Icon Insurance specialises in insurance policies for smaller and growing businesses: cover for the home office, small office-based business insurance, Professional Indemnity cover (including SecurITy for IT professionals) and Lawsuit legal expenses cover. Our products and services are available on-line and/or off-line to businesses and residents of the United Kingdom

Paradoxically, you can achieve more and work more profitably, if you do less!

The question to ask yourself is, must you actually do that particular task yourself? If not, rather than hiring extra help, consider outsourcing. This involves farming out work to an outside provider or manufacturer to cut costs or to free up time.

You can outsource almost anything. Over recent years outsourcing has extended into areas such as secretarial and PA services, book-keeping, telephone answering, PR, graphic or web design, website management, order fulfilment, computer support, system development, recruitment, facilities management, sales and marketing, direct mail… and even running prisons!

For instance, this website was created by Knowledge Computing, to whom we have outsourced the creation and management. This meant we didn't have to learn the skills ourselves, nor divert our energy from more profitable work. It also meant we didn't have to hire an employee. Knowledge work on an as-needed basis, which suits everyone.

But what is involved in successful outsourcing? And how do you make the most of it?