Vitaliy Kononenko

CTO at Computools

An idea is in the heart of every startup. At the first stage, the most difficult thing is to start: find suitable people, funding, donators and a way to implement your idea. But the real adventures and challenges for startups begin in the second year of a startup. Experts call this period the most critical in business development. Read the article to the end to find out why and how to deal with it.

Challenges Startups Meet on the Second Year

So, the project is launched, the first investment is received, a small client base is already there – the project breaks even. What’s next? You need to grow further to become a profitable company. However, startup business challenges become a real problem for a novice in business due to a lack of experience or knowledge. After receiving series A funding everything just begins for startup. To get more money and transform the small company into a medium or big enterprise, the startup leader should consider the next few things.

Deep Market Analysis

Of course, at the initial stage, startupers conduct market research to find out how new, useful and profitable in the long run their product is. But for the next round of investment, you need to conduct more in-depth market research. For example, find out why do most startups fail and which strategy can be brought forward business losses. Now the main task of a startup to become profitable, and therefore it is important to choose the right path.

Increase Its Presence in The Market

One of the common problems in a company is product distribution. Whether it is a service, a mobile or a web application, the question always arises, how can a potential user and the target audience know about it? The proper marketing strategy will lead to increased sales and increased market presence. However, as practice shows, with the current speed of development and implementation of ideas, this is not enough. It is important not only to widely distribute your offer but also to cover the largest possible number of potential customers. One of the proposed options is to occupy a certain niche and expand the market only in this area. Future growth strategies company should include as many ways to increase presence in the market as possible.

Expand the Range of The Offered Services

One of the challenges faced by companies is the future of the product. It is not enough to implement the original idea; it is important to develop it further. If we are talking about the startup offering services, then the list should be expanded already at this stage; applications should release a new add-on with an extended set of features. Also, at this stage features are added to the VIP user packages and other exclusive add-ons that can be made paid (if the application is conditionally free) should appear.

Expand the Team or Hire A Third-Party Contractor

Problems facing entrepreneurs can be solved in two ways: hire a specialist or a whole team of experts who will help you to deal with all issues. At the initial stage, a startup does not require a large number of employees and can easily get along with a small company of like-minded people. But for the growth of the company and increasing profits, it is necessary to attract new staff: developers, project managers, team leads, designers, and so on. Finding a good employee, even with the use of the latest technologies and methods, can take a long time, which is more productive to use to achieve the main goal. And this is where the dedicated team, which has enough experience and skills to quickly move a startup to the right level, comes in handy.

Startup Outsourcing Development: Pros and Cons

At the very beginning of the path startupers usually ask how to create a business model for a startup. It is necessary to build a scheme or a to-do list in order to make all the required steps. However, these stairs to the business world are limited if you never ask yourself: ‘How can I develop my business?’. As is was said before, startupers need to expand the team of employees finding experts and specialists in different fields. What is more, taking on too many tasks can sacrifice quality and accuracy. Startup outsourcing development can save time and money.

If you’re considering outsourcing, you may be wondering exactly where your business needs these services. This is more of a personal business question because the answer depends on your business and company goals. No matter what tasks you decide to outsource, you must be strategic in your approach. Carefully analyze your company’s strengths and the skills of your staff.

If you’re looking for specific suggestions, three tasks that are always beneficial to outsource are:

•         administrative duties;
•         IT services;
•         payroll.

Getting to the market as quickly as possible is necessary for businesses to remain relevant in the market because technologies are constantly evolving and introducing consumers to new services. If you take too long to release a product, it may be outdated, or the competition might have beaten you to market.

Outsourcing to tech providers is one of the more obvious routes to keep your company competitive. You can work with a larger talent pool than in house and the team will already have whatever specialized equipment they need. Indeed, what makes IT outsourcing providers stand out is their emphasis on cutting-edge technology that will support the deployment of the highest quality products.

It is often companies that need outsourcing try to deal with problems on their own, considering that a dedicated team will expand their budget. However, the advantages that outsourcing can bring to a startup exceed any possible risks.

1. Outsourced IT teams work with startups as they build products from the ground up or build on existing code for more satisfactory user experiences. Consider outsourcing software development to ensure that products are secure and functional, which will build customer loyalty.
2. Outsourced IT personnel can speed up processes during each phase of development.
3. Outsourcers also possess the latest information about the market that helps companies develop more innovative approaches.
4. Keep your in-house teams focused on innovation by utilizing the extended team model to add specialized developers and Quality Assurance (QA) testers as an extension to your staff. Remote extended teams work with an intense focus towards a primary objective that is critical to the success of the project.
5. Specialized developers have knowledge of the latest technologies and can approach a complex development task without distractions when working as part of an extended team, allowing them to work creatively and contribute to a more innovative product.

Startups owners must be driven to succeed while utilizing cost-effective solutions to build their business and reach consumers in competitive markets. To ensure that your business is functional while avoiding critical errors that can damage your brand’s reputation, outsourcing is the way to go.

How to Hire Developers for A Startup

First of all, remember the rule: evaluate seven times, hire just once. There are many different ways to search for potential outsourcers: special freelance workplaces, recommendations, social networks and ad boards. Of course, you need to take into account your budget and the degree of complexity of development when choosing a dedicated development team, however, a professional company will offer you the best service on the market. When a team of software developers operates successfully long enough, they begin offering their services through a personal website, as well as on various ad boards, forums, and work marketplaces.

As the creation and promotion of websites offering various software development and delivery services require lots of time and effort, the companies who do this should be serious about their jobs. To say even more, if these websites appear on the top SERPs, the teams behind them must be doing their job well.

Another good way to find a proper dedicated team for a startup is to visit conferences, meetups, and hackathons. In order to remain competitive, software developers should always continue their self-education and professional growth. This is why good software development teams often participate in various conferences, meetups, and hackathons, which are well-covered in the mass media and social media.

Your next step is to evaluate a dedicated software development team. Take into account company experience, staff size, company portfolio, product quality, company website, recommendations. An efficient communication framework is also important as it is a key to productive collaboration.

The process might seem too daunting and laborious. However, it is obviously better to spend more time to hire a reliable team of software developers for your startup and accomplish the project on time. Otherwise, you risk spending the time and money dealing with an inexperienced or unscrupulous contractor.

It’s a harsh reality but the failure rate of startup businesses is about  90%, and 46% of these failures happen because the money well runs dry. Challenges for startups mentioned above may become a serious obstacle to receive the next round of investments. But attracting professionals to the in-house team or hiring a team of outsourcer developers will help a startup to overcome any difficulties.

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