A Better Answer Blog

Summer is here and all of your Facebook friends seem to be taking a vacation somewhere. You’re a business owner and you’ve been working your tail off all year long. You deserve a vacation, too, don’t you think? And preferably one that doesn’t include a laptop.

A Business that Runs Without You

Building a business is no small task. You have to hire the right team to help things along. The right team players know they’ll have to wear several hats to keep things running smoothly. You’ll need to implement systems to ensure that some parts of the business can run itself. After all, as hard as you try, you can’t be everyone or everywhere at the same time.

Accounting software? Great idea.

Company calendar? Check.

Website? Working on it.

Someone to answer calls when you’re not available? Now there’s an idea!

Outsourcing Works

Have you considered outsourcing parts of your business? Many business owners outsource parts of their business so that they can focus on what they do best – which is usually the reason they went into business in the first place. Here is a short list of the typical tasks outsourced for a growing business:

• Website design and maintenance
• Accounting and/or Payroll
• Customer support
• Marketing
• Call answering/appointment setting

If you outsource certain parts of your business, those that seem tedious to you or those that just suck up too much of your time, it can actually seem like you are in two places at the same time. Your business continues to run and you can continue enjoying the core focus of your business and what you do best.

What an Answering Service Offers

An answering service can be tailored to meet the needs of your business and the clients that interact with you. Some of the benefits of an answering service include:

• Answering calls 24 hours a day/7 days a week
• Handling overflow calls when your team is on another call
• Setting appointments
• Escalating calls
• Bilingual call handling (Spanish or other languages)

Call handlers can be trained with a script or process to appear to be another part of your local business team. Clients or customers who need help with directions to your office or other simple questions can be handled directly by the answering service. You and your team can leave the call handling to the answering service, which will keep clients happier than dealing with an automated message.

Pack Your Bags and Book your Trip

You have to take care of yourself in order to take care of those around you, and that includes your business. Outsourcing certain tasks and building a solid team will allow you to take a much needed break so you can share your own summer vacation photos with your friends. Think about it – if you set up a business that will continue to run nearly seamlessly while you’re relaxing on the beach or hiking that mountain, won’t you enjoy it more?