Whether your online business is growing rapidly and it’s come to the point where you can’t do it all alone, or you’re a startup looking to expand, or even just looking for a little extra help on the side, congratulations: your first potential hire is a sign that business is booming and ready to make a huge step forward.
However, it can be tricky knowing what to do. No business is the same as the next, so you need to think carefully about what’s right for you. Most businesses these days look towards hiring or outsourcing. So, what’s the difference between these two?
Outsourcing is essentially hiring someone from the outside to perform one (or a few) specific tasks. You’ll commonly see this on freelance sites where you can hire a writer to keep your blog going, or a graphic artist to make some fancy logos. Other times, maybe you need a website revamp. All of this is outsourcing,
However, don’t confusing this with contracting: this is when you hire another company’s resources to work with your business when your business lacks those resources internally. It’s a very subtle difference that a lot of people forget, but remember that outsourcing is a lot more limited and typically lacks the closer working relationship that contracting brings and you should be OK!
Hiring is, of course, the act of finding a new part time or full time employee for the company. Whatever the position, this is a lot more permanent and also comes with plenty of legal repercussions. This can be offputting, but if you have a task that needs doing a lot, then hiring a full-time employee is smart. However, if it’s just a spike in demand – let’s say, every Christmas – then outsourcing might be a smarter move that keeps money in your pocket.
One service that many businesses outsource to is their IT: let’s face it, when tech goes wrong, a lot of other things can fall over too. Why hire a full time IT guy when you can pay an outsourcer to maintain your network from time to time and offer emergency services for those moments when the sky just fell in? It’s not only cheaper, it also offers all the benefits of hiring a full timer without the responsibilities of hiring.
For less important things – such as your marketing, which is still very important! – it’s worth remembering that outsourcing isn’t a risk-free model either. GDPR in the EU means that you have to be respectful of EU worker’s data privacy. Another risk is your own intellectual property. Rare as it is, your outsourced worker could take commercially sensitive information to steal it, use it, or even sell it on to competitors. This is incredibly rare, but something worth thinking about. The third risk is well, they just might not be very good.
Of course, nobody wants a bad experience, but they do happen. Your best defense when hiring or outsourcing is to be careful and ask plenty of questions. The last thing you want to hire is someone who is going to make life harder for you!
As you can see, there is no simple, one-size-fits-all answer to this age-old business question. What the right answer for you is will largely depend on your own situation, along with your personal level of risk tolerance and growth needs. Listen carefully, go on a case-by-case basis, and make a choice that you’re happy with, and it should be OK.