Outsourcing for solo founders: a team without a payroll

Key takeaways

Outsourcing for solopreneurs means buying a few hours a week of admin, customer contact or production so the founder's time goes on selling and delivering. It lets a one-person business grow without registering as an employer. Start with 5 to 15 hours a week on the most repeatable task, and only once you can describe it in writing.

• Start with 5 to 15 hours a week on one repeatable task.
• No payroll, pension or employer's liability insurance to set up.
• Compare the hourly cost with what an hour of your selling time earns.
• Write the task down first: it takes an evening and saves weeks.

Why do solo founders hit a ceiling?

Solo founders hit a ceiling because every activity competes for the same hours. Selling, delivering, invoicing and replying to customers cannot all be done at once, so growth stops when the calendar is full. The next step is not necessarily a first employee. It is getting routine hours off the founder's desk.

• How outsourcing helps small businesses scale without hiring
• The stages of small business growth, and what breaks at each

What should a solo founder outsource first?

Outsource first the task that is repeatable, takes several hours a week and does not need your judgement. For most one-person businesses that is the inbox and diary, invoicing and payment chasing, or order and booking admin. Keep selling, pricing and the work customers are paying you for.

• Inbox triage and standard replies.
• Diary management and booking confirmations.
• Invoicing and polite payment chasing.
• Order processing and customer updates.
• Formatting, scheduling and data entry.

• What should you outsource first?
• Doing everything yourself in business: what it costs

What does it cost against your own time?

Compare the cost with what your own hour is worth. If an hour of your selling or delivery time earns £40 and the task can be done for an indicative £9–£18 per hour by a managed offshore team, each hour handed over is worth more than it costs, provided you use the freed time on paid work.

Ten hours a week at £12 is about £520 a month. That is a real commitment for a solo business, so start with a pilot.

• What is your time worth as a business owner?

How is this different from a first employee?

Buying a service is different from employing someone. A first employee means registering as an employer with HM Revenue & Customs, running payroll, providing a workplace pension, taking out employers' liability insurance and managing a person. A service contract has a monthly fee, a notice period and a provider responsible for cover.

• Virtual assistant versus managed BPO team
• Remote employees vs outsourcing: which scales better?

How do you hand over when it is all in your head?

Hand over by recording yourself doing the task. Capture your screen while you process five real examples and talk through each decision. Turn that into a one-page guide with the common cases and what to do with exceptions. Expect to spend an evening on it, and to answer questions for the first fortnight.

• Document your processes before you outsource

When should a solo founder not outsource?

Do not outsource if income is too irregular to commit to a monthly cost, if the task takes under about five hours a week, or if you would not use the freed time on revenue-earning work. In those cases simplify the task, automate reminders and templates, and revisit in a quarter.

• Is it too early for your business to outsource?
• When not to outsource

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see among UK consultants and sole-trader service businesses: the founder does client work all day and admin all evening, and has not sent a proposal in a month. Handing the inbox, diary and invoicing to a part-time managed seat typically frees one to two working days a week for selling.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Solo founder outsourcing checklist

Work through this before you sign anything.

• Log your time for one week by task.
• Pick one repeatable task of five hours or more.
• Record yourself doing it and write a one-page guide.
• Decide what the freed hours will be used for.
• Agree a data processing contract if personal data is involved.
• Run a 60-day pilot and compare hours and income.

• Run an outsourcing pilot before you commit

Next step

Send us your one-week time log. We will pick out what could be handed over first and what a small pilot would involve.