5 for business activities?

[Esther]

[Rooman]

In small business, there's often a temptation to try to save money by doing everything in house, but this can turn out to be a costly, time consuming mistake. Identifying and outsourcing time-intensive tasks in the workplace can enable business owners to devote more energy to the activities in which they are most adept. Today, many small business owners outsource a variety of technical jobs to experts over the Internet, enhancing the quality of the company's output and putting the focus back on marketing and building the business. Here are five activities that all small business owners should consider outsourcing.

1. Taxes

While tax preparation can be handled by non-accountants, the intricacies and laws involved in business tax preparation can be mind-boggling. The area can be a veritable minefield of potential infractions and tax penalties. The peace of mind that comes with having this work done by a professional is well worth the premium price tag. With the help of an experienced tax preparer, companies can save a huge amount of time and money while staying on the good side of the IRS.

2. Administration

Businesses who try to have all administrative work handled in house may find themselves buried in paperwork. Continual administration tasks can sap morale from regular employees while keeping workers specifically for these tasks may be less than efficient over time. Fortunately, the Internet has revolutionized administrative outsourcing. Virtual assistants can take care of a wide variety of routine jobs including returning emails and calls, generating reports and setting appointments. This is often a huge saver of time and energy for in-house personnel.

3. Payroll

Even very small businesses may have to devote many hours each year to the time-intensive task of processing payroll. This can cost companies both in terms of hours paid to employees and in possible tax penalties related to incorrect payments or filings. Doing payroll in house also requires keeping up with current tax tables in order to avoid headaches with the IRS. By outsourcing this work to payroll services, business owners can concentrate on the aspects of business that they enjoy while saving money and avoiding responsibility for tax errors.

4. Training

Bringing new employees up to speed and keeping long-time employees current on modern skills is important for staying competitive, but it's easy to become overburdened with training. Instead of having staff trained in the office, businesses should consider arranging employee training at a local community college. In some cases, companies have also made training easier on employees by reimbursing them for their education-related expenses.

5. Reputation Management

Today, keeping track of online reputation is an important part of any comprehensive marketing plan. Social media is a major contributor to the performance of businesses with an online presence, and while maintaining social profiles may be simple in many cases, online reputation monitoring usually isn't. Even with the online tools available, this job can take incredible amounts of time. Outsourcing this work to an online service means receiving regular reports that are far easier to work with than the endless stream of data that would require analysis by office staff if reputation management were performed in house.

Thanks to modern technology, outsourcing is now easier than ever before. By identifying tasks that should be sent to outside workers, companies can improve productivity and spur growth. The powerful combination of saving time and money and magnifying in-house strengths shouldn't be ignored by today's small business owners.