3 things your startup should consider outsourcing

In the competitive world of startups, founders should focus on core business operations without distractions. But at the initial stages of business expansion, funds, and staff are limited. It’s the problem that drives most startup owners to wear too many hats and try to do it all as a way of saving money and time.

As a startup founder, you must be careful. Taking on too many tasks can sacrifice quality and accuracy. Alternatively, when entrepreneurs outsource, they’re connecting their startup with expert teams that have the knowledge and skill sets for handling a variety of tasks while avoiding errors.

Why choose outsourcing?

It’s a harsh reality that 90 percent of new businesses fail, and 46 percent of these failures happen because the money well runs dry. Watching the budget is a must as a new business takes off. Investing in services that don’t generate a hefty return is a recipe for failure. With outsourcing, you can expect a generous return on your investment. In fact, outsourcing reduces up to 60 percent of costs. Business owners also benefit from an increase in productivity levels. These are among the top reasons companies outsource.

From the first steps of advertising open positions to training new hires and giving employees time to adjust to your work processes and company culture, the hiring process is expensive. Also, staff members you decide to onboard can make or break your business depending on their quality of work.

For talented staff that won’t exhaust valuable resources, outsourcing can be the solution. You can hire outsourced personnel as augmented staff working with your in-house team, or you can outsource all your business needs.

What should startups outsource?

If you’re considering outsourcing, you may be wondering exactly where your business needs these services. This is more of a personal business question because the answer depends on your business and company goals.

No matter what tasks you decide to outsource, you must be strategic in your approach. Carefully analyze your company’s strengths and the skills of your staff. In the departments where ‘all is well,’ outsourcing may not be necessary. But every new business has its weaknesses. As you acknowledge these weaknesses, contact outsourcing firms to discuss how their personnel can help.

If you’re looking for specific suggestions, three tasks that are always beneficial to outsource are:

• Administrative duties
• IT services
• Payroll

Administrative duties

Outsourcing administrative duties passes the responsibilities of taking notes and answering emails to outsourced workers. Important scheduling matters such as employee work hours and meetings can also be outsourced, which is especially beneficial when there’s no HR department.

As you and your staff work on more pressing projects, you can be confident that your outsourced assistants aren’t missing a beat when it comes to keeping your company organized while promptly communicating with clientele, potential business partners, and investors.

IT services

Getting to market as quickly as possible is necessary for businesses to remain relevant in the market because technologies are constantly evolving and introducing consumers to new services. If you take too long to release a product, it may be outdated, or the competition might have beaten you to market.

Outsourcing to tech providers is one of the more obvious routes to keep your company competitive. You can work with a larger talent pool than in house and the team will already have whatever specialized equipment they need. Indeed, what makes IT outsourcing providers stand out is their emphasis on cutting-edge technology that will support the deployment of the highest quality products.

Anything you send to market represents your brand. Outsourced IT teams work with startups as they build products from the ground up or build on existing code for more satisfactory user experiences. Consider outsourcing software development to ensure that products are secure and functional, which will build customer loyalty.

Your team has deadlines to meet, but they are often working on a variety of tasks with a limited amount of time. Outsourced IT personnel can speed up processes during each phase of development. Not only do outsourcers have the necessary tools readily available, but they also possess the latest information about the market that helps companies develop more innovative approaches.

Keep your in-house teams focused on innovation by utilizing the extended team model to add specialized developers and Quality Assurance (QA) testers as an extension to your staff. Remote extended teams work with intense focus towards a primary objective that is critical to the success of the project.  

Specialized developers have knowledge of the latest technologies and can approach a complex development task without distractions when working as part of an extended team, allowing them to work creatively and contribute to a more innovative product.

While project managers know that quality is critical during development, their teams are often too busy with other tasks to focus on quality assurance. When QA testers have the sole assignment of ensuring quality, your company’s product will have a competitive edge in the market due to its functionality and security.

Payroll

Consider the fact that small businesses have paid billions in fines annually due to incorrect payroll information. Outsourcing payroll protects you and your staff because it provides the accuracy needed to prevent legal punishments and pay your team accordingly.

Bottomline, startups owners must be driven to succeed while utilizing cost-effective solutions to build their business and reach consumers in competitive markets. To ensure that your business is functional while avoiding critical errors that can damage your brand’s reputation, outsourcing is the way to go.