What Should your Startup Outsource and When?

A Startup Founder’s Guide to Outsourcing

So you want to build a startup?

You probably already know that the films make it look easy when in reality, it’s a juggling act in which half of the balls are daggers waiting to impale you at a moment’s notice. Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme – but the truth is, juggling is about to become your new favourite hobby.

Whether you’re just launching, becoming established or are in the nice hockey stick of growth, outsourcing is your key to success.

More startups than ever are now turning to flexible admin support, on-demand executive assistants and scalable business support services to grow without the cost and commitment of hiring too early.

In this guide, we take you through all of the different tasks your startup could outsource and at which point you should be thinking about making that happen.

Stage one: Launching a startup

You are in the throes of a great idea!

This is the initial bubble where you may have an idea, a minimum viable product, or even an initial launch, and are beginning to achieve product-market fit and/or attract early customers.

At this stage, founders are often overwhelmed and trying to do everything themselves. This is where ad hoc business support in the UK or a part-time EA without employment can make a huge difference.

You could outsource:

Administrative duties

Think about all of the repetitive administrative duties you’re fulfilling day-to-day – could a virtual assistant or on-demand executive assistant help take them off your hands?

This could include sending out invoices, answering calls, diary management or even writing tweets to help promote your company.

For many founders, this kind of done-for-you business admin is the first step towards freeing up time to focus on growth.

Bookkeeping

Even when you are just launching there’ll be elements of bookkeeping you could outsource easily.

The reason it’s useful to do this now is because when it comes to raising investment, your house needs to be in order.

You can hire a freelance bookkeeper for just a few hours or one day per week, keeping costs down and saving you more time in the long run.

This is where flexible team support services become invaluable because you get support when you need it, without unnecessary overheads.

Design

A crucial early stage of startup success is creating an idea that people can get on board with.

Before the business is a business, great design can help others to see your vision and get behind it.

Sites such as Upwork and even Twitter can be great places to find designers to build wireframes, websites and landing pages for marketing purposes.

Stage two: Establishing a startup

You are: Making a reliable source of income, or acquiring early customers and starting to raise money to help fuel your growth.

This could include raising money from friends and family, angel investors, a Series A (to help establish your business model) or a Series B (to achieve serious growth).

At this point, many startups begin looking for business support without recruitment, because they need help but aren’t yet ready for large permanent teams.

You could outsource:

HR and payroll

The more people your startup hires, the more HR processes required to keep the ship steering in the right direction.

From onboarding new employees to working out the distribution of employee shares and recruitment hiring processes, you may begin to struggle to do it all on your own.

Using outsourced admin support or experienced HR contractors can help reduce both pressure and costs at this stage.

Accounting

At this stage, you may have paying customers and a growing team.

Many CEOs keep hold of accounting throughout the growth period but your time could be better spent elsewhere.

Good accounting will actually save you money, as they’ll be able to source you better deals, streamline your taxes and find any leaky buckets where your hard-raised cash is falling through.

Calendar management

At this point, you could have a range of appointments with investors, potential new hires and customers.

Organising everything from Skype calls, to in-person meetings and business trips is a task best outsourced to a trusted executive-level virtual assistant or senior executive assistant remote support service.

Having consistent EA support becomes increasingly important as your schedule gets more complicated.

Stage three: Growing a startup

You are: In the crucial stage where your startup is growing, but the next few years could make or break it.

25% of startups do not reach their fifth birthday.

To avoid being part of that statistic, it’s time to create an engine that allows you to focus on the growth, without being hindered by some of the tasks you’ve always done yourself.

This is often the point where founders realise they need scalable admin support and a plug-in business support team that can grow alongside the company.

You could outsource:

Marketing

In the stages of growth, a firm finger on the pulse of your industry needs someone (or a team) who can react quickly to marketing opportunities.

The great thing about the modern world is that you don’t have to hire 10 people all under your roof to achieve great marketing success.

Everything from content writers to growth hackers and social media experts can be outsourced to help you get the best results, without the overhead.

Increasingly, startups are also combining outsourced support with AI-enabled executive assistant tools, automation and EA support, and other digital-first business services to streamline operations.

Sales processes

While you’ll probably already have sales experts or executives working for you, it’s the sales processes that could be outsourced during the growth stage.

This may be creating presentations, sending follow-up emails to potential leads or ensuring that your lead generation materials are kept up to date.

Using project-based EA support for these kinds of operational tasks can dramatically improve efficiency.

Full HR

For every five staff members, it’s said that you should have one human resources personnel.

If your figure is lacking at this stage, it’s time to get outsourcing.

Luckily, there are lots of great organisations (like Hive Minds!) which can help you access experienced HR support and high-level business support, without needing someone full-time.

That means you can reduce overheads, avoid recruitment agency fees and continue scaling sustainably.

The smarter way for startups to grow

One of the biggest mistakes founders make is waiting too long to ask for help.

The most successful entrepreneurs understand that their time is best spent on growth, strategy and decision-making — not chasing invoices, managing diaries or formatting presentations.

That’s why more startups are choosing:

• Flexible admin support

• Pay-as-you-go EA support

• Dedicated virtual assistant services

• Outcome-based admin support

• Business support that grows with you

instead of rushing into permanent hires before they’re ready.

For help outsourcing any of your administrative, marketing or people-management tasks, take a glance at Hive Minds.