what we're talking about

Why did you choose to get into business?

What part of your business makes you excited to wake up in the morning and hit the ground running?

Most business owners and entrepreneurs follow their dreams and chase their passions with the goals of satisfying customers, growing revenue and creating impact. Heart, sweat, and passion flow into these goals at the core of your business, but other sides of business can sometimes creep in, vying for your attention. All of the sudden, you’re keeping up with the books, being a fractional CFO, fixing IT issues and juggling human resources. These functions are important and necessary for any business’s success, yet these can pull you away from growing your business and focusing on your core!

Earlier this summer, Inflammo hosted a “breakfast and learn” focused on the ins and outs of outsourcing. By joining together with two other incredible companies, TekLinks and Insperity, we were able to discuss how outsourcing business functions, such as accounting/finance, IT, and human resources, can strengthen the business’s core.

Here are some of the top questions business owners asked the panel about outsourcing:

When would outsourcing make sense for my business?

Many business owners come to the awareness they need to outsource functions of their business when they realize they can’t get to the next level with what got them to their current level. If you find yourself thinking, “I need to spend more time with my business and people, not debits and credits,” then you may be approaching the tipping point of needing to outsource.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing?

As the team from Insperity explained, outsourcing can have a significant impact on a business’s future. If you’re thinking about outsourcing human resources, you can share or move the risk of being the employer, which could protect your company moving forward. Another advantage is that, as a business owner, you get to dive into the parts of the business where you’re truly passionate. This means you get to focus on strategy, have more face-to-face time with your people, and work on the important things that strengthen your business’s core.

However, outsourcing isn’t for everyone, as an outsourcing solution isn’t a “one size fits all” service. As a general rule of thumb, outsourcing should be a seamless transition, not disruptive or compromising to other parts of the business. At Inflammo, we work with prospective clients to first understand their needs and pain points before proposing a potential solution. And in some cases, even advise companies against outsourcing where we have felt either the need or value simply doesn’t exist.

What is the value of outsourcing?

Outsourcing provides a singular point of accountability, an integrated team-based approach, service continuity and access to a broad range of experiences and skills often on a fractional basis. In most cases, small and high-growth companies require all of these benefits but do not have the capital to recruit, develop and retain an internal team to provide similar solutions. Not to mention, outsourcing allows entrepreneurs, business owners, and management the opportunity to refocus their time and attention on the growth of their businesses.

Initially, outsourcing may appear to be costly—but compare those costs to hiring full-time employees who require a benefits package and salary. Further, with outsourcing, there is no down time between hiring, no last minute sick day call-ins, and no benefits package to worry about.

What are my scaling options with outsourcing?

As mentioned earlier, outsourcing isn’t a “one size fits all” approach. For all businesses, especially those high-growth companies, it is important an outsourcing solution scales as a company matures. What might start with outsourced accounting may evolve into forecast modeling in anticipation of fundraising efforts and subsequent financial analytics to match the new demands of external investors. At Inflammo, we are deliberately a team of CPAs, CFOs, and Investment Bankers so that we can scale with our clients. We advise each of our clients that what got them to where they are today will not get them to where they want to go. Said differently, when evaluating outsourcing partners anticipate your long-term needs and objectives and ensure these providers can be a long-term, valuable growth partner.