Running a startup takes time, resources and people. When a startup is founded, time is insufficient, resources are limited and many times it’s a one or two people job. This “I do it all” mindset can work for some time but there will come a time at which you will need help. Outsourcing work will not only take work off of your shoulders but will also open the startup to a new set of eyes and experience.
These days, hiring outside help to do work can save companies time and money, for a variety of reasons — especially when it comes to doing routine tasks like payroll and bookkeeping. What should you consider as criteria for deciding whether or not to outsource? In this blog post, we’ll take a look at 5 careful signs that it might be time for your startup to begin thinking about outsourcing some of the work.
There aren’t enough hours in the day
If you start to feel like days should have 48 hours and not 24, you’re not meeting your deadlines and you feel completely exhausted it’s time to ask for help and outsource some tasks. We’re not superheroes, it’s completely understandable and normal to not be able to do everything. As a matter of fact, this mentality can lead to burnout.
The skill you’re looking for is very specific
Startups are known for having hybrid and small teams with versatile profiles. That doesn’t mean that one person alone can run a marketing or sales department; again, we’re not superheroes. Outsourcing gives you and your team a helping hand in specific and recurrent tasks that are out of your reach like, for example, financial services, web creation, graphic design, and content creation. Unless the organization specializes in these services, it is best to delegate these responsibilities to professionals.
You need to save some money
When you outsource some tasks and projects you can benefit from quite some cost savings. When you hire an agency, for example, you gain access to the resources of a whole company while incurring even less overhead expenses than if you hired a full-time employee. The same applies for freelancers; some have very specific qualities and skills that can come in handy in recurrent projects, while others can help on project-based tasks at a quite fair price.
You are struggling with work-life balance
Running your own startup is demanding and it comes with some sacrifices. You might get home late some days, work past midnight or need to put some hours on the weekend. That’s alright to a certain point.
When your life becomes 100% work and 0% fun it can affect your performance, your startup’s future and your own mental and physical health. Delegating work will allow your business to keep growing by letting in external insights and allow you to focus on executive and managing tasks. This offload will allow you to take a breath, disconnect and get your work-life balance back on track. Sometimes all we have to do is take a step back to get things running smoothly again.
Your startup needs new and out-of-the-box ideas
Any startup team hits a stage where the well of new ideas runs dry and not even a weekly brainstorming session is able to turn the tables. Hiring freelancers is a perfect way to get new ideas into the market from a fresh and outside viewpoint. As an outsider, freelancers can distance themselves from the company (and its product or service) to provide valuable insights and ideas that you and your team might have passed on.
It’s time to put old convictions behind and see the positive aspects of outsourcing. It doesn’t make you look weak, quite the contrary actually. Outsourcing certain activities can alleviate some of the day-to-day pressures that many company owners experience and end up helping your company prosper in the long run.