Situation: Start-ups and early-stage enterprises are typically both resource and talent constrained. The CEO of a start-up asks how others successfully outsourced infrastructure cost effectively and when they were early-stage so that they could focus on critical success factors and improve their opportunity to succeed. How do small companies outsource infrastructure?

Advice from the CEOs:

• In the early stages of company development, outsource everything possible and focus our efforts only on the key functions.
• In order to focus on the most important things first, decide what must be accomplished and when. Set priorities, establish key milestones and create a timeline to measure achievement. Celebrate your successes!
• Identify the most important strategic foci within your business model and outsource everything else.
  • For example, use outside data centers instead of developing these yourself.
  • With the increase in Cloud-based options, early stage companies can do without the IT infrastructure that they used to need. Just be careful to safeguard your intellectual property!
• Attend relevant meetings and functions to learn about existing and available capabilities. Look for local networking opportunities relevant to your market.
• Incubator sites have developed in a number of high tech centers. These are designed to cover infrastructure needs at a reasonable cost so that founders can focus on product and service development.
• Hire a virtual assistant – you can find these locally using a Google search.
• Take advantage of lower cost labor and enlist younger, less experienced labor to manage databases and clean records.
• Set up a wiki for information. This exchange is free and you can tailor it to your needs. It is permission-based; you can find it at pbwiki.com.

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