Entrepreneur Country spoke with Shane Leonard, Managing Director at technology start-up Finfore, to discuss how it has used online recruitment platform Elance to outsource aspects of its work and grow its business.

Recruitment is essential for growth; outsourcing is a great way for startups to expand while taking minimum risks

For a start-up immediately hiring additional permanent staff is difficult and risky. Staffing at a small company can pose problems as a company expands. Like most start up companies Finfore wanted a way to have more control and flexibility over hiring so that it could scale quickly and easily.

“To operate our business efficiently we take on employees for short periods of time and work with them on a job-by-job basis," said Shane Leonard, Managing Director at Finfore. “To compete with large established businesses, we need the best employees available but they come at a cost, especially if working on permanent contracts. We often need specialist advisors for short periods of time. To avoid excess cost, hiring freelancers and contract workers makes sense but it isn't without challenges.”

Outsourcing means you can take on experts on short term contracts as required

Freelance platforms give start ups easy access to skilled workers that they don't have in-house. Legal, business and financial experts can be used as required by any business. This means companies can save money by only taking on the permanent members of staff who are critical to success. This is the same for employees hired on longer contracts such as coders and developers, giving companies the flexibility to hire them on a contract basis or for a specific time period.

Access to a global pool of professionals

Outsourcing to contractors and Freelancers online gives organisations access to the best talent in the world. Companies can now source from around the globe and save significant amounts of time by not needing to interview potential employees and save money by using freelancers to work on specific projects, rather than on permanent contracts.

"As we grow, we will add more permanent employees, but we’ll always need additional expertise from contractors,” concluded Shane.

For further information about Finfore go to www.finfore.net, to find out more about Elance visit www.elance.com

Finfore

Finfore is a technology start-up focused on investment banking. Financial data, at $35 billion per annum, is the second largest cost to the investment banking industry, after employees. Finfore’s service FastND is a web application designed to help finance professionals access more relevant financial news and data. Using Twitter and real-time search algorithms, FastND streams breaking news bespoke to each user’s preferences.

Shane Leonard bio

•    Shane Leonard, CFA is the Managing Director of Finfore Limited.
•    Shane worked at Citigroup and Credit Suisse in London, prior to founding Finfore in early 2010.
•    He has 12 years experience as an investment banker and 3 years in media and technology.
•    Educated at Trinity College Dublin, he has an M.A. in Economics.