From HR to Marketing: Which Departments Should Startups Outsource

Starting anything from scratch requires an effective strategy to move forward and scale quickly while managing limited resources and budget constraints. Though core functions are highly essential to managing any sort of business, out-of-core functions are equally important as they enable startups to focus more on innovation, improve customer experience, and advance product development. Business process outsourcing, therefore, becomes a potential strategy to grow and become a result-driven company. The question is, though: Which departments should a startup outsource first?

It begins with this article that discusses the top functions startups should consider for business outsourcing. The article also walks you through the benefits associated with each one of these. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

1. Human Resources (HR)

   To most start-ups, the process of running HR internally becomes overwhelming without dedicated personnel. It is an essential part of filling in the critical processes in areas such as recruitment, onboarding, payroll, and compliance. Indeed, various start-ups usually do not have the wherewithal to hire an in-house HR team or even the expertise to navigate complex labor laws. Hence, outsourcing in such scenarios becomes attractive.

    

   Here’s why!

    

   • Cost Efficiency: Outsourcing saves you the need to carry a full-time HR staff and overhead training costs.
   • Access to Expertise: HR service providers will have expertise in areas such as labor regulations and compliance and benefits administration.
   • Scalability: HR outsourcing companies can easily scale services to keep up with your startup’s growth. It would manage everything from employee benefits to performance reviews.

    

   HR functions are a necessity at the development stage, and generally when the company has achieved about 10–15 employees. The increasing staff leads to an increased level of complexity in legal, payroll, and compliance, and hence it becomes a must for the companies to have a management team beside them.

2. Marketing

   The art of marketing requires a combination of thought and technical skills, which often should have creative, strategic thinking associated with it. Most startups cannot afford full-time in-house marketing staff and can actually risk expertise in specializations such as social media, content marketing, SEO, paid ads, and branding; therefore, outsourcing marketing allows firms to tap into that kind of specific skill set and implement a campaign quickly.

    

   Here are some benefits of outsourcing a marketing team.

    

   • Access to Specialists: Only a few can create high-quality content, market digitally, analyze your website traffic, and design visual representation in-house. Outsourcing allows access to this level of professionals at a cost that would be prohibitive to create.
   • Accelerates Time to Market: External agencies can execute campaigns promptly. This means that startups can get traction fast in new markets or roll out new products rapidly without losses in time.
   • Scaling Up: As your startup expands, marketing agencies can scale up and down scope and intensity to match the expanding needs.

    

   Outsource marketing when your startup requires brand awareness, customer acquisition, or new product launches but does not possess the internal talent to perform a full-fledged marketing strategy.

3. Information Technology (IT)

   The heart of most startups is technology, but managing all this IT infrastructure and security in-house becomes a huge money sink and time consuming. On the other hand, when startups outsource IT, they are able to focus on their core business while being assured of having a maintained, secure, and scalable technology stack.

    

   Here’s how outsourcing IT is essential.

    

   • Cost Savings: It abolishes the investments in expensive hardware, software, and an internal team.
   • Expert Security: IT service providers have the ability to offer protection from data breaches and malware, among other cybersecurity threats, therefore guaranteeing data security compliance.
   • 24/7 Support: IT outsourcing companies can provide monitoring and support around the clock. This may be conceived for startups with operations or services in more than one country.

    

   It would be better for a startup to hire in the initial stages, like network management, cloud infrastructure, and cybersecurity. At this juncture, as you scale further, you need to outsource the more complicated technical requirements.

4. Finance and Accounting

   Managing the finances and accounting process can be very challenging for a startup, especially when it deals with cash flow management, tax compliance, bookkeeping, and financial reporting. Outsourcing finance enables the startup to have professional expertise without necessarily employing a full-time CFO or an accounting team.

    

   Following are some advantages of hiring a finance and accounting team.

    

   • Accuracy and Compliance: The accounting firms are professionals who ensure that the financial records maintained are precise and the legal policies are being followed. This builds upon the chances of making errors and miscalculations.
   • Precise Cash Flow Optimization: The finance team will handle budgeting, forecasting, and financial strategy, which means that your new startup is going to be healthy cash flow-wise.

5. Customer Support

   As the startups grow, managing client calls, complaints, and tech support within the company becomes very stressful. Contact outsourcing helps handle an increased customer base without sacrificing service quality or time-to-respond.

    

   • Cost Effectiveness: Third-party companies that offer customer services in low-cost labor zones can save substantial sums by transferring this burden.
   • 24/7 Access: Most outsourcing companies can provide customer services round the clock, to a startup with customers from all around the world or even to an e-commerce company.
   • Specialization: Professional teams that specialize in customer services are able to cater to a very broad range of customer requests and queries; hence, there is a consistent and positive experience delivered.

    

   Outsource customer support when your startup starts receiving too many queries and needs support that cannot be managed within the core without giving up on product development or another core function.