As a business owner, it’s important to recognize that there are plenty of services out there to help you take care of certain aspects of your operations. Outsourcing can be an invaluable tool when it’s used well. However, it can also be a cost-ineffective way to let others do the work you should be doing yourself. So, when and where should you be willing to stand aside and when should you bite the bullet and do it yourself?

When it needs expert intervention

Sometimes, you simply do not have the expertise within the business to make a certain decision or carry out a certain process on your own. Perhaps the most pertinent example of this is when it comes to tax season. Looking at services like Small Biz Accountants might very well be the only way to make sure that you’re filing your accounts properly and avoiding triggering the over-eager hand of the IRS and the audits that might follow.

When your needs are intermittent

There are some needs that you come across every now and then but not all the time, too. Sometimes this depends on the scale of the business, too. A smaller business might find it a lot more cost effective to use teams like Red Key Solutions to take care of occasional IT errors and proactive planning. But a bigger business is likely to have a bigger, more demanding network, and so getting their own IT guys in-house will make more sense in the long run. But you want to avoid paying a full-time wage for a part-time employee when you can.

When you could learn a thing or two

There are some services worth outsourcing simply in order to get a better grasp on an aspect of the business. There are plenty of consultants out there offering tutelage on all aspects of business. But if, for instance, you want to learn how to get your brand out there, it might make more sense to skip the consultant and hire a marketing team. You can watch and learn their methodology while at the same time achieving the results you need.

When it frees up time that can be spent making money

Sometimes, you want to do the work that makes money, but the busywork just gets in the way too often. Automation can be a big help in freeing up some of that time, but sometimes you need a human touch, too. If admin is slowing your productivity to a crawl, for instance, then it’s worth looking at virtual assistant teams like Zirtual to help take some of the work off your plate. In the end, you need to address why your work makes you so inefficient but when your need is immediate and dire, a little help is more useful than an in-depth investigation of your workflow.

Many of the examples set above might change as time goes on and a company grows. You might be able to hire people in-house to take care of what you once outsourced. So, always ask anew whether you should or shouldn’t be outsourcing every time you consider making the call.