Startups are the jack-of-all-trades of small businesses. By definition, the difference between a startup and your run-of-the-mill small business is the fact that startups primarily aim to develop an innovative product or service for a totally new market. This means that, due to their ambitious nature, startups have to deal with a lot on their plate.
For example, if we just look at it from a marketing perspective, promoting an entirely new product on the existing market is challenging even for the top corporate giants, let alone a newly founded startup. Therefore, it shouldn't surprise us that 9 out of 10 startups fail in their endeavors. With this information in mind, startup founders should be extra careful not to bite off more than they can chew and call for some additional backup instead. After all, there are incredible benefits of outsourcing your business processes to other companies. Here's a list of 5 of these:
1. Boots business efficiency
In one of the surveys conducted by Deloitte, 57% of businesses answered that one of the main reasons they're outsourcing their workflow is so they could, in fact, focus on their own core business functions. This shouldn't come as a surprise, as back office tasks such as marketing, IT and customer support are extremely time-consuming. All startups have one thing in common, and that's the limited resources they have at their disposal. As a result, each employee needs to do what they do best and focus solely on that. This way, startups increase the overall quality of their work and develop their own brands instead of wasting time on repetitive non-core functions totally unrelated to their business. In doing so, workers also acquire vital industry-related skills and expertise which will be extremely beneficial for the development of the firm in the long run.
2. Lowers the costs of operating
When it comes to running a business, cash is king, and the more you can save of it the more it can be invested somewhere else. Likewise, outsourcing business processes reduces the cost of operating by 18% due to a shortened payroll. What's more, this only covers the expenses of paying a full in-house team and as such doesn't even take the costs of training new employees into account or the buying of additional equipment for them. By outsourcing, you're not just getting an increase in manpower, but also an increase in expertise as well, along with all the expensive tools and software that come along with that team. In addition, you have the added flexibility of having a team employed short-term, instead of risking it with a long-term in-house team that might not even work out in the end.
3. Access to global talent
Another thing worth mentioning is that outsourcing doesn't limit you to working only with the local talent, but allows you access to some of the brightest minds on the globe. For example, if your team lacks expertise in a certain area, say in web design, you can find a research platform such as 2Easy and hire the world's cream of the crop to work on your online store development. Hence, you aren't forced to settle with the second-best due to a potential lack of talent in your particular region. Moreover, apart from bringing in the added expertise to the table, acquiring some global talent will allow you to have a fresh pair of eyes with some new and exciting ideas. This innovation could be the thing that separates your business from the rest of the competition and their stale and outdated methods.
4. Promotes growth
Next, there are numerous examples of how outsourcing has an impact on business growth. As previously mentioned, outsourcing lowers the cost of operating quite significantly. This way, small businesses, and startups in particular, can save up a lot of capital that can be later used for development and eventually expansion. According to this survey, as much as 90% of businesses stated that outsourcing was essential for their growth strategies, which just goes to show how effective outsourcing can be. Of course, this doesn't mean that a startup should outsource all of its essential and non-essential functions straight away. Instead, a more sensible approach is to outsource all of the menial back office tasks that come with each expansion and then slowly go on from there.
5. Better working environment
Last but not least, outsourcing helps create a better working environment for the employees, which is important for improving the productivity of employees. As an example, having fewer people inside the office building means there is more space available for the use of leisure and other stress-relieving activities. Furthermore, project leaders will have a much easier time managing a close-knit team rather than having to orchestrate a massive group of people that barely know each other. Likewise, most of the workers inside the office would be within the same team, due to all of the non-core business functions being outside the office. This, of course, will be a massive boost to the company's culture and will create a stronger bond between the co-workers as a result.
To sum up, the market's one big jungle and there's absolutely no need for startups to go out there all on their own completely unprepared. Especially so when business process outsourcing services provide such substantial benefits to these budding startups that using them is almost a no-brainer.
Guest Author
David Webb is a Sydney based business consultant and online marketing analyst. With six years of experience and a degree in online business strategy, he is driven to help the people in better understanding of this new digital age. In free time, David enjoys writing, travelling and occasional night out with his friends.