Outsourcing is the process of paying professionals external to your company payroll to complete ad-hoc or periodic tasks for a contractual fee. It is widely used across industries, and according to the most recent data released by Statista (from before the pandemic), the global outsourced services market equated to around £70 billion. This indicates that outsourcing is rife – but should you be outsourcing as a financial services business?

Modern ways of outsourcing

Because outsourcing has grown so common across the business world, there are vast numbers of businesses and platforms designed to make it easier than ever to outsource.

For example, there are web design and marketing agencies like us at WEBPRO Adviser – and there are freelancing platforms that allow businesses to find relevant professionals, such as Fiverr.  It has never been so easy to find a professional or team online that can take over a project for your business.

Outsourcing within the finance industry

If you are overwhelmed by clients, it can be a challenge to find, and train, other financial advisers who are qualified to help. But you can get support in other areas of your business, freeing up more of your time and resources to focus on the things that can only be done internally like managing staff and dealing with clients.

However, there are certain jobs, such as website design and development, online marketing and copywriting, which should be outsourced to trained professionals in any case while others, such as administration or bookkeeping, may be just as well done in-house, but it can be time-efficient to outsource these jobs during busy periods.

The commercial benefit of outsourcing

Although outsourcing will initially cost money, there can be benefits that could make a real difference to your business. By paying people who are trained in specific areas to do the jobs you need doing, you can get a better overall result which can provide long-lasting commercial benefits. For example, you might have someone in your team that knows how to create logos, but outsourcing logo design to a trained marketer and branding expert can attract more clients for years to come.

The mental health benefit of outsourcing

A recent BBC article stated that working more than 54 hours each week puts you at a much higher risk of dying from ill health, such as a stress-related heart attack. In fact, the same research found that around 750,000 people die from work-related stress each year.

The financial services industry has been identified as one of the most stressful sectors to work in. By outsourcing certain jobs to other professionals, you and your staff can focus on the most important aspects of the job and avoid feeling stressed and overworked trying to get your head around things outside of your knowledge and expertise.