Essential Services Every Startup Entrepreneur Should Outsource To Succeed

Do you feel like you’re spending a lot of your time on operational logistics instead of building your company? Then you’re not alone.

As a startup entrepreneur, it’s easy to feel like you have to do everything yourself. While this is understandable, it’s bad for your startup. You must learn to delegate. That way, you’ll have the time and energy to focus on what’s important.

Here are some essential services every startup entrepreneur should outsource.

Information Technology

Outsourcing your company’s IT needs to a tech provider is one of the most common ways to keep your company competitive. There are so many ways in which outsourcing to an IT services company will be advantageous to your startup.

When you outsource to outside professionals you get access to a larger talent pool than what will likely be a small in-house team. The outside professionals will already have whatever specialized equipment they may need. You’ll save a ton of money from not having to pay for your own IT department plus all the equipment. It’s what makes

Whether it’s building software from the ground up or building on existing code it’s better to outsource. Or maybe you already have an in-house IT team working on your products and software. That’s even more reason to outsource specialized developments so that your team can focus on innovations on the main task.

For example, you could outsource your company’s cloud services or outsource the quality control testing of software. As a startup, it’s vital that you maintain a competitive edge and when QA testers have the sole assignment of ensuring quality, your company’s product or service will have that competitive edge in the market due to its functionality and security.

Accounting

Did you know that small businesses pay boatloads of money every year in fines for incorrect payroll filings? Handing this task off to experts will ensure that your company is compliant, thus avoiding the unnecessary additional costs of paying for fines.

Now, there are numerous certified finance firms, qualified freelance accountants, or special accounting software all more than capable of handling your payroll needs and other additional accounting needs. There’s really no longer any need to overburden yourself and end up paying fines you can’t afford.

Recruiting

Employee turnover is a major issue in the startup community. The challenge of not only finding good employees but maintaining them is a huge one. There’s fierce competition and no matter how many great benefits you offer, how cool your offices and workspaces are, how many snacks are laid out or how relaxed your vacation policy is, turnover is almost impossible to avoid.

As a startup, you should have a plan for how many new hires you project to have over the years. You want your team to grow as the company grows. Because of turnover your 5 new hires a year will likely become 8 new hires a year. This is why you need to outsource your recruitment process.

Employees are the backbone of your startup, it’s best to have trained professionals find the best ones for you.

Digital Marketing

The truth is that a significant amount of your customers are online. A consumer’s first instinct now is to look for products and services on a search engine or social media platforms. Having an online presence is not enough, it has to be a strong online presence. Why not outsource this to experts who know what they’re doing?

One survey showed that small business owners spend roughly 33 hours a week on marketing activities alone, with a high number of these businesses admitting that they had insufficient time in the day to get everything done. It’s not financially feasible or the best use of resources to have full-time PR, social media, and web design functions in-house.

Digital marketing involves a lot more than posting a couple of tweets or liking Facebook pages. It involves targeted campaigns, email marketing, search engine optimization, etc. For example, a key part of online marketing is tracking analytics. This means monitoring your online campaigns to see if they’re working and to make necessary adjustments. Does your startup have time to do all that?

Administration

Outsourcing administrative duties mean passing the responsibilities of taking notes, answering emails, scheduling employee work hours, and scheduling meetings with outsourced workers.

As a startup, it’s unlikely that you already have a fully functioning HR department or a full secretarial staff. This way you won’t run the risk of looking unprofessional for missing an important meeting because it wasn’t properly scheduled, and your employees won’t be overwhelmed with minor things like answering emails.

Another duty that is often outsourced is customer service. If your staff have to devote the precious time that should be spent doing actual work to dividing their time between getting new customers and keeping the old ones happy your startup will be hurt. Keeping customers or consumers certified is the key to keeping your startup in the competitive market. Consumers have hundreds of options now and the way to get them to pick you is by outsourcing to people who know what they’re doing.

Make sure to hire professionals with glowing reviews and recommendations.

People

Businesses need special skills, especially startups. Outsourcing means your business will be able to scale staffing needs according to seasonality or project needs so there’ll be a significant reaction in redundant staff.

Hiring freelancers gives startups a competitive edge. When you start, you’re competing with huge companies with hundreds of employees you can’t afford to hire. Outsourcing to freelancers means you too get to hire qualified people to work for you, only at half the cost temporarily.

Logistics

If you’re a retailer, then you know the logistics of planning logistical operations can be a nightmare. From finding the best warehouses to proper fleet management, it can take days to work out.

Having fulfillment, warehousing and delivery activities handled by third-party providers not only lowers overall expenditure but also helps improve customer service and frees up a significant amount of valuable time.

There are a lot of logistical experts who know what they’re doing and can handle your logistical needs seamlessly. Or, if you prefer not to outsource to people, there’s the option of software that can work out logistical problems in seconds. When choosing, look for software that has an accurate geocoder, can examine data on different levels, and can track operations on one platform.

Outsourcing is a smart strategy for extending your capabilities as a startup while focusing on your core goals.