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By Contractors For Contractors!
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| May 2003 Issue - Click here to read other issues | |
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Welcome to May 2003! Cliche I know but can you believe it is already May? I hope you enjoy your newsletter, the first item is an article about outsourcing your 'mundane' duties. A first reaction to the thought of outsourcing is usually something along the lines of "Why would I pay someone else to do what I can do (ie: payroll, etc.)?". Because my friends, the less time you spend on the mundane duties the more time you get to spend focused on the meat -n- potatoes of your business, that which puts you closer to your goals whatever they may be! Have a great day and please do feel free to write back!! Diane |
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Southern California Insurance Brokerage Inc. We invite you to browse through our site and discover
why we are one of California's leading Insurance Brokerage Firms.
Our staff is comprised of committed insurance professionals who
are We carry numerous lines of insurance and, for your convenience, we have instant online quoting available on our website! Simply follow the link to our online quoting pages and then select the quote that you would like to generate. After filling out the forms, you will be presented with an INSTANT competitive quote! No more waiting for a response from your agents.... So Cal Insurance is hyperlinking insurance into the new millennium!! 1. Outsourcing: A Surprisingly Practical Solution By Diane Dennis Many owners of small and/or home based businesses (and yes even some large companies) are discovering that it is both cost effective and convenient to 'outsource' certain aspects of their respective businesses. Do you pay an accountant to manage your books and/or to process your taxes? That's outsourcing! If you have a website that you pay someone else to maintain, you're outsourcing. Even General Contractors do a sort of outsourcing every time they issue a contract to a subcontractor. If you're really good at outsourcing you can actually use it to increase your company's profit margin!! Uncovering Hidden Profits What does your company do to make money? Whether you're in construction; fixing Harleys; leading white-water river rafting adventures; scooping ice cream; running your own beauty salon and so on, chances are you're doing what you're doing because you know how to do it well enough to not only make a living at it but a comfortable living at that. The river guide makes money when he's out in the boat with his customers, shooting the rapids. The guy fixing Harleys makes money when his fingers are greasily fine-tuning the bike. The roofer makes money when he's 'roofing' the jobs he's lined up and when he's lining up more. None of these folks are making money when they're punching numbers on the calculator figuring out payroll or dialing the phone numbers of delinquent payers. Every minute spent on one of these tasks can be equivalent to several minutes less spent on increasing your customer base and building your coffers. Those lost minutes are hidden profits... but each minute lost is lost forever... Growing Pains Growing your business can be painful. There are new expenses (such as wages for additional office crew) that will be due and payable before you've realized the additional income that will come from that larger work crew getting more work done. However, by using outsourcing you can actually grow your business without many of the pains that go along with traditional growth (see paragraph 1). The reason for this is that chances are the fee you pay to your service provider will be significantly less than what it would cost you to do it in-house. And the best part of all... ? You now have time and funds freed up that you can devote to growing your business! Let's face it, chances are you didn't start your business because you wanted to do prelim notices (or payroll, etc.) right? Unless of course prelims and/or payroll IS your business... ;) Focus on what you love, what your business is all about, and let others take care of the endless litany of mundane yet required responsibilities that you and every other business owner faces. Legalities, Legalities, Legalities --> Use a Contract! Be certain that the contract outlines everything you are paying for, specifically. What is expected of you and what is expected of your provider? For example, if you are outsourcing your payroll, how will the paychecks be delivered to your employees, who's bank account do the funds come out of, do they have a pool of employees you have to choose from or can you hire whoever you want? If you are outsourcing your prelim notices, what info are you required to provide and will it cost more if you don't have all that info available? Is there tracking of paperwork included in the price, etc.? -- > Contracting/Outsourcing requires due diligence Ask for references and CHECK those references carefully. Insist on full contact information, including phone numbers, mailing addresses, etc. Ask for samples of their work (if applicable, such as if you're looking for someone to build and/or manage your website for you or someone to manage your photography, etc.). -- > Confidentiality Agreements In addition you may want to consider Confidentiality Agreements (aka non-disclosure agreements). If your provider will have access to confidential information, you may want to have him/her sign a confidentiality agreement. -- > We practice what we preach... We outsource as much as we can now. It took us a while to jump on the bandwagon but once I broke it down and looked at every aspect of outsourcing I realized that it really can help to decrease your expenses while increasing your income. -- > Tell Us What You Outsource To whom and what do you outsource? Tell us and you and your provider could appear in our newsletter and/or at our website! Just click here to send me an email. :) 3. Discontinued 4. Discontinued 5. Discontinued 6. Discontinued Well, that's about it for now. Have an outstanding day!! TheContractorsGroup was created to support construction professionals
with their day to day administrative functions. Thank you for
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