Outsourcing is a twenty-first century solution to promote business growth, but many business leaders don’t take advantage of this resource until they hit burn-out. If your company is dropping behind your competitors (owed to the fact that you have been wasting time and energy on menial tasks) you might consider outsourcing. As the head of your company, you should be taking the lead on growth-oriented work, rather than managing less crucial processes. If you’re in this situation, you’re not alone. Eight out of ten business leaders think they could be spending their time on more productive things.

But with so many outsourcing opportunities out there, where do you start? This list of the most popular outsourcing services help you choose the service that suits your business best.

Hand Over Your IT Needs

According to a recent survey of small to medium-sized businesses, Information Technology is one of the most frequently outsourced in business, with more than half of growing companies outsourcing at least partially their IT requirements and another third hoping to follow suit soon.

Compared with training (and paying the salaries of) a team of IT technicians, outsourcing can save you as much as 33.3%. Decent savings are definitely not the only reason to opt for managed IT. This recent outsourcing phenomenon will also make your company more agile, so you’re able to scale your IT capabilities as your company expands. A big challenge that young companies face is the inability to add IT capability and infrastructure as and when demand arises. If your business is expanding quickly, outsourcing your IT requirements may be the perfect solution.

Recruitment & HR

Nowadays it’s widely accepted that the key to success in business is recruiting (and, of course, retaining) a team of talented individuals. Seen in this way, neglecting to ensure that every step in your HR process is not only smooth, but accurately represents your values as a company, is a sure way to give your competitors the edge. Everything from job listings to CV reviewing is essential for the continued growth and sustainability of your company. For this reason, many SMEs prefer to outsource their HR and recruitment to experts, or invest in highly sophisticated recruitment software to ensure that they get the best results.

Once you’ve recruited a talented team, it’s crucial to ensure that they have a positive experience at your company, and that the role they have been hired for is satisfying and well compensated. Retention is not easy in such a competitive environment, so it’s vital that you don’t assume that simply hiring good staff is where the hard work stops.

Get Freelancers On Board

Three out of four startups that hire talented freelancers say that tapping the freelance market gave them the edge when they were getting their business up and running. Why is this so? Because the hiring freelancers gives your company the freedom to make use of skills and talents that could be well out of reach price-wise, were you to attempt to hire full-time staff to do the same work. Inviting freelancers on board on a contract basis to handle short-term projects that you aren’t set up to do in-house means your team can grow as and when the need for specialised work arises, but you won’t end up with too many employees on your books in the long term.

Whether you’re struggling with HR or IT, these solutions will help you work out what outsourcing services could best serve your company.