In-House vs Outsourcing: What Should You Do?

Running a hospitality business today is complex. From scheduling and payroll to supplier contracts and marketing, there are more moving parts than ever. Most operators are still trying to juggle them all themselves.

The instinct to keep everything in-house often comes from pride, control, or cost-saving. But trying to ‘do it all’ can end up holding your business back. In reality, strategic outsourcing isn’t a shortcut or a compromise. Understanding outsourcing pros and cons helps you make smart decisions, balancing risk, cost, and efficiency.

So what should stay on your plate, and what can you hand over?

Keep In-House: What Makes Up Your Identity

Every business has a heartbeat. Maybe it’s the food, the way you create a confident and slick service, the team energy, or your thoughtful touches for regulars.

The outsourcing pros and cons become clear here: while you save time and gain expertise, you also need to manage communication and expectations.

These are the parts that set you apart. They’re hard to outsource well.

So it makes sense to keep ownership of:
– Menu and food quality
– Guest experience and service tone
– Team culture and training
– Brand voice and creative direction

These things are uniquely you. They’re also where your energy as an owner or operator is best spent. Evaluate each task through the lens of outsourcing vs in house strategy to stay focused on your core strengths.

Outsource With Confidence: What Drains Time or Needs Expertise

Outsourcing doesn’t mean giving up control. It means investing in people who are specialists, freeing you up to focus on the areas only you can drive.

Common areas to outsource include:
– Payroll and bookkeeping
– Recruitment
– Social media or PR
– Repairs and maintenance
– HR or compliance support

These areas benefit from specialist input and a consistent process. They relieve your time and effort to get on with what you do best whilst the people who do that best do it for you.

Consider Outsourcing: Commercial Management

Outsourcing can create neutrality around information, offering an external perspective that enables clearer, more informed, and less biased decision-making. Here’s the one most people don’t think about, but should.

Commercial management is everything that makes the business side of hospitality run smoothly.

That includes:

• Reports that make data useful
• Action plans that works for the team
• Experts that make financial demands and compliance palatable
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Integration of systems
• Supplier negotiation
• Labour cost analysis
• Sales tracking and reporting
• Cashflow planning
• Commercial decision making and accountability

It’s not glamorous, but it’s what keeps the engine running. For many cafés and restaurants, it’s the missing piece. A role no one truly owns, but everyone needs.

At The Engine Room, this is exactly what we do. We offer commercial management retainers that plug into your business like an in-house Ops Director or Financial Director , without the overhead or complexity of hiring one full-time or that is out of scope at your scale. We also delver your payroll and bookkeeping services as these are a natural way to ensure that the systems that feed commercial advise are up to date. We work alongside owners, chefs, and managers to bring clarity, control, and confidence to the commercial side of your business.

You don’t have to do it all

The best hospitality businesses know what to hold onto and what to let go. Outsourcing doesn’t mean losing your identity. It means protecting it.

Evaluating each decision through the lens of outsourcing vs in house keeps you agile, strategic, and sustainable. If commercial management doesn’t always exist or only partially does or payroll, and/or bookkeeping are taking up too much time, we can help.

Find out how The Engine Room can become the operational backbone of your business.