From CEPro: "The Good, Bad, and Tradeoffs of Outsourcing for AV Installers"
Opting to outsource work is a major decision for many small businesses, so here are a few things to consider before committing to a strategy.
By: Jim Scheer
We are living in uncertain times. We are in our first modern-day global pandemic, we average a recession every 4 years, and we still have the threat of terrorism on our minds. All of these points in history have stopped our economy in its tracks and all have affected our businesses in various ways.
Let’s face it, we don’t have the largest talent pool in the world and all of us would agree that it’s hard to find (good) people. Our staff is also typically the most expensive lines on our PNL. Do we roll the dice and hire to grow our company’s or do we look at alternative ways to variabilize our expense structure?
Five years ago, I made the tough decision to start an outsourcing model within certain departments of my company. It meant I was going to move permanent jobs out of the company and hire subcontractors on a contract basis (or hourly). It was difficult to say the least and risky. We just had our fifteenth anniversary and all of our team members were full time. I knew we were going to impact people’s lives, but we had a fiduciary responsibility and I wanted to easily scale the business up or down given the current business conditions.
Outsourcing has truly worked for my company. We have a process in place, all team members have a regular cadence with our partners, and if/when there is another “event” that impacts our economy…we are ready! When we win that 7 figure job…We are ready!
We have incredible partners in our industry to leverage! USAV, Herman Pro AV, countless manufacturers offering support, independent programmers, colleges and universities, trade schools, and of course the unions, to name a few.
That being said, outsourcing is not for everyone. Before you move forward, it’s crucial to compare the pros and cons of outsourcing. And it’s also very important to understand the effect outsourcing can have on company culture.