Why Startups Should Stop Relying So Much On Startup-Friendly Services

When it comes to growing a business, scalability is one of the biggest concerns that you need to keep in mind. If you have any intention of growing your business, then you want to ensure that the solutions you use can grow to fit your needs.

Think of it this way; if you have a small office that only fits 4 people, what happens when you need to hire new employees?

Most people would say “move to a new office” and they’d be right. However, moving to a new office takes a lot of time and can interrupt your workflow.

For some companies, it might even close their business for a couple of days, resulting in a lot of lost sales and downtime. However, starting in a larger office is usually too expensive for most startups and that’s not a viable solution either.

This dilemma is extremely common for startups; do you invest in a long-term solution in the beginning or do you grit your teeth and face the complications that come with using a non-scalable solution?

The argument for avoiding startup-friendly services

If we continue the same analogy, a startup-friendly service would be akin to hiring a 2-person office space. It’s affordable and works, but it’s not always scalable. By the time you need to grow your business, you need to start using different kinds of solutions.

This is actually what a lot of startups tend to do.

They focus on startup-friendly services such as cheaper IT solutions that are advertised as friendly for small companies. There are even marketing services designed for small companies, boasting lower prices and strategies that can help a small business grow.

Unfortunately, there are many issues that come with relying on these startup-friendly services that focus on small businesses.

Important scaling considerations for startups to keep in mind

There are lots of different scaling considerations that startups need to keep in mind. Avoiding early expenses could result in larger expenses later down the road.

A great example of this is working with a document scanning company. Converting your data, reports and other paper documents into a digital format is relatively inexpensive, but if you delay your digital transformation for too long then it’s going to cost more money later on.

Many people consider using paper solutions as a cheap way for startups to begin, but it ultimately leads to problems later down the road. Regardless of what type of business you run, using a digital document and data storage solution is important from the beginning.

Most startups fail and these companies know this

Sadly, most startups tend to fail because of a range of different factors. Many of these startup-friendly services know this, hence why they lure you in with long-term packages and contracts.

Whether it’s a data protection service designed for small companies or an eCommerce portal, it’s important to rely on industry-standard solutions instead of third-party solutions that are tailored for startups and small companies.

At the end of the day, the solutions you use need to be scalable. Most industry-standard solutions offer this already, so there’s no reason to go with something more affordable just because it’s advertised as being helpful to small companies.