The title says it all. I hope it hasn’t tuned most of you out from reading this topic. But, if you’ve made it to this point, that’s cool: ONWARD! I have a funny view of outsourcing for small business. I hear photographers talk all the time about outsourcing image processing, outsourcing their lab work, outsourcing their album designs, and outsourcing their meetings to sales professionals. I wonder, if you outsource all this stuff, what you actually do? I know, I know – it’s trying to get the work down to a level where you mostly shoot, and market a little too. It sounds good on paper, but how does it actually pan out?
My time is very valuable. I value my time. I really do. The thing is, when we talk about outsourcing work, usually outsourcing is a big company term. A large company, such as Mattel, as an example, achieves economies of scale by outsourcing pieces of their business. Small business owners don’t achieve economies of scale. They only have their time. But, time doesn’t cost us anything, in terms of real dollars. Also, sometimes the things that we as photographers want to outsource are activities that we dislike. But, that doesn’t mean that outsourcing them is beneficial. Outsourcing albums, for instance, is something that might benefit your business. But, it costs you money; real money. You are saving time, but when you spend your time you don’t have to spend money. I know this sounds weird, but I think this concept is too important to not mention.
If you think you can better spend your time on marketing, as an example, rather than designing albums, then you might consider doing that. However, before you jump into it, look at your business now. Take a snap shot of your business today, this is called base-lining. Set a baseline for your business today; where you are financially. Then, set a target for where you want to be. Think about how effective you want your marketing to be, and set a goal for achieving this. Once you do this, outsource something so you can spend that time creating value for your business. The outsourcing activity you chose should enable you to build your business and reach your goal. Also, set a time frame in which to reach your goal. So, maybe 6-months from now, you evaluate where you are. Did you grow? Were you able to create more value than the cost of your outsourcing effort? If not, bring it back in. If so, or if you are trending upwards, give yourself another 6-months for another evaluation. Essentially, the outsourcing should not cost you a cent. In fact, it should add to your bottom line in one way or another.
Your time does = money. But, in a small business, you might have more time than money to spend. And, if the money you spend doesn’t turn out to be more valuable than your time spent on other things, you are actually putting yourself in the red.
If your goal is to simply spend more time with your kids. That’s hard to value. You can’t put a price on that, and your measure might be: are you actually spending more time with your kids?
The question is not how much are you willing to spend for outsourcing, which is the measure many photographers seem to use. The question is how much additional value do you think you can create that will exceed the expense of outsourcing within a certain period of time. If it costs you $5k per album, but you can easily double that by spending your time where it matters, the cost is inconsequential to you.
Jerry Frazier
Los Angeles Wedding Photographer
http://www.jerryfrazierphotography.com
