When it comes to outsourcing, many people believe that it’s generally something that larger companies do. After all, outsourcing can cost a lot of money and the idea of hiring people temporarily can seem like a poor decision when you’re aiming to grow a small business. However, outsourcing comes with many great advantages that we simply can’t ignore. Even as a startup, outsourcing is a fantastic option to help you fill certain skill gaps and get specific things done in a quick and timely manner.
So to help you out, we’ve put together this helpful post that will explain some of the benefits of outsourcing that you shouldn’t be ignoring as a startup
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Staffing flexibility that is perfect for startups
Hiring a new employee seems to be the better choice when it comes to staffing your startup. This is because there are plenty of good reasons why you should be investing in long-term staff. You want new people to get used to working with your team and you want them to grow alongside your company. However, this can be extremely expensive. The costs of hiring an employee can grow substantially if you’re not careful. From the costs of using recruitment services to the training and interviews required, you need to invest a lot of time and money into the entire process which makes it costly in many different ways.
This is why having staffing flexibility with outsourcing is so important. It’s essential that we look for ways to fill in skill gaps and get things done in your startup without having to invest too much time and money. For instance, if you simply need a logo or website designed, then it’s far easier to just recruit a designer instead of hiring one that may or may not have extra tasks to complete after the job is done. You don't have to invest in hiring someone that only works for a couple of hours a week, so you should reserve recruitment for when you need people that are expected to work longer hours.
Giving you more time to focus on core tasks
Another big advantage of business outsourcing is the ability to focus more on your core tasks instead of focusing on unnecessary things. For instance, you might be spending a lot of time on administrative tasks such as accounting and managing your books. If you feel like this is sapping away the time that you could be spending on core tasks such as growing your business, designing new products, and networking with clients, then you may want to consider hiring a specialist to help you take care of those responsibilities.
When you outsource work, you’re looking to free up time so that you can spend it doing something else. Many business owners are stubborn in the sense that they’ll try to manage everything themselves, refusing to delegate tasks or even rely on other people for assistance. In a situation like this, you’re much better off just outsourcing those tasks in order to spread the work. It means less stress for you, it means those tasks are completed faster, and it gives you more time to focus on the core responsibilities that you have.
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Getting assistance with things you’re not accustomed to
The other reason why you might want to outsource is so that you can get assistance with things that your startup isn’t accustomed to or even equipped for. A great example of this is in marketing. Companies like RSM Marketing are excellent to work with if you’re looking to expand your marketing reach and get more customers. Sooner or later, your business might grow to a point where you no longer need outside assistance with marketing. That’s perfectly fine and you can start recruiting marketing experts and even have a whole department dedicated to it. But until then, you’re going to save a lot of money if you rely on experts to assist you with things you’re not used to.
While many companies may prefer to just hire people for a marketing department, it’s extremely expensive and a massive investment in both time and resources. There’s also very little gain considering how small your business is. Marketing works better if you have more time and money to pour into actually getting your brand out there. So if you use up all of your resources on hiring a marketing team, you’ll have no capital left over to actually market your brand.
Lowering costs so that your startup can flourish
Lastly, we can’t forget about the big benefit of outsourcing; it’s a cost-saving measure. Hiring a full-time employee is expensive. There are recruiting costs, training costs, expected benefits, and so on. Being able to pay for all of these things usually means that you’re no longer a startup, but rather a small business. In that sense, it’s perfectly fine to hire employees if you know that you’re going to get a lot of value from them. However, the costs of outsourcing are much lower if you only need to complete the occasional task.
For example, hiring an accountant for your startup can be a waste of money if you don’t make many sales and you’re not processing hundreds of transactions a day. If you’re only making a few sales and can manage your own accounts, then why would you hire an accountant? If you feel like you need assistance with taxes or end-of-month financial responsibilities, then it’s fine to outsource the task every month. It’s much cheaper, it’s more practical, and you still get the same result at the end of the day.
We hope that these tips have convinced you that outsourcing is the way forward if you’re looking to grow a startup. Don’t focus too much on the idea of hiring employees; learn to make the most of your flexibility as a startup and outsource things instead of locking yourself into a team that you need to take great care of.
