Business process outsourcing is increasingly becoming popular. Just recently, some big names like Lloyds and HSBC, Carlsberg, and British Airways resorted to outsourcing some of their core functions including HR. But do not be deceived into thinking that business process outsourcing is a reserve of multinationals. Hiring an independent business consultant might just be what you need to run your business more efficiently thereby saving you a lot of money at the end of the day.
When you think about it, it is more expensive to hire a full-time staff member that is not fully utilised. While your staff might be very highly skilled in some areas, they might not be so good in other areas so that means there will be a lot of unproductive time that you will still be paying for. It is more cost-effective to outsource some functions to an experienced consultant that will only charge for several hours in a week or a month. There are three main ways you will save money for your business or start-up by using business outsourcing.
How Outsourcing Saves You Money
The first saving you will make is on the salary expenses. The cost benefit analysis of paying a full-time employee vis-à-vis outsourcing to a consultant will show you how much money your organisation will save every month. Apart from the savings on salary, there are other indirect costs that you will save on. These include pension contributions, health and other insurance, and various employee benefits. You do not have to incur these expenses when dealing with an independent business consultant. Lastly, you will not have to spend money on utilities related to having a full-time staff member like desk space, computers, and other administrative costs.
Examples of Services to Outsource
The most commonly outsourced services are human resources, I.T, accounting, bookkeeping and marketing. You can actually start by deploying special apps and software to automate the different processes. However, you will ultimately need the services of a consultant to keep everything up to date. Your time is better spent on business development other than managing the other day-to-day operations of your business. By and large, there are three broad categories of tasks that you should consider outsourcing:
1. Repetitive Tasks
Every business, whether big or small, has got some tasks that have to be repeated daily, weekly or monthly. Some of these tasks do not require too much time but they require consistency in frequency. Examples include marketing, data entry, shipping entries, accounts payable etc. An independent business consultant will help you handle these repetitive tasks efficiently and cost effectively.
2. Specialised Knowledge
You need an accountant to take care of your accounts department. However, good accountants cost a lot. It is cheaper to have a consultant that has these set of skills to come over once a month to put things in order.
3. Skilled Expertise
As a business owner, you may have no choice but to leverage technology to remain on the cutting edge of your industry. Granted, it might not be possible to have a full-time I.T staff member but you can outsource it to a company or a consultant.
The main objective of any business is to make a profit and it is not rocket science that cost cutting is the best way of maximising profit. When you outsource some of your services to an independent business consultant, you save your company money which ultimately leads to greater profits.
When you are looking to set up a new business or residential establishment, create special spaces in your existing buildings to block all external noises, build an industrial or entertainment complex or do anything remotely similar in your locality, you would like to maintain the rules and regulations of your locality. The last thing on your mind would be to receive a warning from the police to reduce the noise in your complex, thanks to complaints raised by your neighbours. Noise is one of the most irritating factors in our daily lives today.
How many times have you felt frustrated about having to live in the midst of continuous noise from nearby industries and factories? So, it is only natural, that you should contribute to the society by making your establishment noise-free so that your neighbours and environment can live in peace. There are professional and qualified acoustic consultants that can help you in assessing the sound levels in your building (irrespective of the type) and help you with certain designs to make it noise-free. If you want your building to abide by the local noise rules, you need to choose the right acoustic agency. Here are some tips for the same.
All-round services
One of the first things that you should look for when choosing an agency for assessing your building’s acoustics is that it should have experience in a variety of acoustic assessments and not just checking residential/commercial complexes. It should be well-versed with creating unique noise surveys for different types of buildings, creating acoustics for a single room in an existing building, preparing and analysing noise impact metrics, suggesting sound insulation devices and so on.
Professional accreditations
You might see noise consultants advertise heavily making tall claims about the services that they can offer for you. If you want to ensure that your building is designed with the right acoustics, you should never fall for these claims. Claims are just words until they are proven. The only way to check if an agency is as good as it claims to be is to check its professional accreditations. Choose consultants that have been recognised by at least a couple of recognised institutions in the UK or anywhere in your country, as this lends an extra credibility for these agencies.
Right approach
Choose acoustic consultants that exhibit the right kind of attitude and approach to your requirements. A good consultant should be able to give you cost-effective, practical and efficient solutions in the areas of acoustics, noise and vibration in your building after having it examined by a team of experts. He should also be transparent with you and discuss the tools/surveys and other methods that he/his team would be using to making your building acoustically perfect. This way, you can rest assured knowing that you have assigned the job to the right person. Never choose agencies that appear fishy with their terms and that are not confident about the methodology they will adopt, as this can create lots of mental tension for you later on.
Solve all your noise, vibration and acoustics issues by choosing professional acoustic consultants and contribute to a quieter and more peaceful environment in your way. Choosing the right agency from the sea of options available to you, would make all the difference.
Rice is a staple food in India, Bangladesh, and several other Asian countries. A gigantic amount of diverse qualities traded from these countries to other countries of the world. And the credit for development of this business significantly goes for the consultants, who separated it from household activity to productive and profitable business.
The consultants helped their clients with their selection of rice business; that means, whether the client wants to start a rice farming business, dealership, wholesale or retail rice selling or rice mill business. Of course starting a rice mill is profitable and like other businesses feasibility study or planning stage are the first step taken by consultants to ensure profitability in the business. Further, consultants work on the essential elements such as land requirement, design and construction, resources and many other that may impact the business in one or other way.
Land requirement and its selection are of paramount importance as the mill owners need huge barn or storage area for the produce that has already been milled and that will be milled shortly. Consultants focus on the areas that have height, as low-lying regions make handling and performing of different activities difficult. They also consider the zone to which the land belongs, it plays a vital role in the transportation of raw material and finished products. Considerable attention towards a legitimate waste framework in the area to which land belongs is also paid.
Design and construction are considerably important in achieving massive profits from the rice milling business. Mills should be developed in a manner that they allow smooth operations and fullest utilization of ideal space. Godowns and stores should be designed and developed to store raw paddy and prepared rice safely. Handling units, cleaning units, parboiling territories and other segments should be earmarked appropriately.
Maintaining high quality along with required quantity is a challenging task for mill owners, and these two factors directly contribute to profit generation capability of the business. Consultants have their focus on the correct selection and appropriate investment in the rice mill machinery, and they always recommend for a new other than a refurbished machine. Investment in modern technologies and tools have great potential to meet quality standards and produce high quantity as well. Further, modern machines offer energy conservation, easy maintenance and high productivity that reduces the production cost and enhance profitability of business.
There are other essential areas like workforce, electricity, water supply and others that receives significant attention of consultants as they play a vital role in enhancing the profitability of business. Rice mills have electrical machines that need an uninterrupted supply of electricity, and if the mill is located in an area where power cuts are regular, it is suggested to have power backups like generators to ensure regular supply of power and uninterrupted working of machines.
The Workforce is required for loading, unloading and other activities that are regular at any mill. While adequate water supply needed for boiling and other works, so both workforce and adequate water supply should be given due importance for the uninterrupted working of the rice plant.
The consultants can suggest on various aspects that can increase the profitability of the business. Decision and consideration of these aspects by clients play a significant role towards achievement of their business goals. Selection of a professional consultant by a mill owner is the first step toward a profitable rice milling business.
Any business to gain its zenith form needs several factors coming together in making it successful. No company can gain popularity or profits overnight, and continuous hard work, dedication, the right set of employees, investments, and several other factors come together and thus bringing about success to the business. The team consisting of the management are the ones that are responsible for decision making, implementing changes, modifying the work system, etc. and are capable of doing all of it by themselves. There are times when a business cannot handle situations or problems related to their business; they move out to hire consultants.
Who are management consultants?
Management consultants are those who are trained and specialising in dealing with business problems and coming with a solution to it. They at times pose as advisors for a business and ensure that everything goes about smoothly without any glitches. There are a few companies who do away with the help of such consultants while the rest feel that they form an essential part of their business. While you are one of those pondering over the idea to consult one, here are the reasons why most companies hire management consultants.
They need a second opinion
For those who own businesses, they are capable of making decisions all by themselves and that is the reason why they are still sticking to the industry. There are times when they doubt their decisions and feel it may not be implemented in the right way. It is then when they feel the need of an advisory panel who can contribute their inputs as there are times when they have had similar experiences with other companies that they have worked with. They, therefore, can come up with an opinion and term the decisions to be right or wrong or there are any modifications required.
They act as a third party
There are times when the management cannot surface to the open with their decisions or changes in the business. These professional then act as the third party and come up with the changes and communicate it accordingly. This helps to put forward the information in an unbiased manner and thus saving the management from facing the brunt if the new idea or implementation isn’t received well by the company and its employees.
Consultants have polished skills
They are trained in providing remedies and help to businesses, and that is why they are designated as specialists. Any organisation hiring employees with similar skills can at times turn out to be expensive as there wouldn’t be work all the time for these set of employees and therefore allowing them to sit idle and thus wasting finances on them. An advisor can be hired anytime whenever required, and they are known to help out with instant help. The fees that the advisors charge depend on the type of services that businesses have availed from them.
The consultants act as an extra workforce
For companies who have a dearth of employees or have staff dedicated to handling other aspects of the business and not act as problem solvers. The employees aren’t even trained in being problem solvers and thus end up wasting time and resources to no avail. These specialists aren’t full-time employees and simultaneously know the way businesses function and are fast learners thus allowing the employees to continue with their work as designated.