The nature of a business is a very fickle beast. One day you’re a hot ticket, the next day you are nowhere to be found, buried under your competitors, desperate to scramble at the last dying embers of what was your client base. But, running a company boils down to a few simple things, and these fundamentals have always been in place, but it seems that as the years are going by, we are edging further away from these fundamentals.
One fundamental that hasn’t been slipping away from us, however, is resources. Now, you may take resources to be an all-encompassing term for everything that isn’t in your midst, resources, internal or external, have their place. And now, there is a bigger reliance on external resources than ever before.
Why is this?
The Financial Factor
Naturally, as costs go up, we all look to external resources to help keep our company afloat. This is why outsourcing is being such a topic for debate in recent years. Outsourcing has become the go-to option for struggling companies. There has been continuous discussion as to whether outsourcing spells the death knoll for a business. And, as so many aspects of a company could be outsourced, this could potentially mean that there is not one original part of the company anymore. But, be that as it may, we are all trying to get by with as little overheads as possible, and, this can mean that a very high percentage of your business processes have to be given to outside contractors. But, this isn’t as bad as it sounds…
External Resources And Their Benefits
If you are a struggling startup, there aren’t many things you are particularly skilled in. And, this is par for the course, unfortunately. We all have some skills lacking in our company, but we know that we need the skills put in place to accomplish certain tasks. So, this is where hiring freelance contractors or external workers to come in and complete these tasks benefits us in the short term.
And it’s not even when there are pressing tasks ahead of us that external resources can prove beneficial. When you look at the industrial industry, hiring the necessary equipment for the immediate task is a lot cheaper than purchasing equipment to use full time. You can call Construction Trailer Specialists and have a multitude of truck trailers to transport essential materials, materials that you wouldn’t use on a regular basis.
And this is one of the biggest advantages of hiring external resources because when you combine the cost with the fact that you are using them in the short term. This benefits the business in both of those ways: it completes the task, and it doesn’t cost you much.
If you look at the company that provides essential tools, cloud computing services, even temporary agencies that bring in staff to accomplish these tasks, the great thing is that you have these at your disposal, and when you are finished with them, you don’t need to use them anymore. But there is another benefit in using these facilities for short periods of time…
The “Try Before You Buy” Method
In looking at starting up a company, it requires a lot of pre-planning and deciding what facilities you require. Sometimes this isn’t feasible, and you will learn by doing. So, much like the old adage of ‘if you want to learn how to build a house, build one’, you may require specific services that you had no idea you would need.
So, in utilizing the services to accomplish a short-term task, you are getting a better idea of whether you need to use the facilities in the future, or if these facilities are going to form part of your major framework. In learning how to manage these specific tasks and use the correct resources to accomplish these tasks, you are trying out what suits your business.
And in utilizing all these different resources, from external companies to external workers and systems, you are getting a free education in many ways. You are seeing how people operate in different circumstances so you can glean information from other entrepreneurs, other foremen, other staff members, and how they conduct their work, but also in how they operate within their specific industries. So once you decide exactly what aspects you wish to draw from, then you can hire people that fit the mold.
The Education Aspect
External resources aren’t just pieces of machinery and people to complete a certain task, it is also about people who have been through the same problems that you are going through right now. So, looking at these types of people, what can you learn from them?
When you’re looking at an entrepreneur, you have got someone who has a wealth of information on how certain problems can be solved. This is an invaluable education when you are running a business, and for those stubborn entrepreneurs who are looking at running a dynamic business their own way, with their rules, they will soon find themselves become unstuck.
These people don’t utilize other resources as best as they can. While resources for a lot of entrepreneurs come in the form of books and there are some brilliant books out there on how to be an entrepreneur, surely the best lessons are ones you can get directly from people who have been there and done that and are right in front of you! These people are like gold dust, and if you can find someone who is willing to open themselves up to you, bleed them dry!
Now, as people are becoming more closely guarded with their business secrets, resources are hard to come by. And, while outsourcing has shown that physical resources are easily accessible, it’s the intellectual resources that are becoming difficult to acquire. So, for those that operate within their own little business bubble, they will soon find that problems will arise, and they won’t have the means in which to deal with them. This is why external resources will be the best resource you’ll ever have!
My Two Cents
Yes, when we all get the notion to start our own business, the whole effort can sometimes be daunting – however, as this contributed article has pointed out in so many ways, it can be an easier pill to swallow once you choose to utilize the convenience and skill-factor of external sources.
Of course, you still have to do your due diligence to ensure that the external sources you choose to incorporate in the growth of your business, is indeed an asset in all respects. You have to do enough research until your mind is at ease as to the best decision to make and the best services, software, or equipment to use.
Being successful is not a ‘one man show’ – it is a combination of winning factors and you get to choose the extent of that success. Being a small business owner does not mean that you ‘stand alone’, it means that you have the power to delegate and utilize your best asset, or that of another source.
Much success on your journey.
Images Courtesy Public Domain Pictures, Pixabay.
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