If you’ve recently started up a business or you’re considering getting your latest business venture off the ground, money can be a hugely influential factor. It’s always important to be savvy with your spending, but this is particularly true in the early stages of your startup. As such, it’s likely that you’ll be looking for sensible ways to cut costs and keep things as lean as possible.
Doing your research is important at this stage. Depending on the nature of your business you’ll want to find the best quality products for the best price, an affordable shop front or office space, or if you’re running a service-based business, simply the capital to fund your lifestyle until you start landing more clients. You might also be considering if you need to expand your team and whether you’ve got the budget to do this.
The good news is, there are a number of ways you can cut costs to your business without compromising the quality and success of your startup. One way to keep costs down is to outsource some of the tasks or responsibilities that are essential to the business, but that you cannot do yourself, nor can you afford to hire a dedicated employee to take on. For example, companies often outsource their IT support to managed it services instead – computer issues get fixed faster without having to pay for in-house IT technicians.
Finding the right third-party supplier or contractor can be hugely beneficial for saving money and taking some of the pressure off you as a business owner. After all, you can’t be in a million places, doing a million things at once. For instance, delegating marketing tasks can help boost your visibility without detracting from core business activities. Similarly, outsourcing Managed IT Bluffton, SC or similar services elsewhere could ensure that your technology is professionally managed. This could free up your time to focus on other areas that drive growth. With that in mind, let’s explore four key areas that new startups should consider outsourcing to enhance efficiency and scalability.
1. Data protection
Data protection is something that you need to be aware of as a business owner. Thanks to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) you need to make sure you have extensive security strategies in place to keep all sensitive data safe. If your business is not found to be 100% compliant with these regulations, you could face a huge fine. So, don’t be fooled by the fact that you’re a startup, every business of any size needs to be compliant.
Problem is, this is quite a specialist area and you’d be forgiven for not being a GDPR or cybersecurity expert. As such, many businesses have individuals or even whole teams dedicated to their security efforts and to ensure that they are GDPR compliant. As a startup, this isn’t always feasible. But thankfully you can hire a DPO service to take care of this for you.
A Data Protection Officer (DPO) is responsible for assessing your data security, implementing new systems, training staff on best practises and generally keeping an eye on all things GDPR. Data protection is a big deal and if you’re unsure about your responsibilities, it’s in your best interest to outsource this to a DPO service.
2. Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is important for driving traffic to your website and making your business more visible on search engines. For this reason, it is important that businesses take their SEO efforts seriously, particularly in the early stages when you want to be driving quality traffic to your website and building your brand/reputation.
But as with data protection, this can be a very specialist area. There are of course things you can do yourself to increase your SEO, but these can be very time-consuming, especially if you want to see real results. And as a business owner, you probably have a lot of better things to be getting on with and a few different marketing areas you want to focus on. Plus, you might not even know where to begin implementing an SEO strategy – it’s not something that can be done overnight.
You can, of course, hire a marketing professional to join your business, but as SEO is so important many businesses choose to hire a dedicated specialist to give their full attention to it. This is a huge expense in the early stages of your business and with so many great SEO platforms and specialists out there, outsourcing your Search Engine Optimisation tasks can save you money and provide you with better results.
3. Website design/development
There are plenty of free or low-cost platforms out there to help you build a website, many of which don’t require a great deal of knowledge or experience. And while these are great when you’re strapped for cash, they do limit the design and user journey of your site. Remember, your website needs to be attractive and user-friendly to help drive sales, so it’s important that you get it right.
Not to mention you could spend hours obsessing over the design, layout, fonts, images, why that plugin isn’t working, or how you can add a video to that particular page! It all gets pretty time-consuming and can be an additional, unnecessary stress when you’re setting up a business.
The good news is that you don’t need to hire a full-time designer. By outsourcing your web development, you can have a professional bring your vision to life. Partnering with a ruby on rails agency allows you to create scalable and robust web applications, enhance your existing features, and resolve technical issues, ensuring long-term success.
4. Project Management
Every startup should consider outsourcing project management as a strategic move to streamline operations and enhance productivity. As a founder or key team member, your time is precious and often stretched thin across various tasks. By entrusting project management to an external expert, you can free up valuable time to focus on innovation, growth strategies, and core business activities, ensuring your energy is directed where it matters most.
Outsourcing project management also brings a wealth of expertise to your business. Professional project managers such as those available at mantralis.co.uk and similar platforms are often equipped with proven methodologies, tools, and industry insights to handle complex projects efficiently. They can identify potential roadblocks, mitigate risks, and ensure your projects stay on track. With their guidance, you can avoid common pitfalls and improve the likelihood of meeting deadlines and staying within budget.
Moreover, outsourcing allows your startup to scale more flexibly. Instead of hiring a full-time manager, you can access top-tier talent on a per-project basis, reducing costs while maintaining high standards. This adaptable approach ensures your startup remains agile and competitive in a fast-paced market.
Congratulations on making it to the end of the article, we have a bonus tip for you as a gift!Accounting and finances
Last but not least, it’s a good idea to outsource your bookkeeping and accounting. For business accounting services, it might be a good idea to contact a company like Early Growth. They could help your business with various accounting duties, relieving you of some pressure. This is so crucial for your business, you need to make sure that you’re paying your invoices on time, keeping an eye on what’s going in and out, and don’t forget about the taxman! But this doesn’t always warrant hiring a full-time accountant to join your business. Firstly, because this is expensive and secondly because they might struggle to fill their days most of the time.
So, in the early stages of your startup, outsourcing these tasks to an accountant will be perfectly adequate for keeping on top of your finances and making sure that everything is being done by the book.
