I received a call a few days ago from an entrepreneur I have been mentoring for the past three or four months.

She was aggravated by the long list of essential administrative functions that she must perform to comply with state and federal regulations. She said that she had been frustrated a few months earlier with the simple task of choosing whether to form her company as a Limited Liability Corporation or as a Sub-Chapter S, and then getting her tax ID number.

Now she complains that she must spend more than 20 hours per month writing payroll checks, maintaining payroll and tax records, managing employee benefits and trying to keep up with employee-related government regulations.

She would rather devote her productive time to strategic issues such as competition, sales and marketing, and production processes that are directly related to her profitability and success. With fewer than 10 employees, she can't afford to hire another person to perform these essential, but non-strategic, functions.

In addition, as the owner of a small company, she complains that her employees are unhappy with the exceptionally high cost of medical benefits and the absence of a 401(k) savings plan. She simply doesn't have the time to evaluate all of the medical and savings plans that are available and then to negotiate to get favorable coverage to satisfy the diverse needs of each of her valued employees.

Her question to me was: "How can I free up my time from these non-strategic functions so I can focus on improving my business?"

The answer is simple. All of the above functions, and even more of her human resource administrative tasks, can be outsourced to either a payroll service provider, a Professional Employee Organization (PEO), Business Process Outsourcing company (BPO), Application Service Provider (ASP), or even an employee leasing company (which I strongly recommend against). Surveys show that more than 40 percent of all companies outsource their payroll services and/or some portion of the administration of their employee benefits.

You can gather information to help you choose which of the administrative services is right for your company by using any popular Internet search engine and by entering any of the above services as the search argument.

It is important that you first decide exactly what tasks you want outside experts to perform for you. Payroll services and employee benefits - such as health, medical, life, 401(k), etc. - are most often outsourced, but you can also get excellent human resource and risk management services.

You will find that in most cases the needs of a small start- up can be adequately satisfied by a service company that specializes in providing payroll and employee benefit services.

A PEO can go a step further by taking total responsibility for all human resource functions up to and including full legal responsibility for your employees. However, this accountability may include forfeiting the final decision on hiring and firing, which I would never delegate.

I think it's a no-brainer that most non-strategic and time intensive administrative functions should be outsourced so you'll be able to concentrate on strategic thinking, building your business, staying one step ahead of the competition and on long-term planning.