Estimated reading time: 5 mins
When we take a look at all the technologies that are accessible today, one thing is certain – the barriers once separating small business startups and large enterprises are no more. The Internet and specialized online platforms enabled us to access this huge pool of talented and skilled professionals, thus crowdsourcing came into existence.
Crowdsourcing has come a long way from just being a new term in Jeff Howe’s blog post, to a trending business idea. As I have referred to it multiple times in the past, let me share with you my experiences, and try to bring closer to you how crowdsourcing adds flexibility to business development.
Get The Work Done on a Limited Budget
For startups and small businesses life isn’t easy, especially today when there are a lot of “must haves”. What are these? If you devote some time to go and snoop around business blogs, you will quickly see that a business without a great looking logo, website and active social media page doesn’t have a bright future ahead of it.
Do you know the cost of getting these things done? Unless you want to mess around in the DIY playground, engaging pros to get these done will cost you a small fortune. Fortunately, crowdsourcing will save you some serious money and offer a good bang for your buck.
Thanks to the popular websites such as Upwork, RedesignMe and Chaordix you can tap into the world’s top talent and get everything done on a very, and let me repeat that, a very limited budget. With built in rating and review systems, top-notch crowdsourcing platforms will enable you to work with the most reliable and qualified people around the globe.
Use Your Budget for Development
Now that we have the flexibility, with several options to get that business development going, let me point out how crowdsourcing passively adds flexibility to business development.
Breaching and conquering new markets is quite the challenging and expensive task, but at the same time, it is an inevitable goal if you want to develop your business. Crowdsourcing fits in this picture as a money saving element.
All that money that you save by not having to put more employees on your payroll can be used for market research, segmentation and campaign launch, or any other business development effort for that matter. Now I know that I am risking boring you with crowdsourcing, but some aspects of breaching the new market can also be crowdsourced.
Are there any footsteps to follow? Of course there are. Netflix has crowdsourced something as important as video recommendations algorithms, and Eli Lilly and DuPont crowdsourced solving their R&D problems.
Get Valuable Insights From the Outside
When your head is stuck in business, it becomes hard to see the forest for the trees. All those details and your day-to-day activities can dull your senses and render you incapable of seeing the way out of your current situation. Seeking answers in a renowned business consulting firm can turn into quite the expensive effort.
Yeah, I imagine you got it this time as well – crowdsourcing comes to the rescue. But this time it’s not only because it is a much more affordable way to ask pros for help – it’s because it enables you to comb through dozens of solutions offered by people who have new and different perspectives on your business development situation.
Most of the people on these platforms seek personal recognition and will most certainly give their best to think of an executable and viable solution for your specific case. The Chaordix platform I’ve previously mentioned is a place where you can seek some case-specific business advice, such as building brand identity, expanding to new markets and so on.
Say Goodbye To Management
Business development and efficient management go hand in hand. As the number of projects goes up, the numbers of tasks to manage goes up rapidly too. Add multiple deadlines to this, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a project failure and intense atmosphere for both managers and teams.
In these times, business development projects can easily suffer to all the other ones that have to be handled simultaneously. Even with the best project managers on payroll and top-notch project management in the cloud, the flexibility becomes elusive when there is no time for it to squeeze into the daily schedule.
With crowdsourcing it is quite the opposite. The only thing you have to do is ask what you need. For instance, if you are in need of a logo design, all you have to do is provide some input on how you would like your logo to look and hundreds of designers from across the globe will submit their work.
You won’t have to manage a thing. The crowdsourcing platform manages workers while the people themselves manage their own projects. You can even turn the picking of the best solution into marketing and add more flexibility to your business development. Lets see how.
Bring your Customers Onboard
When you crowdsource a project, whether it is a design or business advice, you will get your hands on several solutions. You can use this as an opportunity to check the pulse of your online audience.
Feel free to share the choices on your social network profiles and let the customers pick. This is an excellent opportunity to create some buzz and show extended appreciation to your customers. And, you will be continuing your new crowdsourcing practice by crowdsourcing the choice too.
At the moment, crowdsourcing has more ties to creative work, but as you can see, with new platforms the opportunities are expanding. It definitely creates viable options for businesses to get the high quality results at an affordable price, thus adding more flexibility to business development efforts.
Damir is an avid writer here to help you with graphic design and branding tips in order to take your business to the next level. Part of the team at DesignContest, a place that will make your every graphic design idea come to life.
