Build to Enough | Outsourcing 101

Outsourcing can provide significant benefits for small businesses, allowing you to access expertise and resources without high overhead costs.  Keila explains how outsourcing core business functions like accounting, HR, IT, and more can help free up mental bandwidth, alleviate stress, and empower you to focus on your zone of genius and accelerate strategic growth.

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Creators & Guests

Host

Keila Hill-Trawick, CPA, MBA

Helping entrepreneurs create and maintain the business they want | Building to Enough | LinkedIn Top Voice | Intuit Partner Council | Accounting Firm Owner

What is Build to Enough ?

Little Fish Accounting presents Build To Enough. The pursuit of endless growth and scaling can leave entrepreneurs feeling burned out and unfulfilled. This podcast explores how to build sustainable, purpose-driven businesses that align with your lifestyle and values, rather than defined by rapid expansion alone. On this show, we’ll reframe definitions of success, provide strategies for structuring companies around desired lifestyles, and share stories of entrepreneurs finding deeper fulfillment by focusing on “enough.” Join us as we discuss moving off the hamster wheel and building businesses with balance and meaning.

Warning: This is a machine-generated transcript. As such, there may be spelling, grammar, and accuracy errors throughout. Thank you for your understanding!

Keila Hill-Trawick: Hello. You're listening to Build to Enough, a podcast for entrepreneurs who want to scale at their own pace. I'm your host, Keyla Hill Traywick, and I'll be your chief storyteller and cheerleader in a world that glorifies endless expansion. We're tuning out the noise and discussing the beauty of enough. Each episode will dive into inspiring stories, practical insights, and strategies to cultivate sustainable success on your [00:00:30] own terms. So whether you're a solopreneur, small business owner, or aspiring entrepreneur, get ready for a refreshing take on the entrepreneurial journey. This is build to enough.

Keila Hill-Trawick: We talk a lot about small teams around here, and I want to be clear that when I'm talking about a small team, we're talking about the core people that work in your business. So those people that you have hired as employees or ongoing contractors who are doing the baseline work of what you do at your [00:01:00] company. But today, let's talk a little bit about outsourcing and kind of to set the tone. I like to think of outsourcing as things that a major company that would have, and you might not necessarily have as a job within your company. So think about things from customer service to HR, IT even accounting this idea that like you're doing the core work and then you've got to hire another firm or outside person that is providing support and expertise to your business [00:01:30] that isn't, um, on your payroll. So outsourcing involves partnering with external service providers or companies, and they are handling specific tasks or functions for you.

Keila Hill-Trawick: They are taking this whole thing off of your plate so that you can focus on the thing that you are best at. One of the reasons that I really love outsourcing, and an important reason why I wanted to bring it up on this podcast, is that when you have a small team, it really offers a flexible way for small business owners to access expertise [00:02:00] and resources and additional help without all the overhead costs that come with adding an actual team member to your company. It saves you time, saves us time, and it allows you to focus on the parts of the business that you actually want to focus on. Remember, the whole concept of build to enough is that you have a life and a business that you can really be proud of, and that you enjoy working in. And when your hands are on all these other things that you don't feel good at or feel like you have time for, it can get really difficult [00:02:30] to drift your attention back to what you started the business for in the first place. So what are some of the advantages to outsourcing? The first one accountant. Accountant is cost. It is generally cheaper to outsource than it is to hire a full time employee to do the same things. So for example, while you might invest heavily in accounting or HR or even IT support, it is likely much cheaper than hiring at a full time salary for that same role within the company.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Small businesses, like [00:03:00] all businesses, have to watch their budgets, and so you need to be really careful about where you're investing, especially for things that you don't need all the time. So, for example, you may not need to talk to any of those service providers every day. Maybe you're just checking in once a month or so, knowing that you're not paying a full time salary for what will ultimately feel like part time work in some ways, is going to save you a ton financially in the long run. The next thing is that you really get to have specialized expertise. These service providers are [00:03:30] not just serving you, they've got other clients in your same field doing some similar things to what you do, which means they have best practices. We've got insight on software, we've got insight on processes. We do this for a ton of other people. And so being able to add you to our roster and support you allows us to have a level of expertise that you wouldn't automatically have. Remember, we deal with the same things as you all. So while accounting happens not to be our thing, we outsourced IT, HR and legal [00:04:00] to experts, other small businesses who are able to support us so that those are not things that have to live in my head as things to do.

Keila Hill-Trawick: As the founder, you might have also heard that you want to focus your time and energy on the things that make your business money, and when you can focus on the core competencies, the things that your business is really getting paid to do, you have ample opportunities to make more money, to improve efficiencies, and to make your back end and operations a lot [00:04:30] easier for your team and for customers to work with you. Outsourcing these ancillary services that you need for the business to run allows you to redirect your attention to those areas that are really meant to generate revenue for the business. Outsourcing also helps you to scale. Now we always try to remind you we are not anti-growth here. I know I can sound like we are, but we really aren't. We just want to make sure that you're being intentional about it. And when you outsource, you really have the opportunity to start thinking about how you want to scale [00:05:00] and how fast you want to do so when you hire teams. Members, it can sometimes feel like a lot more pressure to get bigger, faster, make more money, because now you have people's livelihoods reliant on you. When you can outsource instead, you've got a little more time and effort to dedicate towards taking your time and figuring out what your next steps will be and growing the company, or if you just want to maintain where you are instead.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Finally, and probably the most important. Outsourcing [00:05:30] alleviates stress. Being a small business owner requires a lot of hats, and when you are doing all of this work yourself or straining your tiny team to do it, you don't really have as much time for strategic decision making, let alone work life balance. And so outsourcing or giving that work to somebody else for whom that is their core competency, that is their job, really allows you to step back, to rest, to take some time because all of the tasks don't [00:06:00] live with you. So when we're talking about outsourcing, think about all the ways that it can make your business better, but also the ways that it can give you space to breathe. Our concept of build to enough is really around that. This feeling that when you need time, you can take it because the business is built to support you and not the other way around. All right. So we talked about some of the ways that little fish outsources. Let's dig into some examples of when outsourcing might work for you and what that actually means. [00:06:30] Surprise, surprise. We're going to talk about accounting. So when you outsource your accounting and there are a variety of ways to do this, you really want to make sure that things like bookkeeping, um, categorization and financial statements and even taxes are living in the hands of an expert.

Keila Hill-Trawick: This makes sure that you are able to review and discuss accurate financial statements, and that you're in compliance with the IRS and state agencies to ensure that [00:07:00] you're filing everything timely and that you have numbers that you can actually use to make decisions within your business. This also means that you don't have to hire a full time accountant on your team. Remember, a lot of us are businesses with less than like 1015 people. Is that really where you want to budget to hire an accountant? To be just your person full time? Probably not. And so being able to outsource to a firm like little fish and say, hey, I would like to be one of your clients to take this off of my plate so I can focus on the coaching, [00:07:30] consulting, training, design, all of the things that you do really allows us to step into our zone of genius, give you the information that helps you make the best decisions for your company, and leaves you with the breathing room and mind space to be able to focus on the things that are actually fun for you. Some other examples of the ways that Little fish has outsourced is design. Um, I love doing our design. Uh, let the team tell it. I would make all of our branding.

Keila Hill-Trawick: I [00:08:00] would do all of our social media posts, and I did at the very beginning. That was one of the hats that I was wearing as the founder of this company. But as we grew and as I wanted us to be more polished, it really made sense that we hire a website designer, somebody who can make sure that our branding is cohesive across platforms. We use House of marketing for that. Love them. Highly recommend them to everybody that we talk to. But the point here is, even things that I feel good at might be better served by outsourcing those. We also brought on [00:08:30] HR and IT support this year for HR, that meant we got some recruiting help when it was time to hire a new employee. We also got assistance with building our team and culture handbook, or our employee handbook and, um, amplifying our intranet. And so all of these things, again, are things that I started, but really got that magic touch by hiring an HR company that could support us with that for it. Security is paramount in our industry, and while we were following all of the rules, [00:09:00] I knew that we could do that better. To that end, we hired a company that would take care of this for us, that would make sure that the computers are always running, that we don't have any software glitches or security things that we should be concerned about, even making sure that the team is taking, um, workshops and webinars to ensure that we are always up to date on our security.

Keila Hill-Trawick: We'll make sure that all of those companies are listed in our show notes because we love them so much. All right. So let's talk about doing it yourself versus outsourcing. When you [00:09:30] first start a business, you're probably doing almost everything financially because you want to learn how to do it. And because you may not know where to turn for the resource to be able to support you. Now, when you are trying to decide between DIY and outsourcing, that's gonna depend on things like cost, expertise, time, and then ultimately your short and long terme business goals. So first let's talk about cost. You need a budget. You need to know how much it costs to run your business, and how much you actually have to set aside [00:10:00] to hire somebody to take it off your plate. As much as you may feel like. If you're ready to give it away, it may not be time for it yet because you're not financially able to do so, and you don't want to pick the cheapest option, because that may or may not be exactly what you need for the business to thrive. Second, think about expertise. Is there something that you or someone on your team is actually already really good at? You don't necessarily have to outsource everything, and so if there are areas that someone on your team could be handling, that really frees up your budget to [00:10:30] outsource the things that nobody on your team is going to be as good at.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Next, let's talk about time. There is never enough of it. You want to make sure that you're thinking about the time investment for specific tasks, but also thinking about what it would take to outsource. Is it as quick as handing it over to somebody else, or is this going to be an onboarding process that's going to take time in itself? You want to be aware of both of those before you make the decision that you're definitely going to give it away. Finally, think about your business goals. It can be easy to jump into things [00:11:00] that you think you should be worrying about right now that don't even align with what you're trying to achieve. So really take some stock and some time to think about what you want your business to do in the next year, five years, and make decisions on what you DIY versus outsourcing based on those goals. And as an aside, outsourcing doesn't always have to mean people. There is so much talk about AI and automations and ways to improve efficiencies within your company that may not require that you hire somebody [00:11:30] else. So take advantage of tools as well that can make you better at your job.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Again, free you up with that space to be able to focus on what you do without necessarily bringing another human being as part of the team. So listen, I know you got a lot of jobs when you're a small business owner. There's really no way around that. But if you outsource, it can be a powerful tool to help you focus on your why, why you started the business, how you can do it with excellence and care, and how you can make sure that your team is not burnt out, working on things that aren't [00:12:00] necessarily in their zone of genius. In a world of business, adaptability and smart decision making is key, and it's hard to focus on those things that are most important when you are doing all of the jobs. In this way, outsourcing is really a strategic decision that can elevate your operations and growth. Think about how it might be able to work for you and your business, with all of the things that you all have going on. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Build to Enough. If you enjoyed [00:12:30] today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate and share the love with your fellow entrepreneur friends, and make sure to sign up for the Build to Enough newsletter. The link is in the show notes. Stay tuned for more episodes as we continue to redefine success one intentional step at a time.