Belmont University

Outsourcing as a Means to Bootstrap

Outsourcing has gotten a bad name in some circles. But, it doesn't always mean shipping jobs off to China or India. Outsourcing is also a tool that can use local companies to help jump start a business by using them to help make your product or provide part of your service until you can afford to bring these things in-house.

My Tennessean column this past weekend looks at the bootstrapping power of outsourcing.

Bootstrapping operating costs through outsourcing can help owners get to break-even sooner and improve profit margins as the business grows.

Outsourcing is a strategy that can work very well for a start-up and very small businesses. Rather than bear the cost of renting space and hiring a staff, these businesses utilize the excess capacity of someone else's business to make their product.


Posted by Jeff Cornwall on September 4, 2007 07:11 AM |

Comments

Dr. C., I actually had a good idea...we'll talk about it later but I think I've come up with a way to do this.

Birdied by: Michelle | September 4, 2007 04:09 PM

"..until you can afford to bring these things in-house."

This implies that in-house is always better, but I feel that's not necessarily the case. Some jobs are so specialised that they're better outsourced no matter the size of the company.

For example, many government agencies in Singapore where I come from have outsourced their IT operations to vendors like HP. This way they can control their costs and source for the best vendor.

Hun Boon
www.starbamboo.com

Birdied by: Hun Boon | September 6, 2007 01:18 AM

Tap it in and Comment, Please

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