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Is it time Indian startups bet on freelancers for faster growth?
By Suman Ravikumar, SiliconIndia
Bangalore: The best talent is what any startup would look to. However, the companies at the top of the food chain have been spending millions in gaining 'best practice' by paying management consultants and 'MBAs' and comparatively, small businesses do not have the budget for that. This is where freelance is opening up huge opportunity. As a result, there is a tremendous shift from scouting for a pure cost-saving solution to one of hiring the best talent at the best cost.
"Jobs like web and graphic designing; software development; content writing and editing; translation and transcription; data entry jobs, etc. are available for freelancing in India. Technical jobs related to the information technology domain and technical writing is also outsourced online," says Xenios Thrasyvoulou, Founder & CEO of PeoplePerHour.com. PeoplePerHour.com, a freelancing site till date has in excess of registered 99,000 service providers, spread across more than 150 countries, who serves over 35,000 small businesses clients. India ranks 3rd in terms of usage by clients and the company see more than 13 thousand registered freelancers from the country.
Outsourcing - when done right 'allows a startup to bring the expert skills within the organization affordably as per their demand. It also allows them get the knowledge from across the world hiring foreign freelancers in the most cost effective means. But currently, in India, neither employees nor startup employers have leveraged much on the benefits of freelancing. "The biggest challenge is to achieve a mindset shift in local businesses, to realize that they can work in smarter and more cost-effective ways than they are traditionally accustomed to. Equally outsourcing is normally associated to a cost saving solution whilst what is key for high growth businesses is to find top talent and hire them affordably especially if they want to compete in a global arena," says Thrasyvoulou.
At present, it's mostly manufacturing companies, small sized consulting firms; small size public relation and advertising companies, who are leading the outsourcing trends. May be it's time for startups in every realm to bet on outsourcing to the freelancers, to reap the best from the talented workforce available.
