Websites and online forums thrive with numerous opinions on when is the perfect timing for a company to begin outsourcing IT services. If you are considering this option, you probably started an online search for the pros and cons of outsourcing. If that’s what brought you here, you are in the right place. Get ready to get inside information from a company offering outsourcing services for more than 10 years. Read our hands-on experience in addition to an ebook that will guide you on how to get started.

We are a Canadian IT company specializing in providing IT solutions and staff augmentation to other brands, and we discovered the numerous advantages of outsourcing IT services a long time ago. In this article, we’d like to share our practices to help you decide if outsourcing is the right choice for your organization.

First, let’s elaborate on the questions that probably started spinning around in your head from the moment when you began thinking about outsourcing. “Is it safe?”, “Why do companies use outsourcing?” or “Will outsourcing make you more good or harm?”. To help you clarify your ideas and thoughts on outsourcing, we decided to provide you with answers to the questions most often asked. Here we cover some of the fundamental questions that many ask before outsourcing IT services.

Basic Benefits of Outsourcing IT services

There are numerous reasons why you should begin outsourcing IT services today. Companies use outsourcing to cut costs, save on resources, operations, and increase the company revenue without hiring more employees. We have already covered the basic benefits of outsourcing in this blog post. As there are numerous reasons why you should begin outsourcing tech today, here is a summary of what is discussed in our ebook:

• Obtaining a high-quality product for a lower price
• Saving time by avoiding to figure everything out by yourself
• Finding employees that are valuable, trustworthy, and dedicated to growing your business

Outsourcing will not only help you save money and time, but it will also aid you with cutting down the exact amount of expenses on the needed resources. Alongside the overall cost-saving process, companies may also save on salaries, employee benefits, and training costs. Furthermore, outsourcing may prove helpful in terms of company rearrangements by adjusting the business model. Hiring different talents and experts from various industries on a global level might help you bring freshness to the current team and provide new perspectives for the company itself.

Hire a Dedicated Team for Your Brand

When hiring a remote team, note that the process may vary from one software house to another. Therefore, we offer you our simplified approach in five easy-to-use steps:  

1. State your preference in terms of needs, timespan, and budget  
2. Search along with initial selection (pre-vetting) 
3. Decide who will be invited for a final evaluation
4. Pick the right fit 
5. Sign one simple agreement and get started

Discover the three stages for finding a reliable software house and our five simple steps for hiring a dedicated team for your brand by downloading our ebook.

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In an uncertain time and economy when every cent counts, even the smallest income in profit can impact the overall business profitability. The good news is that smaller steps and cuts usually bring a more significant effect. It is often uncomplicated, common-sense steps that improve the bottom line, especially for a small business.

This economic crisis influenced by the pandemic is an excellent time to step back and look carefully at your company practices. 

What are you doing well? And what can your company improve?

• Cut supply costs
• Cut operation costs
• Lower your financial expenditures
• Digitize your marketing
• Use time management strategies
• Enhance new digital trends and technologies
• Narrow your focus
• Use your office space more efficiently
• Use your employees’ skills
• Use open-source software
• Keep quality over everything

1. Cut Supply Costs

Cut costs and save money on office supplies by contacting distributors to let them know you are price shopping. Never settle with the distributors you already have and keep checking for offers from other distributors outside your current ones. Usually, the newer and smaller distributors provide better value and service as they are in the beginning, and they will strive to be more flexible and thus help you cut costs. Plan wisely, buy supplies once in a month or in bulk. And remember that buying bigger supplies will help you save money and cut delivery costs.

2. Cut Operation Costs

As a startup or company owner, you need to look for ways to cut operational costs and optimize resources. Here are our few suggestions:

• Resell the old equipment or consider other ways to use your waste to create another product or donate these to people or other companies in need.
• Rent the free space to another startup, digital nomad, or freelancer. You can rent one room, an entire office, or storage space.
• Follow and measure the operational efficiency of your startup or business to see the reduction effects and optimize your available resources. Track your performance parameters and see how they reflect your efficiency goals and offer incentives when you meet those goals.
• Have energy-efficient appliances. Turn off lights and unplug unused tech.
• Encourage telecommunications and work from home days.
• Go paperless, save nature and the trees and also cut costs.

See also: How to Manage a Business During the Coronavirus Outbreak

3. Lower Your Financial Expenditures

Check your insurance policies if you want to lower your financial expenditures. Also, check your financial accounts in order to find places where you can save money.

• Compare the competitive rates of all providers in order to save money on insurance. Then, ask your current insurance provider or lender to match the most competitive rate of all.
• Combine your insurance policies or bank accounts.
• Evaluate your insurance policies in order to ensure that you are not over-insured or that you do not have duplicate coverage.
• Do not accept any unnecessary debt. Conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis and make a future forecasting when considering the option for business expansion. Take into consideration all the opportunity costs and the entire effect of debt payments on cash flow. A surplus of debt affects company rating, interest rates, and the ability to borrow in the future.

4. Digitize Your Marketing

The social media networks nowadays offer cheaper alternatives for reaching more specific and targeted leads and clients. Instead of spending on traditional TV commercials and billboards, with SEO and excellent content marketing, you can seize the search engines and generate traffic to your website and increase awareness about your startup or business.

Linkedin, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and website articles and blogs are critical in lead generation and finding new potential clients. Study your buyer personas, target market and discover what will be a better method for reaching your targeted demographic, which social media channels are better to use, and how you can achieve them in the most efficient cost-savvy way. 

• Build a customer e-mailing list and a referral program. A client recommendation is far more likely to result in a sale than traditional marketing.
• Facilitate word of mouth marketing, use networking more, and advertise less. Clients are more likely to close a deal with a business or someone they recognize. Check the existing groups on Linkedin and Facebook. Make sure you provide valuable comments and recommendations to everyone in need, build up a community, and seize the contacts as future potential clients.
• Reduce marketing costs by having in-house marketers and do not hesitate to outsource when needed.
• Partner with other companies, organizations, and get sponsors for your networking events.
• Use social media instead of traditional marketing for better tracking and better results.

See also: How video content marketing brought success to one of our biggest clients – Rumble.com

5. Use Time Management Strategies

Optimization of employee productivity cuts your costs of doing business. Time is also a cost and money.

• Limit access to time wasters and other distractions. Propose usage of platforms and applications that help your teammates and employees to focus and concentrate on staying on track with their tasks.
• See where your employees or teammates spend the most time and dedicate a reasonable time to complete specific actions and functions. Help your team and offer your support if you see that there are tasks which consume more time.
• Schedule each activity and encourage your employees to update their schedules daily and weekly.
• Schedule a meeting only when needed. Make it clear that you respect everyone’s time and ask everyone to be on time, each session to have a plan and everyone to follow up at the appointed time.

6. Enhance New Digital Trends and Technologies

Reduce company costs by being more digital whenever you can use free online tools.

• Set up an option for a virtual office.
• Online meetings help minimize travel costs, and virtual offices can eliminate the need for physical space. While we certainly don’t want to remove personal contact, save it for the instances when it’s most beneficial.
• Use the free storage cloud services. Nowadays, online storages and technologies help companies, startups, and businesses to centralize essential documents and increase collaboration in an alternative to paper documents and meetings.

7. Narrow Your Focus

As a startup or a business owner, try narrowing your business focus as it turns out to be the most effective strategy for improving these situations. Limit the services you offer and the projects you accept, and you’ll see that you’ll be more efficient.

Another different way to adhere to your business focus is to subcontract. Rather than turn away business, maximize your capacity by outsourcing services whenever possible. More projects provide more revenue increase, while subcontracting equals lower expenses and saves you time and effort. The result is a better profit.

8. Use Your Office Space More Efficiently

Analyze how you are using your current physical office. Do you maybe have storage with many supplies, piles of paper files, and inefficient furniture or computer equipment that can be resold or used for a different purpose?

See if you can consolidate different functions or departments of your business into one. Use employees and office space for more positions, projects, or clients if you see they could use more experience and have free time. A conference, office, or meeting room that can be used as a rest or playroom is good to be checked. The opportunities depend on the nature of your business or startup.

9. Use Your Employees’ Skills

Your Human Resources department needs to have stay-in interviews for regular check-ups and tracking the employee career development and every new skill, training, and certification they will get. See how your company is using your employee’s experience, competence, and technical and soft skills and reevaluate if you could use them better based on your employee career preferences and future growth. Be open for inputs and give responsibilities to the employees with the most competence and efficiency in those areas.

Do not use expert salespeople for writing articles, placing Excel “numbers” or design tasks. Although one person must be skillful for a variety of functions, consider exchanging some of the functions with someone who is a better fit for those tasks and needs less time in doing those tasks with efficiency. If you don’t have the right HR department, you can always outsource this, and you will see how useful it is.

10. Use Open-Source Software

Open-source software is a software that can be freely used, modified, and shared among the team. Programs like WordPress allow you to save money on website creation and various other functions, easy to modify, edit for everyone that understands the technology. We are happy to share that many of our clients use WordPress, so feel free to reach us for a free consultation.

11. Keep Quality Over Everything

In the long term, you would like everyone to remember you based on the quality of your services, which sells better no matter what your business offers. Happy customers and clients increase sales through referrals and repeat purchases. Higher quality and a solid reputation allow you to charge higher prices, which equals higher revenue and a healthier business model.

We know these insights are overwhelming, but they are crucial for every crisis and every small business willing to strive. See what more our experts have to suggest. Check what you have done well this past year and what are your next steps for improvement by scheduling a free consultation with our team of experts here.

Learn more about how you can cut costs with outsourcing talents with our support. Schedule a time to talk with our Cosmic Development team and start saving time and cutting costs.

Sources:

• americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/10-simple-ways-to-cut-business-costs/
• hbr.org/2010/05/when-youve-got-to-cut-costs-now
• moneycrashers.com/cost-cutting-ideas-small-business-expenses/

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Business scaling is a step that companies take when they want to grow their business to the next level. Companies can scale their businesses as soon as they feel ready for the process of growth. At first, companies that prepare for scaling of their business must develop an idea. After that, they need to build a team that will help in the realization of that idea. Next, they will create a product that is fit for the market and sell the idea to potential customers. In other words, the only thing that companies need to focus on is how to scale a business fast and expand it easily.

Did you Know:

What Scaling a Company Means?

“Scaling a company” means “to grow or expand” a business “in a proportional and usually profitable way,” as defined in Merriam Webster. A business scaling is possible when the company can cope with an increased amount of work while at the same time can maintain or increase its efficiency. Therefore, entrepreneurs may help their businesses scale by increasing both their workload and their efficiency at the same time.

Before companies decide to scale a business, they must be sure that they have already found a strategy that works for them, without the need for experimenting with new ideas. Having done that, businesses can repeat the idea in an effective manner and as many times as possible.

The company’s main focus when scaling a business is about the customer’s needs. Moreover, companies need to also pay attention to the speed of the customer’s adaptation to the product. This will help them prevent their competition from attracting potential customers.

Read below about the seven best practices on how to scale a business that will help with the strategy for achieving the company’s growth goal.

These seven practices for scaling a business are important for the growth of a business. Tell us how many of these scaling practices you implement in your company?

Sources:

score.org/blog/how-scale-business

medium.com/to-the-power-of-ai/the-best-way-to-scale-a-business-is-to-unify-it-first-f0b947ba6f10

medium.com/brands-that-matter/7-ways-to-rapidly-scale-a-social-business-a4511ea96e86

themuse.com/advice/5-strategies-thatll-turn-your-motley-band-of-connections-into-a-real-useful-network

entrepreneurship.org/learning-paths/scaling-your-company/starting-to-scale

forbes.com/sites/ericwagner/2013/11/20/5-steps-to-scale-your-business-you-wont-make-it-otherwise/#755719f812cf

forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2013/09/06/10-tips-for-building-the-most-scalable-startup/#6f52a6e15f28

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