Member Article

Grow your SME

How online outsourcing helps expand your business without the risk

Kjetil Olsen, VP Europe with Elance, the leading platform for online employment, outlines the benefits of hiring in the cloud to maximise business growth

Despite the grim economic outlook, savvy SMEs are looking for ways to change the way they do business and thrive despite the downturn. In fact, with many more options now available to support a growing business, SMEs should be feeling cautiously optimistic. One of the most exciting new trends in recent years has been the arrival of the human cloud; as more and more businesses go online to outsource to talented staff on a temporary basis.

So how can outsourcing maximise the potential of business growth? Here are just some of the areas where an SME can take advantage of the flexibility, cost saving and benefits of hiring and managing in the cloud:

Recruitment that fits your pace

Recruitment can be costly. From agency fees and providing new office equipment to additional insurance costs, many small UK businesses have found a smarter solution to this issue, by combining a core team in the office with online freelancers to complete work when additional support is needed. This way, they have immediate access to expert talent with specialised skills to support their service portfolio, as well as allowing them to quickly staff up and react flexibly to changes in the market and seasonal peaks.

These days, businesses have the freedom to access global talent at a project or hourly rate, using online employment platforms such as Elance. Crucially for an SME, this reduces overheads and gives access to skills and talent that may not be easily available locally.

Be the nimble business the Cloud allows you to be

One of the greatest benefits of hiring online is the flexibility it offers, so make sure you make the most of it. Hiring a freelancer online also guarantees work is delivered on time. You only hire for the jobs you need, which means your business can operate without carrying unnecessary costs.

Hiring on-demand: do it like the big boys

Bringing in expert staff when the business demands is often considered to be an option reserved for large corporations with big budgets. The human cloud levels the playing field for an SME, enabling a smaller business to access the best talent from around the globe on-demand. This could be a temporary expert that is brought in to talk about new business acquisition or growth initiatives.

The SME of the future – simplified, flexible and cost efficient.

For an SME, the benefits of reducing costs by hiring online staff are crystal clear: hiring online provides access to a wide range of global experts available on-demand. Online employment speeds up processes, hiring online is a lower risk and ultimately hiring in the human cloud reduces operational costs too. All of these factors go to support growth with minimum risk.

Thanks to innovative technology, today’s start-ups have access to a pool of free tools and resources. And by using these tools, savvy SMEs are freeing up their time and limited resources, letting them focus on their core business and growing the company.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kjetil Olsen .