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How Business Professionals Can Redefine the Success of Your Startup For small businesses to grow, it is important for the organization to cut their operational expenses

By Shrijay Sheth

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Most of the early-age startups often end up reinventing the wheel, stretching out with the tasks which aren't necessarily their forte. They open up multiple departments while growing up and this may have a catastrophic effect on their core business functions. To avoid this and enable focusing on core solutions, startups need leveraging expertise offered by business professionals and consultants.

Back-office outsourcing leaves you with more time to deliver results and make an impact rather than getting caught up in mundane stuff. The key to maximising efficiency lies in sharing resources, especially in terms of human skill asset. In the end, it all boils down to staying efficient and delivering tasks that require focus

Here are some of the major operations that startups can do away with:

  • Data Extraction, Enrichment, and Research

  • IT Support

  • HR & Payroll Outsourcing

  • Accounting and Bookkeeping Services

  • Document Imaging

  • Taxation, Compliance and other Business Professional Services

1. Staying Efficient

You can certainly opt for doing it all on your own by unfolding multiple verticals across the business line and do everything in-house. But this may be daunting to start with. And besides, there are lots of other tasks that deserve your full time and attention, & which you are equipped to handle.

Hiring business professionals saves your time and resources, helping you stay focussed and stay fully committed to your core business services.

2. Information Security & Cost Optimization

Saving on recurring additional costs on multiple resources, that you would otherwise need to deploy for managing and maintaining various operations. This again is one of the core advantages of outsourcing services. Also, technology can play a pivotal role in preserving confidentiality and transparency when it comes to sensitive business information.

And since business professionals' function at a large scale, they help to bring down the cost while also offering specialized services. This is possible for them as they effectively utilize shared resources. They do the hiring at a larger scale and best utilize the shared know-how.

3. Legalities Involved

When you hire the third party on a contractual basis, you must also consider the legalities involved. There are certain contracts and clauses which you will like to consider when you are outsourcing your business.

Here are a few contracts and agreements to be taken care of.

Non-Disclosure Agreement: This is an agreement that guarantees that outsourced agency will not disclose the shared confidential information which will be shared with them as a necessary part of doing business together. It is a confidentiality agreement wherein a third party has to abide by the norms and clause laid down by you in the agreement. Any breach will cause a legal intervention.

SLA Agreement: A Service Level Agreement binds the service provider to commit to the level of expected service from the service provider's send. SLA clearly outlines the expected output, scope of work and delivery of results. Since such agreements are output-based, in that, their purpose is specifically to define what the customer will receive.

IP Protection: Outsourcing technical process should also cover clause regarding the IP ownership. If the rendered service from outsourced party results in any IP then its rights and ownership should be clearly stated before rendering such services.

Non-Compete Agreement: Though it's a matter of integrity, having such an agreement leaves you stress-free as it restricts the company from working with other organizations who are your competitors. This ensures that your implemented strategies and operations stay unique and secretive from your competitors.

Private Data Disclosure: There must be an agreement on modus operandi when it comes to terms of usage of private data and liability of the 3rd party involved in it.

4. Offering Flexibility

Nothing offers more flexibility than outsourcing your non-client facing operations. The main advantage here is that your job will be done by seasoned professionals by putting best practices and technology to use. You will not need to buy the latest software or upgrade your hardware and this leaves you free from all the other technical worries.

There will be a team of seasoned experts that offers utmost professionalism at a relatively lesser cost and this frees you up completely from the burden of extra commitments.

Hence, maintaining your internal operations and saving investments and time to utilize it for something that you are good at – your core service offerings.

5. Offshore Leverage

Availing business professional services may have you go beyond your geographical limits to get the best-skilled team onboard. Offshoring also helps you interact with people who have more than enough experience and the professional skills to execute a task concerned.

Besides helping out your business with a team of experts also saves your expenses by giving you resources at a lesser cost.

Conclusion

For small businesses to grow, it is important for the organization to cut their operational expenses. While it is true that new businesses are generally reluctant in outsourcing their back-office work due to a mismatch in operational administration. But we must recognise that for small businesses to grow, it is very important for them to cut down on operational expenses.

You can find numerous organizations globally that provide outsourcing services. However, it is always recommended to do thorough due diligence before hiring outsourced office work.

Shrijay Sheth

Co-founder, LegalWiz.in Private Limited

Shrijay is an entrepreneur with more than ten years of experience in working with hyper-growing digital commerce companies across the globe. He is a data savvy leader, and a true believer of people first philosophy. Currently, he runs an eCommerce strategy and Analytics consulting company, along with a LegalTech venture in India - www.LegalWiz.in.
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