Should you outsource or hire someone?

 

Hiring a new member of staff comes with a lot of cost implications, not least: 

 

 

More so than the actual tangible costs, you also lose time onboarding them. When you factor in the time it takes you to search for, interview and recruit the right person for your team you've already spent a lot of time, money and effort before you've had any value. 

 

Imagine then that the person you pinned your hopes on leaves after 6 months. You have to start the whole process again, and you’ve usually sunk a lot of expense you can’t recoup, alongside the disruption to your business during that time. 

 

 

Time spent in your business is a precious commodity and managing people so they excel in their role may not be your main focus, diverting you from things you need to attend to in order to grow the business effectively. 

 

When you hire someone, even into a relatively senior role, you have to manage their performance. If there are performance, conduct or absence issues etc along the way then you’re still incurring the costs of having that person on your payroll but not getting the results you wanted. 

 

 

Ok, it isn’t for everyone and doesn’t work in every role; however, most business and accounting tasks can now easily be outsourced by utilising cloud based technology. 

 

You can have access to skilled professionals that undertake those specific tasks day in day out and really excel in that role. 

 

Let’s say that you are a growing business looking for some more strategic financial support and you want to take on a Finance Director. If you were to try and hire someone into that role you’d be taking on a payroll cost of at least £60,000 a year, which may not be affordable. 

 

Similarly, if you wanted a management accountant to prepare monthly or quarterly accounts that person would cost at least £40,000 to hire. 

 

You may want the skillset from both of those roles but can’t afford to or can’t find someone that fits the description. 

 

You also need to consider whether you could actually keep that person fully utilised. It’s unlikely that a business turning over £500k - £5m would need a full time Finance Director; however they would definitely benefit from having their input for a couple of days a month. 

 

Outsourcing those roles to a business partner that can offer those skills for a set fee, at the frequency you specifically need, can be a game changer. You get the skills you need to support your business growth but you only pay for what you use. 

 

Plus you don’t have an extra person to manage, as it’s up to your outsourced partner to deliver the service as you defined it. 

 

Often businesses only need part of a 'person' and this is why outsourcing is ideal. You can get support for the missing element in your business without adding a person each time. 

 

 

Understanding the unique challenges faced by business owners in the UK is at the core of what we do. 

 

We tailor our services to align with the specific needs of your business, understanding that every business is different and has different needs. 

 

You may be confident with your in-house bookkeeper but know you need some management accounts and more strategic support. An easy solution would be to outsource your management accounts to us on either a monthly or quarterly basis. We would agree a service delivery timeline, a fixed monthly cost and you would avoid the cost of hiring to take on a new employee. 

 

That way you get the information and advice you need but at a considerable saving both in terms of time and cost. If you consider that a management accountant would cost you at least £3,500 a month on your payroll, an outsourced solution might get the same result at a fraction of that cost.  

 

 

 

 

 

If you are considering hiring for a new role, or need to replace someone that has left your team then speak to us about the potential alternatives before committing any real time or expense. We work as an extension of your team, working with your existing staff to get to the results you need. 

 

Our transparent pricing ensures that you pay only for the services your business needs.