Smart Outsourcing from the Entrepreneur's Playbook

I've never blogged earlier on small business outsourcing, an indication of the fact that I never dwelled too deeply on the specific opportunities and challenges of small business outsourcing. Well, that changed with this exemplar case on "FreshBaby", a homemade baby-food business that was founded in 2002 by Cheryl Tallman. Smart outsourcing, which in the firm's case, involved outsourcing all operations - manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, accounting and legal - except the firm's core competences - product design and sales - was instrumental to growth in revenue growth and market share.

So far, so good: Fresh Baby's sales tripled, to $300,000, between 2003 and 2004, but leveled off last year as Tallman spent more time on beefing up her distribution system and less on marketing and sales. Now both Whole Foods and Wild Oats Markets sell Fresh Baby.

Artful outsourcing is a powerful lever that can be used to achieve a variety of strategic business objectives. And it's for everyone.