A start-up presents unique challenges to the entrepreneur behind it. Although many people expect to have reduced income when starting a business and plan for the difficulties that can cause, few people really consider the possibility of growing too quickly. It happens all the time. Some magazine or popular social media page features your app or products, and suddenly you’re swamped with demand. Knowing that this viral degree of interest will slow but not entirely die out, you need to be wise about how you expand and what you spend your limited liquid capital on during this time.
Outsourcing can be a key factor to keeping up with growth and demand without overextending your business. Adding new salaries to your budget can be difficult, especially when you don’t know what the next few weeks or months will bring financially. By choosing to outsource certain functions, you can have the work you need reliably completed without incurring an ongoing expense that could overextend your budget. Certain functions make more sense to outsource, while others make more sense to continue doing in house.
Highly Skilled Functions Make Sense to Outsource
Unless your company specializes in computers or software, any needs you have for app or software development should be outsourced. Hiring someone on a salary to perform an one-time task doesn’t make much financial sense. Also, when you have an internal hire working on software, you may end up disappointed with the results, which you have already paid for. Outsourcing software and app development mean that your costs will be performance-driven. If the development company fails to meet key criteria, you won’t be financially obligated to pay until they correct their mistakes.
Similarly, accounting is an area that is often overlooked when it comes to outsourcing. Unless your company has enough work to keep an internal accountant occupied for forty hours a week indefinitely, working with an outside accounting professional can help your business.
Some companies worry about security when it comes to sharing financial information. In this age, however, anything stored on a computer could be compromised. An accounting firm will likely have robust security protocols in place to protect your business’s financial information. You will also be able to rely on them to complete work by critical deadlines. A company like Count On That can provide your company with as much or as little as is needed in terms of accounting services. From payroll to bookkeeping and taxes, Count On That can provide the services you need securely and accurately.
Secondary Benefits of Outsourcing
Outsourcing will not only save you the expense of a salary, it can offer you another layer of protection. Internal employees will likely not carry their own liability insurance, but outside firms do have their own errors and omissions policies. If there is a major mistake that could cost you money, the loss is likely recoverable if the work was done outside your company. This applies to anything from accounting to software or even prototype development and production.
Additionally, studies have shown that outsourcing can actually boost a start-up’s creativity, rather than stifling it. When your employees aren’t expected to multi-task and learn functions outside of their area of expertise, they can invest much more into the projects that will matter the most to your company in the long run. If your employees have to diversify their work to cover work like accounting, it can reduce their availability for key projects and their preferred work, which can be detrimental to the long-term success of your company.
While it may seem counter-intuitive to outsource certain work to boost productivity, in reality, outsourcing can benefit your company. From keeping costs low to ensuring that skilled projects are completed on time and accurately, outsourcing skilled work to external companies can help your start-up thrive.
