Friday, July 17, 2009

Outsourcing: What's Good for Your Business May be Good for You

Outsourcing. That's how businesses save money by focusing on what they do best, while letting others do work that is not core to their main line of business. Well, what is good for businesses is just as good for individuals. I have had a draft post about this topic queued up for a long time, but last weekend I saw this post from Lazy Man which gave me the push I needed to complete the post. The argument is a simple one: do what you do best and let others handle the rest for a fee. I completely agree.

If anything, I don't outsource enough. I use a tax advisor to do our taxes, I take my car to a shop to get the oil changed and to the cleaners to get washed, and I have no intention of ever trying to mess around with our house's electricity or plumbing. However, I deal with computer problems on my own, and we clean and garden (not very successfully) by ourselves.

Whenever we do things ourselves, the motive is financial, but you have to ask yourself whether that's smart. Unlike Lazy Man, I don't really have a job that pays me by the hour and it's not like I would work an hour more if somebody took over my chores. However, the rationale remains intact even if we use the extra time we save to simply relax. I think it makes sense to pay someone so you can have a bit more quality time to use as you wish (if you can afford to do so).

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