Employee Handbooks     Managing Change     Benefits of Outsourcing     Outsourcing Basics   Communication is the cornerstone to successful change management. Talking to your employees is not a one-time event, and you need to reinforce your message by communicating early and often. The Benefits of Outsourcing Outsourcing -- the practice of using outside firms to handle work normally performed within a company -- is a familiar concept to many entrepreneurs. Small companies routinely outsource their payroll processing, accounting, distribution and many other important functions -- often because they have no other choice. Many large companies turn to outsourcing to cut costs. In response, entire industries have evolved to serve companies´ outsourcing needs. But not many businesses thoroughly understand the benefits of outsourcing. It´s true that outsourcing can save money, but that´s not the only (or even the most important) reason to do it. As many firms discovered during the outsourcing "mania" of the early 1990s, outsourcing too much can be an even bigger mistake than not outsourcing any work at all. The flat economy caused many companies into huge layoffs and subsequently outsourced functions that were better kept in-house. Wise outsourcing, however, can provide a number of long-term benefits: Control capital costs. Cost-cutting may not be the only reason to outsource, but it´s certainly a major factor. Outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, releases capital for investment elsewhere in your business, and allows you to avoid large expenditures in the early stages of your business. Outsourcing can also make your firm more attractive to investors, since you´re able to pump more capital directly into revenue-producing activities.                                                                                                        Click to next page