A busy firm before the last recession that we'll call Allselfs, used to pride itself on being a full-service marketing consultant. The company maintained a full in-house operation.
The company regularly turned down requests by small outside contractors offering to provide services that could support them such as content research. Business did fine.
That changed when a major economic downturn hit and forced Allselfs to think about ways to cut costs for the first time in its history.
As part of the restructuring effort, Allselfs took another look at its internal operations and discovered that it should have taken the bids from outside suppliers more seriously.
Independent contractors actually could provide the quality and reliability that Allselfs demanded and substantially lower the firm's costs at the same time. When Allselfs asked its most important customers what they thought about the proposed changes, the answers surprised the executives.
Clients saw real value in the breadth and expertise of the company's professional staff and that didn't change when they were supported by others.
By reviewing the value chain, Allselfs had found and took an opportunity to refocus its resources and energy on the activities and links in the chain that provided the most value to its customers.
The business weathered those tough times and thrived more than it's founders expected.
Can you relate to Allselfs, in the way you either keep all work internal with your company staff, or if that's just you, maybe you find yourself doing everything?
If you are ready to reduce costs, increase output and do more than you thought possible for less, book a call to see how we can help.
Based on a story published in a book by Paul Tiffany PhD & Steven Peterson PhD.