5 Great Ways To Build Your Business Through Outsourcing
Posted On April 6, 2015 by
If you find that your company is at a plateau, it may be time to consider options that will help you push you through to the next level. How do you do this without breaking the bank? By hiring outside professionals or services to take on part of your business workload, often referred to as outsourcing. This is a common strategy used by many successful businesses such as Harvard Business Review who recently teamed up with CDS Global. Fulfillment outsourcing is when you partner with a third party to manage the supply chain management aspect of your business. This can provide several great ways to help you expand without taking on the additional cost yourself.
Create More Space
The most common issue businesses run into when growing at a fast pace is not having enough room to grow. Instead of sinking a significant amount of capital into building an additional warehouse and equipment, consider partnering with a third party fulfillment house who already has these elements in place. This will eliminate the need to take on a large debt that may take years to settle, keeping you out of the red.
Manage Fluctuations
Many businesses have varying demand for their products, particularly if they carry seasonal lines of merchandise. To make the most sense of your resources, why pay to have space on hand that is not in use year round? Outsourcing to a third party who can maximize that unused space with other clients during your down times will save you the cost of maintaining it yourself.
Increase Volume
In addition to needing more warehouse space to store your products, you will need to keep up with increased production demand for your products. Consider the investment it would take to expand production output yourself. Outsourcing to a fulfillment center that is already flexibly equipped to manage the peaks and valleys of order demand can be a great asset.
Add Expert Staff
Along with the need to have sufficient warehouse space, production and logistics, you need the people to make it happen. Instead of adding to your own payroll cost, a fulfillment company comes with a fully trained expert staff to manage the entire process. One less concern for you when you’re trying to focus on your core activities like research and development instead of hiring and training personnel.
Access New Technology
The costs of production equipment, transportation and inventory software can really add up quickly, especially when new technology is constantly evolving. Since this is the specialty of full service fulfillment companies, they can step in to provide the expertise and new advances for you so you can reinvest your money elsewhere or eliminate the need to take on more debt.
Take the time to devise a budget outlining all of the initial outlay of costs associated with these 5 key areas. This will help you put into perspective how much value a third party fulfillment company can contribute to your bottom line. Outside of cost, consider the other benefits such as fast ramp up time, flexible and seamless processes, customer service and follow through and so on. Just keep in mind, the most important factors are to choose a partner that understands your business, is as enthusiastic as you are about it and has great referrals.