Startup building is more than building an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and rolling out your product.

As a startup founder or business owner, one of your biggest priorities is to build an efficient workflow that will help you and your team avoid burnout, and manage your budget effectively. That’s where global outsourcing comes in.

It is a strategy used by startups who have long-term visions when it comes to scaling their teams, increasing operational efficiency, and accelerating product delivery.

Although not a lot of people agree with this strategy, companies that utilized it in 2023 were known to save up to 60% on their operational costs, and the global outsourcing market is still estimated to exceed $700 billion by 2027.

At the end of this guide, you’ll get acquainted with what global outsourcing is, its benefits, and how it works.

This will help you take the right steps that will improve your startup’s productivity and efficiency.

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What is Global Outsourcing?

What is Global Outsourcing
Starting with the meaning of the term “Outsourcing”, which means contracting the help of a third party for services and tasks that can’t be done in-house either to cut costs or for lack of adequate manpower.

This is usually done by early stage startups, whose main focus is growth.

Now, what is global outsourcing? Also known as offshoring, involves the delegation of specific tasks and business functions to foreign service providers.

This is a strategic move made by startups and businesses in their early stages, to allow them to focus on their primary goals. These functions could be customer support, virtual assistance, expense management, and talent sourcing.

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The Benefits of Global Outsourcing

The term “Global Outsourcing” can’t be mentioned without it sparking some form of debate in the space. While there are people who see it as a blessing, some don’t see themselves opening up to it anytime soon.

Let’s shed some light on its benefits. The benefits include:

1. Access to a Global Talent Pool

With the introduction of global outsourcing, startups have realized that they have quite a number of options.

It doesn’t mean that your country doesn’t have the best talent, it just means you don’t have to struggle to get the best talent when you have access to a global talent pool.

Startups usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to getting the best talent to scale their business because of their limited budget. This is why offshoring is the best option for them.

2. Lowered Cost Without Sacrificing Quality

As previously mentioned, startups are known for their limited budgets, and this is usually the primary reason why offshoring is an option in the first place.

Unfortunately, this benefit is usually the source of the debate in different spaces.

People can’t describe what global outsourcing is without lowered costs and there’s a wrong perception that going with this method means settling for low quality services.

Offshoring doesn’t mean trading off quality for quantity, it just means getting what you need at maintained quality from countries whose labor costs are significantly lower than yours.

This isn’t the same as cheap labor, as what is perceived as a lower price in your home country is usually more than the standard price in the outsourcing location.

3. For Rapid Scalability

Another thing that offshoring does is increase efficiency no matter how unpredictable your startup gets.

It’s expected when a startup scales quickly. You can move from launching your MVP to getting your first 20 clients quickly.

Some can even describe startup growth as chaotic, but having access to a global talent or service pool helps you increase capacity without missing deadlines or stretching your in-house team too thin.

You get to achieve major business goals without having to worry about spending too much.

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4. To Help Focus on Primary Business Functions

How does global outsourcing make this possible?

By outsourcing admin tasks, support, and even some technical help, you free up internal resources to focus on growth strategies, customer experience, and innovation.

You didn’t become a founder to focus on daily repetitive tasks that didn’t entirely contribute to your startup’s growth and visibility.

By utilizing this, you get to focus on core business functions, gain more clarity, and come up with strategies that can help scale your startup.

5. Increased Productivity

With streamlined operations, your business can function without you being on top of things 100% of the time.

Having different time zones has been seen as a disadvantage whenever this topic comes up, but it can also be seen as an advantage.

When it comes to talent outsourcing, especially when your talents are in different time zones, having a system and tools that work can turn the tables in your favor.

Your business can work while you sleep, and the habits of proper documentation and organized business systems that have been drilled into your team, would increase your startup’s productivity significantly and pave the way for smooth scalability.

The Disadvantages of Global Outsourcing

what is one of the greatest benefits to global outsourcing
While global outsourcing might have its benefits, it’s not without its disadvantages. Here are some of them:

1. Quality Concerns & Inconsistency

Globally outsourced teams may operate differently from your home country’s standards or training levels.

Without doing thorough research on where you intend to put your money, you might end up subscribing to a service of low quality, which consumes your time and budget.

2. Security & Confidentiality Risks

It’s essential to note that some outsourced services may require you to hand over sensitive data, which can open up vulnerabilities.

If your outsourced partner fails to implement top-tier security protocols, you risk data leaks, security breaches, and intellectual property theft, which can be more costly than the services themselves.

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3. Communication, Cultural & Time‑Zone Barriers

This is a well-known con of global outsourcing. Offshoring people that are of different cultures and time zones can slow down collaboration and can lead to misunderstandings, if not handled right.

Smooth coordination requires more tools, planning, and the right management skills than you’d need if you had a local team.

4. Impact on Brand Perception

Like it was previously mentioned, the idea of globally outsourcing services is not a method that some people perceive as a good thing.

Despite it having serious benefits, clients or in-house employees who know about your heavy reliance on external teams might view your brand as unfavorable, especially if it’s slowing down business activities.

How Global Outsourcing Works

Now that you understand what global outsourcing is and the benefits it serves startups and other businesses, let’s get into how it works, or the steps you should take when you’re ready to explore your global outsourcing options.

1. Define What You Want to Outsource

This is the first step in the right direction. Some founders start with functions that are time-consuming and repetitive, that don’t contribute to their growth.

Others look to outsource specialized roles that may be too expensive to source locally, like specialized technical talent or digital marketing experts.

It is important to identify the aspects that might be slowing you down and determine how critical it is to have those roles in-house or if someone can do it better and faster at a more affordable price.

An example of this is when Rocketdevs helps startups determine which technical talent they need to set their startup in the right direction.

2. Make the Decision

Once you’ve determined what you want to globally outsource, the next question is how.

If you’re looking to outsource global talent, then you can check for platforms that have a quality talent pool of specialized talents.

It’s not just about outsourcing, you need to do your due diligence by researching and vetting platforms or companies that can get you what you need at a lower cost but with maintained quality.

It shouldn’t be a trade-off for quantity over quality. The same strategy applies to the other tasks you’re looking to globally outsource. Choose a method that fits your business’s needs (short and long-term) and budget.

3. Start Small

One of the smartest moves you can make is to treat global outsourcing like a product experiment.

Start with a test project, and make your scope, timeline, and expected results known.

This is the best way of evaluating the quality of work, reliability, communication, workflow, and productivity.

Think of it as a trial phase; using talent outsourcing as an example again, go for platforms that give you trial periods and transparent communication.

Platforms like that make your job easier once you know you have someone to hold accountable if things aren’t going the way you expected them to.

4. Scale Up Gradually

If the initial project goes well, and you’re satisfied with the quality, you can start expanding the relationship.

This is where global outsourcing becomes powerful. You’ve already established a working dynamic, now it’s time to scale it.

Once you’ve discovered the right global outsourcing platform for you, keep up with them consistently, instead of bouncing around different options.

Your growth should still be structured. Consider building weekly check-ins, setting up dashboards to track deliverables, and slowly integrating them into your team culture.

If they’re developers, you might give them access to internal Slack channels, if they’re marketing partners, include them in planning calls.

The idea is to scale in a way that maintains quality and momentum without creating chaos.

When done right, this process feels less like outsourcing and more like building a distributed team that grows with you.

5. Utilize Collaboration Tools

In order to effectively manage a globally outsourced team, your tools need to be top-notch to aid collaboration.

Platforms that help with instant communication, meetings, and productivity tracking can give your team the structure and transparency it needs.

It is important to set up workflows, automate check-ins, and schedule asynchronous updates to improve collaboration, not just for your external team but your in-house ones as well.

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Next Steps?

After reading this guide, you probably have a direction on what you need to globally outsource and your reasons for it.

From expense management to talent sourcing, this is the moment where you do thorough research on places to search for quality services outside your country.

Let’s make things easy for you; global outsourcing for specialized talents doesn’t have to be a back-breaking task, especially if you’re in the tech industry and you need engineers at an affordable price without compromising quality.

RocketDevs is the platform you need.

RocketDevs is a vetted marketplace for hiring remote software developers and engineering teams.

The platform has vetted over 15,000 developers across 20 countries, and only the top 5% of developers pass the vetting process.

Known to cater to technical and non-technical founders, startups save up to 70% of hiring costs when they use RocketDevs, which already gives you an edge over other startups.

Unlike Upwork, RocketDevs has a standard vetting process and offers a trial period of 14 days for every developer.

Global outsourcing does have its challenges, but when done right, it can take your startup or business from ground zero to smooth scaling. Get started with RocketDevs today and let’s help you get it right

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