ask the freelancer to complete the entire project before they get paid any money.  It is fair to pay a portion of the project’s total cost to get started and then to make partial payments as the project is completed to your satisfaction.

Give clear instructions
The clearer you are in specifying exactly what you want the freelancer to do and what the final project should be like, the higher the probability, both you and the freelancer will be happy. If you’re requesting ghostwritten articles on say, weight loss, give the writer the keyword phrases you want used in the title and in the article.

Outsourcing can save a small business owner time, money, and frustration.

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If you’re an entrepreneur or a small business person one of the first tasks you have to accomplish is finding money for starting a business. There are several options depending on how much money you need.

For a few thousand dollars, consider using your credit cards or obtaining a new credit card account to fund the business. Use that card only for your business and you’ll have a way to keep track of your expenses as well.

Another avenue for finding money for starting a business is to use your home equity loan, especially if you need, say $5,000 to $10,000. The interest rate on home equity loans are usually much lower than credit cards, but be careful. If you can’t pay the money back or make the additional monthly payments you could lose your home.

Look towards the heavens if you need an angel investor. Angel investors are private wealthy individuals who invest from $50,000 to $100,000. Most of the time the company they invest in is high tech and looking at a fast growth period. Angel investors will become involved in the day-to-day management of your company so keep that in mind.

Venture capital receives a lot of press and does invest billions of dollars, but, and it’s a huge but, only about 20% of the companies receiving venture capital are start ups. The average investment by a venture capital firm is in the millions, so it’s not appropriate for small businesses. Less than 1% of companies seeking venture capital successfully obtain it, that’s only about 4000 companies per year.

You might consider alternative sources of financing such as obtaining inventory through consignment, royalty financing, trade and barter or purchase order financing.

Many small businesses think that a grant from the government will be their saving grace. Unfortunately there are very few government grants available for businesses. Those that are awarded, are done on a competitive basis to established companies usually in the medical or technical fields.

However, grants or very low cost loans, are sometimes available through cities and states for the purposes of urban redevelopment, in blighted neighbor hoods or to increase employment.

Money for starting a business can be found in a number of places and should be one of the first tasks an entrepreneur should complete.

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