| As a business grows so the pressure on the | | | | off assignment. The work involved is usually |
| owner increases, there are simply not enough | | | | based on well documented systems or in the |
| hours in the day to devote to running the | | | | case of a one off project a well documented |
| business, growing the business, whilst still leaving | | | | brief so that the business owner can get a person |
| time to develop a strategic plan to take the | | | | with the skills and abilities to deliver what is |
| business forward. The heavy workload means | | | | expected and then leave them to get on with it. |
| that opportunities may be missed and strategic | | | | The advantages of outsourcing are |
| direction is lost which could lead to issues for both | | | | - it leaves people more time to concentrate on |
| the business and the owner. | | | | other aspects of the business. |
| One solution could be to outsource some of the | | | | - the business owner only pays for the time he |
| work to individuals located outside the business, | | | | uses his virtual assistant. |
| even on the other side of the world, individuals | | | | - the rates of pay are lower. |
| with the skills and abilities to carry out tasks | | | | - there are no tax implications as the services are |
| assigned to them which leaves the business | | | | outsourced. |
| owners with more time to concentrate on driving | | | | There is nothing to prevent more than one area |
| the business forward and increasing the success | | | | of the business being outsourced, the people |
| of the business. | | | | responsible for these outsourced services could |
| Examples of the type of activity outsourced could | | | | then be managed by a virtual assistant who would |
| be creating websites, sales team, software | | | | report to the business owner, the owner would |
| programming, project management, secretarial | | | | then just have their virtual assistant reporting to |
| work, the list goes on, the arrangement could be | | | | them, this would free them from much of the |
| for a fixed number of hours per week or a one | | | | day to day responsibility. |