Outsourcing your services is something that is universally embraced by massive conglomerates and one-person startups alike. Sure, in some cases, this is done because there’s no other choice, but even in situations where you could do a certain task on your own, you need to ask yourself one question – is outsourcing really more efficient? This strategy can bring you a higher quality of service and lower overhead cost, which are, in and of themselves, more than good enough reasons to do so. Here are six most common ways in which startups benefit from business process outsourcing services.
Simplifying your internal structure
As an executive, it’s your job to oversee the entire organization, yet, some of its departments might be outside of your scope of expertise. For instance, you might have worked in the sales or HR department before starting your own company or becoming a manager, however, this wouldn’t qualify you as an IT expert as well. Sure, you don’t have to know everything about everything in order to run a startup but by becoming a supervisor of those tasks you’re already familiar with, you can definitely boost your own efficiency as a manager. As for all the rest, you can simply delegate it to people who are more skilled in those areas.
A fresh perspective
When you need to start a new marketing campaign, outsourcing might give you a privilege of the outsider’s perspective. A company you decide to work with might have a completely different view on your brand than your own team does. In fact, their standpoint might be closer to that of your audience, which is the insight you were aiming for in the first place. Needless to say, it’s much easier to manipulate the public image of your company if you first know what that public image actually is. By outsourcing, you can exploit this in a more reliable way.
Offshoring gives you more options
In a situation where you decide to start your own in-house department, you will be faced with an issue of what’s available. When it comes to hiring, you will be restricted to your local talent pool, which can be quite a problem. Sure, hiring telecommuters and remote workers is a viable choice, yet, it might be much easier to simply outsource your entire marketing department. Moreover, there are some regions that are known for offering the most cost-effective service in certain areas, like India for customer support or Hong Kong for digital marketing. Nowadays, there are even outsourcing platforms targeting these specific areas. For instance, 2 Easy platform focuses on above-mentioned Hong Kong.
Easier to budget
When negotiating with an agency, you agree on the list of features and services you are about to receive up front and you have to pay them based on that. On the other hand, when you decide to start an in-house department, the expenses just seem to be piling up. The cost of organizing a hiring campaign, training your new employees, as well as providing them with adequate hardware and software licenses are just some of the major expenses.
The employee wages and bonuses are something completely different and you never know when you’ll have to hire a substitute or a replacement. On top of it all, you may not even have the room for your new department on-spot, which means that you’ll have to lease out a bigger office or make a contract with a shared office space somewhere else. All in all, outsourcing is much easier to predict and budget.
Scalability
The next thing you need to consider is the issue of scalability. Let’s face it, most agencies you’re outsourcing to are more than capable of running an operation that is several times larger than what you’re asking for. Aside from you, they probably have several other clients that they’re tackling at the same time. To make the long story short, if you ever feel the need to expand your capacities, you can just renegotiate your contract with this agency instead of being forced to physically expand your operations (hiring new people, leasing out a new office, buying new equipment).
Penetrating new markets
Finally, by making your company international, you will have a lot easier time penetrating new markets. What we mean by that is the fact that every new partner poses as a new contact in your network. Think about just how easier would the expansion be if you already had someone you can trust there. In fact, this can also be a great long-term strategy for probing the potential expansion. You can start by outsourcing to locals instead of establishing an international office right away.
Conclusion
The last thing you need to understand is the fact that your own department is always going to get outperformed by a specialized agency in the short-run. Of course, after a longer period of time, once your team acquires the same level of experience and learn all the business practices, there will no longer be that big of a difference quality-wise. Nevertheless, there’s no way of telling how long will it take. So, for all those who can’t wait that long, outsourcing is a clearly superior option.
