Outsourcing: Is It Critical to My Business?

Owning your own business is the American dream. Doin it better than the other guy and making money at it! There is no better feeling in the world. All start out as entreprenuers and some evolve into "The Business Owner". We all know that guy, he is over taxed, under paid, provider of employee benfits, redeemer of social ills, and compares managing employees to the herding of cats.

The solution, we think, is Outsource it! A fantastic article published on the businessTN website (http://www.businesstn.com/pub/4_5/features/8119-1.html) discusses the ins and outs of outsourcing. As a proponenet of outsourcing I found this article both eye opening and well balanced. More and more, the experts are touting the profit enhancing benefits of outsourcing.

“Outsource,” they say—in the name of freeing you and your employees up to concentrate on your business’ core competencies. “We generally say you need to outsource anything that takes you off-focus,” says Paula Roberts, small business specialist for the Tennessee Small Business Development Center at Tennessee State University.

Mrs. Roberts makes an excellent point. Every business owner can identify with the burn out of dealing with the non-profit generating tasks of payroll, workers' compensation insurance, employee benefits, and more. The article further suggests a business owner look at what can be done in-house. Jeff Cornwall, director of the Belmont University Entrepreneur Center, says “[Business owners] need to understand the financial structure of the business and understand cash flow because they’ll have to make decisions based on that information.”

The experienced, trusted advisors at First Place Employer Services suggest a business owner first identify the core business activities. These activities are profit generating activities. in taking this vital step, the business saves time, increases productivity, and ultimately takes steps to become more profitable.

Jeff and Rich Sloan of StartUpNation, a Web site the Sloan brothers launched to provide information to entrepreneurs, advise taking the time to analyze how the business adds value to your customers and where you, as a business owner, focus your efforts.
“Are you spending too much time on areas outside your expertise? Many times, it’s more cost-effective to have someone outside of the company take care of these non-core activities,” the Sloan brothers write. Cornwall says today’s customers are concerned with more than just the price of the product or service you provide. “They come to you because of how you operate and provide that service to them,” he says.

Committment to service is one of many reasons a business owner finds a PEO ( Professional Employer Organization) an attractive outsourcing option. When it comes to payroll processing, HR management, State and Federal taxes, Workers' compensation insurance, Safety, OSHA, and the myriad of Federal and State laws; the choice to outsource to a PEO becomes all to clear.

A Professional Employer Organization (PEO) helps client companies cost-effectively outsource the management of payroll, workers' compensation, human resources and employee benefits. PEOs help clients focus on their core competencies to maintain and grow their bottom line.
Businesses today need help managing increasingly complex employee related matters such as health benefits, workers' compensation claims, payroll, payroll tax compliance, and unemployment insurance claims.

Engaging a PEO enables companies to share these responsibilities and provide expertise in human resources management. This allows PEO clients to focus on the operational and revenue-producing side of their business.

PEO companies provide an integrated service to effectively manage human resource responsibilities and employer risks for their clients. A PEO delivers these services by establishing and maintaining an employer relationship with the employees at the client's worksite and by contractually assuming certain employer rights, responsibilities and risk.
Professional Employer Organizations have thrived because they have helped their client companies succeed by providing:

Improved employment practices, compliance and risk management to reduce liabilities.
Relief from the burden of employment administration.
A wide range of personnel management solutions through a team of professionals.
Access to a comprehensive employee benefits package, allowing clients to be competitive in the labor market.

Definition provided courtesy of the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations - NAPEO

to learn more vist us at:

http://www.1stplacEmployer.com