As a small or medium-sized business (SMB) owner, business scaling with staff augmentation is an innovative, cost-effective method of expanding your operations.
In fact, data shows that the IT staff augmentation market will grow by 11% annually through 2025, showing how augmented staff can drive growth in different industries.
If you’re unfamiliar with staff augmentation and don’t know how or where to start, you’ve come to the right place.
This blog details how to leverage staff augmentation for successful and cost-effective business scaling.
Business Scaling vs. Business Growth: What’s’ the Difference?
Both scaling and growth can increase business revenue.
However, each strategy still differs in critical areas, such as sustainability and its impact on resources and operations. Here’s how the two differ:
Business Scaling
Scaling presents an ideal business strategy.
Through scaling, you focus on increasing revenue without the costs associated with traditional growth strategies.
Furthermore, scaling allows for exponential growth. Instead of a linear growth process, it focuses on driving growth with improved operational efficiency and productivity.
In other words, scaling is a process that maximizes your performance without spending too much of its resources. You can scale in various ways, including automating repetitive tasks, applying best practices, and, last but not least, outsourcing specific business functions.
Understanding the difference between scaling and growing in business is essential for making crucial business decisions. It shapes your choices when managing your resources, executing your objectives, and responding to business opportunities. [1]
Business Growth
Growth is your business’s revenue increase accompanied by a proportional development in other areas, including (but not limited to)
- The number of employees
- Operational demands
- Growth in any business aspect that contributes to profit generation
You can drive business growth through short-term initiatives such as marketing campaigns.
For example, you need adequate resources to expand your services and client base.
Bringing in more resources tends to generate more profit, so this model is generally seen as an indicator of your business’s success.
In other words, the financial gain that comes with this strategy also requires a significant investment. Your financial growth depends on how much you’re willing to sacrifice regarding resources and other operational costs.
The Role of Staff Augmentation in Scaling for SMBs
Staff augmentation involves hiring professionals to address your organization’s skill gaps. Many SMBs outsource augmented staff through traditional hiring platforms or partnering with a staffing solution service.
This outsourcing strategy is excellent for delivering on project demands while avoiding costly, long-term contracts. Augmented staff appeals to many SMBs because it allows them to remain competitive without spending a fortune.
The Benefits of Staff Augmentation in Scaling
Staff augmentation provides SMBs with several competitive advantages that want to scale.
Here are some of the advantages staff augmentation can bring if you’re looking to scale your operations:
It Brings More Flexibility to Your Business.
One of staff augmentation’s primary advantages is that it gives you more flexibility when dealing with varying project demands.
You can ramp up or down quickly and cost-effectively, which presents many advantages if your business experiences seasonal fluctuations year over year. Therefore, staff augmentation makes you more adaptable to sudden industry shifts. [2]
It Gives You Access to Specialized Skills.
Scaling means pursuing specific initiatives to grow your business. These projects often require skills you likely don’t possess.
Staff augmentation addresses this problem by giving your organization a diverse talent pool of skilled professionals, such as:
- Accountants
- Bookkeepers
- Engineers
- Legal professionals
In addition, staff augmentation’s short-term nature allows you to explore your options with a particular skill. You can test and learn to determine whether a specific skill will have long-term benefits for your business. [2]
It’s More Cost-Efficient Than Traditional Hiring Methods.
Costs can be intimidating when trying to grow your business.
One slight misstep can slow down or even prevent business success. Staff augmentation eliminates that fear by providing your business with cost-effective solutions.
Adopting a traditional hiring method means dealing with exorbitant fixed costs for hiring and training full-time talent. You must also consider other requirements, such as employee benefits and technology infrastructure.
With staff augmentation, you enjoy the benefits of collaborating with a team of experts without the financial burden of hiring in-house.
Partnering with an established staff augmentation service provider will also give you the benefits of state-of-the-art operations. It will also speed up the hiring process; you can work with your augmented staff in around one to two weeks instead of spending months looking for the right people.
4 Strategies for Successful Business Scaling With Staff Augmentation
Staff augmentation has several advantages, but careful planning and execution are vital to project success and overcoming potential setbacks.
Here are four best practices for successful scaling with staff augmentation:
1. Assess Your Project Needs.
Before considering staff augmentation, assess your current business standing.
This first step will serve as the foundation of the whole process. It will help you determine what you need from augmented staff. This part of the process is your opportunity to identify skill gaps, determine project timelines, and be aware of any possible setbacks ahead of time.
2. Create a Comprehensive Plan.
Once you’ve identified your business needs, it’s time to craft a comprehensive plan for staff augmentation.
You must align your augmented staff with your organization’s culture, values, and work ethic. Furthermore, you must outline their roles and responsibilities and how they fit in with your in-house teams.
To help augmented staff perform to the best of their capabilities, you must also define how their job functions help you achieve your business goals.
3. Promote Effective Communication.
Effective collaboration is the foundation of success. Fostering a culture of collaboration streamlines your workflow and makes it easier for teams to help you achieve your business goals.
You need seamless communication between in-house teams and augmented staff to ensure collaboration. As a business leader, you must establish communication channels to connect both teams. These channels will enable you and your teams to exchange expectations and goals, ask questions, and work together despite being miles apart.
4. Evaluate Your Performance.
Monitoring team performance gives you a concrete idea regarding the effectiveness of your staff augmentation efforts.
Establish your performance metrics and use them to assess augmented staff regularly. The importance of this step is that it encourages accountability among the team. It will also help you make any necessary improvements. [3]
ClearSource: Your Next-Level Staff Augmentation Partner for Successful, Cost-Effective Scaling
ClearSource’s all-new Staff Augmentation (Small Teams) service leverages 17 years of outsourcing experience to deliver specialized, cost-effective solutions for growing businesses.
We offer enterprise-grade outsourcing services to deliver exceptional results for small and medium-sized businesses. Our global operations and best practices ensure successful scaling for your SMB at a fraction of the cost.
Set up a call with our team today to learn about staff augmentation and how it can help you scale effectively.
