by Robert Oliver
Getting a business off the ground is hard work – just ask any entrepreneur who, in order to make the most of a tight budget, often takes on too many responsibilities. From CEO to marketing to sales and administration, start-up business owners can run themselves ragged to keep their head above financial waters.
They do it because they believe in their idea and the value it will bring to an audience of consumers whose numbers could be sky high. As a business advisory professional, I have had the opportunity to work with many entrepreneurs who have taken their idea from concept to fruition to success and growth, sometimes at the cost of their time and talent. As a business flourishes, the day-to-day process of running it mushrooms, particularly when it comes to “back-office responsibilities” – in specific bookkeeping, accounting, financial planning, human resources, IT and cybersecurity.
Sure, these tasks may seem mundane, but they are crucial to the long-term success of any business. That said, maintaining these elements in-house is inefficient at best, and unsustainable at worst. For these reasons, many entrepreneurs are now outsourcing such back-office responsibilities to a third-party professional services vendor.
Let’s face it – it’s not only difficult, but expensive to have a qualified team of in-house financial professionals, particularly on a shoestring budget. By outsourcing this critical work to a services firm, start-up owners can rest a little easier, knowing that these important tasks are in the hands of a professional, leaving them to concentrate on their company’s core competencies.
In the absence of time to devote to long-term strategic growth plans, a fledgling “bright idea” business could easily, and sadly, be thwarted. Here is another area where a third-party professional services provider can be indispensable. Business owners can’t plan for the unknown; inasmuch long-term strategic growth plans are only as successful as the financial data on which they were built. An outsourced professional services firm can compile this essential in-depth data using the most up-to-date financial software solutions and then take it a step further by analyzing and interpreting the information.
Certainly engaging a third-party professional service firm is not without cost, but what is built into the fee is staff time, resources, knowledge base and the appropriate software and other tools necessary to help your business grow.
Although fundamental to any business, back door processes can be complicated, time-consuming and frustrating. These everyday tasks are what a third-party partner does best – leaving an entrepreneur to do what he or she does best.
Robert Oliver is the director of business development in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Group at blumshapiro, the largest regional business advisory firm based in New England, with offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The firm, with a team of over 450, offers a diversity of services, which include auditing, accounting, tax and business advisory services. blum serves a wide range of privately held companies, government and non-profit organizations and provides non-audit services for publicly traded companies. To learn more visit us at blumshapiro.com.
