A small business cannot hire everyone in-house for a variety of different reasons. The first is that many smaller companies or startups cannot afford to hire someone full-time for something that might only take them a few hours a day. The next is that the more people a startup hires, the more space that they will need to work efficiently and safely. Working at a startup already is stressful enough when the headaches and struggles a company has can be outsourced. Whatever the reason might be, the following are some departments and sections of a company that it benefits a startup or smaller company to outsource.
IT Department
The IT department for many startups can make or break a company. Ecommerce startups need to have their websites up and running because even a few minutes or hours with the website down can be the difference between being profitable or in the red. Hiring people in the United States and Canada can be quite costly so outsourcing this to a company that is affordable is important. For those companies who need a 24 hour IT team it is essential to outsource as there are plenty of companies in Asia and even the Middle East that can do a quality job at a price that can’t be beaten. If most of the business a company receives is through its website then a thorough vetting of these contractors will be needed. Many companies claim they offer the best service but very few actually do.
Online Marketing
When people here about SEO or online marketing they might immediately think about ads that are clicked or paying Google but do not know really what goes on as far as online marketing. Many business owners are no different when it comes to SEO and SEM as well as other forms of online marketing. The fact that getting on the first page for a selected term can change a business for the better should not be taken lightly. Many SEO and online marketing agencies have full teams dedicated to making those types of things happen. As a startup it might be impossible to field an online marketing team so it has to be outsourced. Possibly in the future a growing company can have its own online marketing team but until then outsourcing is the best decision possible, well unless the company outsourcing is an online marketing company.
Content Production
Keeping a blog maintained with consistent quality content is something that every business should do. The difficult part is that this can be a full-time job for someone who isn’t gifted in writing but has been put there to fill the space. There are numerous websites where consistent blog writers and even blog managers could be hired on a part-time basis for a fraction of what a full-time employee would cost. Maintaining a blog can be one of the company’s best marketing tools so hiring a professional is integral to its success. The best case scenario would be to hire an intern who runs their own blog successfully. They would get more experience and the company can get discounted labor while helping someone build their resume. Ecommerce businesses have to worry about thousands or millions of product descriptions which obviously cannot be done in house so they can be farmed out to plenty of content production companies. There are actually many content production companies that also specialize in SEO and online marketing so it is possible that a bulk deal can be reached for multiple services.
Hiring Multimillion Dollar Companies
If a company could save money and hire a plethora of experience in the meantime, why wouldn’t they do it? There are plenty of marketing companies and PR companies that already have relationships to leverage that would take years to develop. Winging a marketing campaign or an advertising campaign can be a waste of money when professionals can do a much more efficient and quality job. While many companies try to do their best for a client, there are those who try to take advantage of unknowledgeable clients so working with these people should be after thorough vetting process or through referral. It is important to require weekly reports and beware of the contractors trying to use confusing lingo to get out of missing a deadline or lack of production.
Knowing where to outsource can help a company reduce wasted costs by attempting to do things in house that they aren’t qualified to do. A company might have to go through quite a few contractors and outsourced workers before they find the perfect fit. The same goes for hiring in-house employees so doing it at the reduced outsourced cost has its advantages. Don’t try to do everything in the infancy of the company but rather do what the company does well and let others take care of the headaches.