Outsourcing

This blog is the third in my series on creating more time for business owners and helping them to concentrate on working on the business rather than in the business.

So far you should have organised your tasks into the “First Things First Matrix” and delegated the jobs that, as Chief Executive, you shouldn’t be doing. Now you can turn your attention to the things your business should or shouldn’t be doing.

So, how do we find the time? At Aspirations, we help business owners to implement their actions and achieve their identified growth. One of the tools we use to do this is my “Outsourcing Matrix” and I’d like to share that with you today.

outsourcing image

Now analyse each task performed in your business according to your business ability, the cost of completing that task either yourself or in-house and the degree of competitive advantage that activity creates for your business.

Here is more information on how you should be rating each of your tasks:

Box I: You are very effective at that activity but it doesn’t give your business a significant business advantage – Review the activity and whether it has a place in the future of the business.

Box II: Your business is very effective at this activity and it gives you a significant competitive advantage – therefore do more of this.

Box III: Your business is not very capable or it is not cost effective to undertake this task. However it does give you a small competitive advantage – outsource this task to another business and you will have time to concentrate on the things you are better at or give you a greater competitive advantage.

Box IV: Your business is not effective at this task but it does give you a competitive advantage – therefore consider training your team, recruit the specialism needed or change your processes to increase your effectiveness.

Once you have allocated your tasks into each of the boxes above, take a minute to check and review if you have got it right.

If you decide that you now need to outsource a task you can set about your market research to find a supplier of that service that most closely fits with your business values and objectives for the tasks.

Action exercises
Here are three things you can do to put this matrix into action immediately:

  • Write a list of all your business activities
  • Allocate them into the four boxes above
  • Delegate the initial market research to a colleague for you to review potential suppliers\partners

Please share your successes and challenges with outsourcing your business activities.

Until next week …..

Tony Kensington, FCCA

2014-02-21T12:37:50+00:00