Small businesses must scale in order to increase profits and turn their dream into a reality. Yet, scalability remains one of the most challenging aspects of business ownership.
There are three components to profitable growth: demand generation, improving efficiency (process, tools, and technology), and leveraging a flexible talent model to scale products and services without adding significant overhead. If new revenue requires adding fixed costs for talent, then financial freedom remains out of reach.
The majority of small businesses do not have a dedicated HR department, so locating great talent can be time-consuming and frustrating. At the same time, the business won’t scale if the founder has to be involved in every aspect of the business.
“You can’t be an expert in everything,” says Elizabeth Eiss, founder and CEO of ResultsResourcing. “The price may seem right (to do it yourself) but you’ll have limited success. You’re just not getting maximum results and efficiencies in doing what you’re not expert at. And you’re not valuing your own time.”
She adds: “Small business owners and solopreneurs are faced with a real balancing act between figuring out what tasks are essential to growing their business and finding the right people to outsource that work to. The goal of outsourcing is to gain the freedom to work ON your business, not in it—so you can do what you love and do best and is the highest value to your business.”
Cost Benefits of Outsourced Talent
Eiss points out that at first, many small businesses assume that talent must be full-time staff located in the same city. But once entrepreneurs experience the power of a virtual talent strategy, the path to scalability is easier to achieve.
“Freelancers provide talent on-demand,” she explains. “You can staff up or staff down, depending on what you need, and when you need it. You just pay for what’s required. You don’t have to cover the salary (plus all the extra costs) of a full-time resource and then figure out how you are going to get your money’s worth from them, 40 hours a week.”
Better Focused Business Growth
Scaling a business with freelance talent requires planning for how to organize roles, projects, and tasks to maximize the flexibility and take advantage of different freelancer skill-sets. Considerations such as ‘what roles should be outsourced and why’ and ‘how will communication occur efficiently’ are key. You might need more than one freelancer to get the right sets of skills – looking for the one person who can do it all is unlikely to happen.
“You have to prepare to outsource effectively,” says Eiss. “How will you manage that relationship? How will you integrate them with your onsite team? How will you set up the freelancer for success?”
Other considerations include:
- What roles should be outsourced and which roles should be full-time staff?
- How can freelancing work for hard to fill positions or during high demand peaks?
- What functions can be delivered virtually rather than onsite?
The ResultsResourcing founder recalls one recent client who hired her company to find a temporary replacement for an operations director until a full-time person could be put into place.
“I was on the phone with the business owner and the outgoing operations director,” she recalls. “The owner turned to the director and said, ‘I’m not sure about this virtual thing. How much of your work could be done virtually?’
“Without hesitation she replied, ‘Ninety-eight percent of my job could be done this virtually.’” This might be a surprise to many owners, but with the technology available today, most work can be accomplished in a virtual environment.
The most important aspect to leveraging a virtual talent model is finding the right talent, and this can be overwhelming to many small business owners. Wading through hundreds of profiles, interviewing dozens of people, or hiring freelancers who can’t do what’s required can not only add costs, but consume precious time.
Eiss added, “That’s the reason we started ResultsResourcing. At the time, I was doing consulting work and my clients kept asking how they could find talent like our team. That’s when it occurred to me that it was more than just having access to talent. KNOWING how to find the right talent, at the right time is a big part of scalability.”
ResultsResourcing can help you to find the ideal freelancer for your project to enable you to scale your business efficiently and cost effectively. The professionals at ResultsResourcing source and vet candidates across multiple job boards to assemble a curated Talent Pool – a group of pre-vetted, virtual freelancers who are an ideal match for each job. There is an abundant supply of talent available, finding the right talent for your job takes curation, and that’s what ResultsResourcing provides. They do the work so you don’t have to.
