One of the biggest challenges faced by entrepreneurs and small business owners is delegating tasks.

10 Tasks to Outsource Immediately for Business Growth

This unwillingness to delegate or outsource often stems from a few core issues.

Many entrepreneurs feel unable to delegate out of a sense of maintaining control. Others get caught up in the monetary cost of outsourcing without considering the opportunity cost.

Outsourcing repetitive or non-revenue generating tasks can help entrepreneurs focus on growth and profitability. Here are 10 tasks to outsource immediately for business growth.

IT Support

IT is a specialized, nuanced sect that requires advanced expertise to implement. While large businesses and corporations traditionally hire in-house IT, even they see value in outsourcing some tasks to an IT firm.

An outsourced IT firm can manage anything from basic security to new software implementation and more.

According to eiresystems.com, cybersecurity is especially critical for small businesses. While the general public tends to think of hackers going after larger companies, many skilled cybercriminals know that it’s often the smaller businesses that don’t have adequate security in place.

In fact, 43% of attacks are aimed at small businesses, with 60% of companies going under within six months of an attack.

Don’t be one of the 86% of small businesses that don’t have adequate protection in place. Outsource to an IT specialist to protect everything you’ve worked for.

Web Development

Services such as Squarespace and Woo Commerce have made it easier than ever to set up your own website with minimal effort. However, it can still be incredibly time-consuming to put all the pieces together.

As your needs expand and grow, adding plug-ins and customizations can dramatically reduce your site load time or cause a devastating data loss.

Instead of taking the DIY approach, hire someone to handle your web development. Even if you’re just putting a basic Squarespace site together, handing that task over to someone experienced can save you time and frustration.

Social Media Management

Having a strong social media presence is a must for entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, maintaining a solid presence can be a full-time job. Posting high-quality content consistently takes a lot of time and energy to plan and implement.

Hiring a social media manager is a fantastic way to build your audience and generate leads while prioritizing revenue-generating tasks.

Fortunately, there are many options for making this happen. You can work with another entrepreneur who offers social media management services in bulk or a virtual assistant you can pay hourly for their work.

When vetting a social media manager, don’t get caught up in follower numbers. Look beyond the followers at engagement, conversions, and growth over time. An experienced social media manager can provide data-driven examples of their efforts.

SEO Building

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the culmination of technical considerations and content to drive organic traffic from a search engine to your website.

It’s SEO that ultimately determines whether you’ll be featured on the first page of the SERP or lost in the abyss of page two and beyond.

SEO is a multi-faceted area of expertise with various entry points and opportunities. From your website’s core infrastructure to the content you create to the other websites that link to your content, it’s all too much for one person to handle.

Look for a small firm or consultant who can put together a step-by-step plan to audit and improve your SEO efforts.

Beware of fly-by-night scam artists that promise to get you on the first page of Google for all aspects of your business. Even with targeted efforts, it can be challenging.

Know that there are also niche firms that focus on a few aspects of SEO. For example, some firms focus on content creation and link building while others focus on the technical aspect of UX, site speed, and so on.

Content Writing

Writing blog content for your business offers several benefits. Having consistent content published on your site can aid in your SEO efforts, even without a targeted approach.

Creating this content also helps you position yourself as an expert in your industry and share your unique take on relevant information.

The challenge is finding the time and having the skills to publish well-written content. You may be an entrepreneur with great ideas and insights that come across beautifully in conversation, but you struggle with putting them into structured paragraphs.

Conversely, you might not have the time or energy to create new content on a regular basis.

Outsource your content creation to a freelance writer, ghostwriter, or content creation agency. Find someone who will work within the scope of your brand.

Email Marketing

Building an email list and sending out regular updates and promotions is an effective way to generate leads, nourish prospects, and ultimately convert paying customers.

However, like many other business functions, email marketing is time-consuming.

Consider hiring someone to set up an automated email funnel with a lead magnet to help you capture email addresses and build your list.

From there, work with a marketing specialist or virtual assistant to craft regular email marketing campaigns and send them to you for final approval.

Accounting

Too many entrepreneurs wait to hire an accountant until they’re years into running a business. While you may not need an in-house accountant to manage your daily number crunching yet, there’s no reason for you to do your own taxes.

In fact, taking the DIY approach at this crucial time could end up costing you more in the long run. Furthermore, hiring an accountant is an expense you can claim.

Consider working with an assistant to handle the more administrative accounting tasks, like invoicing clients and organizing expenses and receipts for tax season.

Human Resources

As your business starts to grow and you hire employees, you should consider working with a human resources consultant. A consultant can help you put policies and workplace standards in place to protect both yourself and your people.

As time goes by, you might want a human resources specialist on call to navigate hiring, termination, and difficult conversations.

Graphic Design

Free services such as Canva make it easy to throw together graphics for social media and marketing materials. However, this also falls under the category of non-revenue generating tasks.

As your social media and marketing needs grow, you can outsource this task to a virtual assistant or designer.

Customer Service

Finally, consider outsourcing your inbound and outbound customer service management. Having someone act as a gatekeeper to respond to inquiries will help keep you out of the weeds as your business grows.

Having someone manage your customer service doesn’t mean that you lose touch with your clients. Instead, you might have someone in place to respond to emails on your behalf, manage your calendar, answer frequently asked questions, and know when to escalate an inquiry to you.

By outsourcing these 10 tasks, you can focus on continued growth for your small business.