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Connect and Grow Magazine - November 2023 Edition 3
This Month in Business to Business, we are discussing the importance of maintain control over your website, social media and more. Protecting your business.
Trust YOURSELF
Are you a business owner who has reached the point where you are outsourcing aspects of your business?
That is an exciting step in your business however it is one that is to be taken very carefully.
In business there is so much to do and it can be challenging doing it all yourself, there is so much to learn, to implement and it doesn’t matter what your business is, there will always be aspect of that outsourcing can be beneficial.
In this article we are covering a few things to think about when outsourcing and why they are important. We are also sharing an experience one person had when outsourcing and how wrong it went, shared at her request, as she put it to help others learn and hopefully never go through the same thing.
Services that you may out source as part of your business, that gives you back time to focus on growing the business and doing what you love and enjoy:
Website design
Social media posts and management
Accounting, book keeping
Virtual assistant.
App design for your business.
These are the main ones that people outsource. Depending on your business will determine what other things you may outsource. May people do have a HR advice team outside of their organization, especially when small.
Things to consider when choosing who you will work with for your business and the list of services as mentioned above is the following:
Does the business has testimonies that you can read?
How long have they been offering the services they do?
What are their qualifications.
Do they listen to what it is you would like for your business?
Do they ask for full admin rights to your website, social media, app, emails and accounting software?
When working with them how easy are they to contact and answer your questions?
While each of the above is important, one thing is to always ensure that you maintain full admin rights to every aspect of your business. I realize that should be a given however it may surprise you to learn that many people have been known to take over social media, websites and apps along with business accounting and emails, locking the business owner out of their own business, unable to receive messages on their social media, noticing that they are not getting track to their website like they used to.
To explain this more I will share with you, Angela and Michaels experience.
Angela and Michael run a disability business in Canada and decided to outsource some of the work they didn’t feel were their strength, which at the time they felt excited to do.
Angela shared with me... It was a great feeling when we found the marketing company who does everything for us, we though great more time to work with our staff and clients. Our business goal of opening a cafe where people with disabilities could work and also visit could come true if we employed a company to update our website, get our SEO’s right and help with our social media.”
Michael and Angela interviewed a couple of different companies and found who they thought were perfect, however what they have shared that they realised later that this business’ social media page really didn’t have a lot of followers, well under 1,000. Michael shared “ I thought a marketing business would have a lot of more followers and engagement on social media, as that demonstrates they know how to market a business.”
As time progressed both Michael and Angela realised that the company were not getting things done that they asked for and were hard to contact.
Our social media page had no growth or engagement..
It wasn’t until family and friends pointed out the the social media pages while it had regular content, there was no messages coming through and the page had only 40 people liking and following it after 12 months of working with this company.
When they approached the marketing business about this, they shared they were initially meet with silence and then told it takes time, however the likes and followers they had, were all from prior to the marketing company.
16 months into working with this company, found it harder and harder to get in touch with them and when they did there was always a “reason of why things were not growing”
Angela shared “As the cafe opening got closer I decided to create a post for our social media to share with everyone our excitement of what we had developed and to share with our small community, I went to log into my social media account only to find that my log in details had been changed. Initially i thought I had forgotten my password, however it didn’t recognize my email, which was very strange. Michael tried and both of us were locked out. We then went through and found that there had been no posts on our social media or changes to our website for 4 months, yet were had been paying for this service.”
“We had to contact each social media platform and the website hosting company and spent months getting back access to all of our business accounts. We also lost access to the app this company was also developing for us.
Stress and anxiety set in ...
It wasn’t until family and friends pointed out the the social media pages while it had regular content, there was no messages coming through and the page had only 40 people liking and following it after 12 months of working with this company.
When they approached the marketing business about this, they shared they were initially meet with silence and then told it takes time, however the likes and followers they had, were all from prior to the marketing company.
16 months into working with this company, found it harder and harder to get in touch with them and when they did there was always a “reason of why things were not growing”
Angela shared “As the cafe opening got closer I decided to create a post for our social media to share with everyone our excitement of what we had developed and to share with our small community, I went to log into my social media account only to find that my log in details had been changed. Initially i thought I had forgotten my password, however it didn’t recognize my email, which was very strange. Michael tried and both of us were locked out. We then went through and found that there had been no posts on our social media or changes to our website for 4 months, yet were had been paying for this service.”
“We had to contact each social media platform and the website hosting company and spent months getting back access to all of our business accounts. We also lost access to the app this company was also developing for us. Eventually we got back access to most things but had lost the app and its design, the business disappeared and all numbers were disconnected. We have continued thanks to the support of our family and friends but to think we trusted this company, they made us feel so comfortable and that we could trust them. As we looked back over things we found the social media posts were so similar to other business’s they managed and not representing our business and values.”
Word of advice to anyone outsourcing from Angela and Michael - keep logging into your social media and website, never give up complete access or allow the business access to change your log ins.
Written by Jacqui Grant
Input from Angela and Michael - Tornato Canada
(C) Connect and Grow Magazine -November 2023 Edition 3
Disclaimer: Always seek professional advice for your particular situation. If you believe someone has taken your business data always consult with a lawyer and all other appropriate professionals for your situation.