Most of the business plans I read involve hiring local professionals to develop, market and sell the proposed product. Just so my readers do not cast me as non-supportive of American jobs and workers, I fully support hiring the best available talent to launch your company. But it's my money that you are using and startup development alternatives are emerging which can radically cut your costs, potentially leaving more money for customer acquisition and other key tasks.
Startups have all sort of requirements that can add up to large expenditures. For example, logo development, which can cost $5,000 in the US can be had for $500 using Indian companies. Promotional materials can be written by freelancers from Europe or South America (do remember that the rest of the world studies English in school, but it is wise to ask for examples of past work). And the list goes on--you can find lawyers, accountants, customer support, among other services in foreign countries at a fraction of the domestic prices.
Where can you find qualified professionals, with endorsements from other US companies, to help you in your launch? elance, guru.com, RentAcoder and DoMyStuff are just some of the sites worth investigating. Persistent Systems, for example, has been used successfully by one of my supply chain portfolio companies for most of their software development over the last year. Many of these sites have the ability to pay into escrow to ensure delivery satisfaction, the ability to track billing hours, view work in progress and resolve disputes.
I am not suggesting that you outsource all of your startup's needs. However, there are real alternatives for many mundane tasks that can be sourced much cheaper abroad. Give it a try with one or two assignments and see what you think.
I think that it's better to hire a professional freelancer than to use the online one. There are enough job boards nowadays where you can find a lot of freelancers in need of a project to work on. I recommend this one: https://www.xplace.com/ XPlace. There are a lot of talented freelance experts and it is commission-free.
Posted by: Lisa | March 23, 2017 at 05:38 AM