So your startup scaling strategy is hitting a few roadblocks.
Instead of focusing on your company’s growth, you’re getting bogged down in the day-to-day operations and wearing multiple hats just to keep on top of everything.
Well, it’s no surprise. Scaling a business is challenging, particularly for startups with limited resources.
Startups face various obstacles, such as financial constraints, limited technical skills, and a lack of access to the right talent. Putting in place a reliable infrastructure with top-notch human resources requires a lot of time and effort.
These challenges can hinder startup development, making it difficult for founders to expand their product or service offerings, hire new team members, connect with clients, get customer feedback, and compete with larger, established companies.
It is no wonder a significant number of startups fail in the first year when their business scaling strategy is at odds with the skills required to get them over the line.
However, where others have failed, you can succeed. Many startup founders recognize the benefits of an outsourced team to scale their business successfully. With the right strategy, not only is it possible to hire people for significantly less than your average full-time employee, but you can also gain access to a world of multi-skilled individuals who can take on new tasks and help your company scale quickly and efficiently.
Allocate resources to suit your business needs
Not every startup business has angel investors or venture capitalist backing ready to inject millions of dollars into your idea. Bootstrapping is a far more common technique for funding your business. This means keeping one eye on cash flow and another on your startup’s growth. This balancing act is one of the most challenging facets of being an entrepreneur.
When money is tight, hiring good employees is a no-brainer. But when the average cost of hiring any employee is around four-thousand dollars before you see one hour of productivity, it’s pretty easy to start hemorrhaging money quickly. And what if your early employees don’t work out? Well, now you’re back to square one and significantly bruised in the back pocket.
Hire freelancers at the very beginning
One of the most significant benefits of outsourcing is that it can provide startups with a cost-effective alternative to full-time hires. In the early stages, outsourcing can help startups reduce overhead costs and lower employee benefits expenses, making it an attractive option for startups with limited budgets.
In the growth stage of a scaling startup, every dollar saved is a dollar you can spend on getting your product or service in front of your target audience.
You may find yourself needing a specialized skill for only a short period of time that none of your current staff possess. Instead of searching for a costly full-time employee to fill the breach, startups can quickly access the talent they need through an outsourced marketplace in a matter of hours. This cost-saving measure can be particularly beneficial for startups that need to scale rapidly.
Buffer: Scale up. Keep costs low.
Buffer is a social media management platform that allows businesses to schedule and publish content across multiple social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
One of the key ways Buffer was able to scale its business is by using a team of remote freelancers to handle various tasks such as content creation, customer support, marketing strategy, and search engine optimization.
Heavily invested in a global network of freelance workers, Buffer has rapidly expanded its operations, served more customers, and maintained a lean, efficient organizational structure while keeping costs to a minimum.
Freelancers have technical skills you don’t possess
Technical skills are becoming increasingly important in today’s digital age.
However, many startups may not have the technical expertise they need in-house. Outsourcing can fill those gaps by providing startups access to experts in web development, direct marketing, software engineering, copywriting, and graphic design.
Tech startups can benefit massively from outsourcing technical tasks to freelancers and contractors as they are often up-to-date with the latest trends. This operational efficiency can provide tech startups with insights into new technologies that can help them stay ahead of the competition.
Slack: A tech startup scale centered on rapid growth
Founded in 2013, Slack outsourced much of its development work to a team of engineers in Vancouver, Canada, resulting in a massive boost to its profitability and exposure to new clients. Since then, the company has become one of the go-to messaging apps for work teams.
The founders recognized early that building a messaging app that can handle millions of users and maintain fast performance requires a lot of technical expertise and resources.
The Canadian team worked closely with Slack’s internal engineers, collaborating on everything from architecture and design to implementation and testing. This approach enabled Slack to leverage the expertise of a highly skilled and experienced team of developers while scaling at pace.
Outsourcing to connect with ideal clients
In addition to providing access to specialized skills and reducing costs, outsourcing can also help startups connect with their ideal clients more effectively. Understanding a startup’s target market is crucial to its success, and outsourcing can provide the expertise needed to achieve this.
Outsourcing can provide startups with the resources needed to conduct market research, develop effective marketing strategies, and create content marketing that enhances the customer experience. Freelance marketers, copywriters, and designers can work with the startup’s chief marketing officer to create targeted content that speaks directly to their ideal clients. At the same time, virtual assistants can help with lead generation and customer outreach.
Let’s say a startup provides a software solution for small businesses. They have a basic understanding of their target market, but they need help to reach them effectively. By outsourcing to a freelance marketing manager, the startup can gain valuable insights into its target market and develop targeted campaigns that fit its business model.
This can help the startup increase its visibility, generate leads, and ultimately drive revenue growth and scalability.
Hubspot: A speedy startup scaling strategy based on high-quality content
When CRM and email marketing company HubSpot was first launched in 2006, it recognized the importance of content marketing. It knew it needed to create high-quality content to attract and engage its target audience. However, they didn’t have the resources to hire a large team of content creators and marketing professionals in-house.
To overcome this startup scalability issue, HubSpot outsourced its content creation and marketing strategy to a network of freelance writers, editors, and marketers. They worked with these external contractors to create a wide range of content, including blog and business news posts, whitepapers, e-books, and webinars.
By outsourcing its content creation and marketing strategy, HubSpot could scale its content production quickly, reach a broader audience, and connect with its ideal clients more effectively. The company also benefited from the expertise and creativity of external contractors and employees who brought fresh perspectives and ideas to the table.
Freelancers give startup founders their time back
Outsourcing can free up time for startup founders to focus on higher-level tasks such as marketing and growing the business. This is especially important for startups that are resource-constrained and have limited bandwidth.
By outsourcing administrative work, copywriting, design, and development tasks, startup founders can focus on strategic initiatives that drive growth.
With extra time on hand, a founder can develop essential partnerships with other businesses or build out their sales funnel. This can ultimately help the startup achieve exponential growth and reach its full potential.
Canva: How to scale a startup fast through clever hiring practices
Canva’s founder, Melanie Perkins, recognized that to grow the company, she needed to focus on product development, marketing, and business development. However, design work was taking up too much of her time, and maintaining a strong cash flow was becoming onerous.
To remedy the situation, Perkins outsourced design work to a team of freelance designers. She hired freelancers with specific skills and expertise in graphic design and trained them to work on Canva’s platform. This allowed Perkins to focus on the company’s growth, expanding to new customers and developing cloud computing features.
Access to talent from all over the world
One of the most significant advantages of outsourcing is the ability to access talent worldwide. Outsourcing can be a game-changer for startups in areas with limited access to the right talent.
Not all entrepreneurs live in San Francisco, so finding the right employees that fit your company culture can be tricky.
Outsourcing opens businesses up to a world of talent—right at their fingertips. If a company wants to scale up rapidly, interviewing candidates outside the usual wheelhouse is an intelligent move. By working with freelancers from other countries, startups can access highly skilled professionals in various fields. This means that startups can find the best fit for their specific needs, regardless of location.
The global talent pool is massive, and outsourcing enables startups to tap into different perspectives and experiences, leading to more innovative and creative solutions. This can be especially valuable when expanding into new markets or working with a diverse range of clients.
Xero: from New Zealand to the world
Xero is a cloud-based accounting software platform that allows small businesses to manage their finances and accounting online. Based in New Zealand, Xero needed help accessing talented software developers outside of the country to help them scale the business faster.
To overcome this challenge, Xero outsourced to teams of freelancers in Australia, the UK, and Singapore. The result? Xero accelerated the development of its platform and brought it to market faster.
The success of Xero shows how outsourcing to international talent can help startups overcome talent shortages and compete with larger companies, even from smaller countries or cities with limited tech talent. Today, Xero is one of the world’s largest cloud computing accounting software providers, with customers in over 180 countries.
Business growth doesn’t have to take forever
Scaling a startup quickly can be daunting, but outsourcing can be a highly effective solution to overcome this common pain point. By outsourcing, startups can access specialized skills, reduce costs, increase efficiency, connect with ideal clients, stay competitive, and access talent worldwide.
For startups looking to quickly and easily access a pool of vetted freelance developers, designers, copywriters, and virtual assistants from all over the world, Quickly Hire is a market leader. With professional talent available at every timezone, businesses can find the right fit for their specific needs and start scaling their business quickly and efficiently.
Quickly Hire take care of all the fine details to make the process hassle-free, so you can start pumping out the work in less than 48 hours.
