Published 18 Feb 2026  ·  Depesh Vyas

What to Outsource vs. Hire In-House at $10K–$40K MRR

One of the most consequential decisions a service business founder makes at the $10K–$40K MRR stage is what to hire for and what to outsource. Get it wrong in either direction — hiring full-time for something that should be outsourced, or trying to outsource something that needs dedicated ownership — and you've wasted significant time and money before realising the mistake.

Most of the advice on this topic is vague: "hire for your weaknesses," "outsource non-core functions," "build what differentiates you." Useful in theory, not particularly actionable when you're trying to decide whether to hire a full-time operations person or keep using a VA and a contractor.

Here's a more direct framework, built from what actually works at this revenue stage.

The Core Decision Variables

Three variables determine whether something should be outsourced or hired in-house:

Ownership and accountability. Can this function operate well without a person who owns it as their primary responsibility? Some functions — delivery execution, content production, specific technical tasks — can be managed project-by-project without a dedicated owner. Others — operations management, account management, sales — require someone who is consistently invested in the outcomes, not just completing discrete tasks.

Institutional knowledge requirements. How much does doing this well require deep knowledge of your specific clients, your specific processes, your specific standards? Functions that require high institutional knowledge are harder to outsource effectively because the knowledge has to be rebuilt with every contractor or agency engagement. Functions that can be done to a defined standard with limited context are safer to outsource.

Volume and consistency. Is this a consistent, predictable volume of work, or is it variable and project-based? Consistent, high-volume work usually justifies a full-time hire over time. Variable, project-based work is usually better outsourced.

What to Outsource at This Stage

Specialised delivery tasks (design, development, specific technical execution). Unless your core service is design or development, these are typically better outsourced to specialists. The work is deliverable-focused, the quality standard can be defined, and the volume rarely justifies full-time headcount at this revenue stage. Build a reliable contractor bench — vetted people with signed agreements — rather than a full-time team in these areas.

Content production. Blog posts, LinkedIn content, email newsletters. Unless you're building a content-led growth machine, this is better outsourced to a writer or agency who can be briefed against a clear standard. The trap is trying to hire a full-time content person before you have a clear content strategy — you'll spend most of their salary figuring out what you want them to produce.

Finance and accounting (beyond basic tracking). Bookkeeping, payroll, tax — outsource these to a specialist. The cost is low relative to the risk of getting it wrong. The exception is financial analysis and forecasting that informs business decisions — that benefits from someone close enough to the business to have real context.

Legal. Contracts, agreements, incorporation-level work — use a lawyer on an as-needed basis. You don't need in-house legal at this stage.

Specific marketing execution (ads, SEO technical work). If you're running paid ads or doing technical SEO, a specialist or agency is usually better value than a generalist hire who does these things adequately. The exception is if marketing is your primary growth channel and you're spending enough that having someone deeply embedded makes financial sense.

What to Hire In-House at This Stage

Operations / delivery management. If your business has more than 4–5 people and is managing multiple client engagements simultaneously, operations management needs a dedicated owner. This is not an outsourceable function — it requires daily presence, institutional knowledge, and the authority to make operational calls in real time. The person who owns operations needs to be embedded in the business, not managing it from the outside.

Core delivery roles (the people who actually do your service). Whatever your primary service is, the people delivering it need to be on your team, not hired project by project. This is both a quality and a culture issue. Contractors who work across multiple businesses don't internalise your standards the way full-time team members do, and quality consistency is much harder to maintain.

Account management (once you're managing 8+ clients). Client relationships benefit from a consistent point of contact who knows the account deeply. Once you have enough clients that you can't personally manage all the relationships, you need an account manager on the team — not a contractor who's handling client calls for multiple businesses simultaneously.

Sales (when it's your primary constraint). If sales is the bottleneck and the founder needs to step back from it to focus on operations and growth, bringing a sales person in-house makes sense. This is typically a hire for later in this revenue range ($30K+ MRR) when the economics support it. Earlier, the founder is almost always the most effective salesperson and should stay in that role while operations are handled by someone else.

The Specific Decision Most Founders Get Wrong

At the $10K–$20K MRR stage, the most common wrong hire is a VA or OBM when what the business actually needs is someone to own operations. Founders hire VAs because they're affordable and the ask feels smaller. But VA work is task-based — you still own the thinking, the decisions, and the quality gate. Nothing structural changes. The business is still dependent on the founder for every meaningful operational call.

The alternative — bringing in someone with actual operational authority, even fractionally — costs more but addresses the actual constraint. The question isn't "what's the cheapest way to get help?" It's "what does the business structurally need in order to grow?"

At this stage, the answer is almost always: someone to own operations. Not to help the founder with operations, but to take operations off the founder's plate entirely. Whether that's a COO, a full-time operations manager, or something in between depends on the specifics of the business — but the category is right even when the specific hire varies.

The Hiring Decision Framework (Simplified)

When evaluating any potential hire or outsource decision, run it through these three questions in order:

Does this function require someone who owns it as their primary responsibility and is deeply embedded in our business? If yes, hire. If no, continue to next question.

Does this function require high institutional knowledge of our specific clients, standards, and processes to be done well? If yes, hire. If no, continue.

Is the volume consistent and large enough to justify full-time headcount, or is it variable and project-based? If consistent and large, hire. If variable and project-based, outsource.

This won't catch every edge case, but it will catch the most common expensive mistakes — and at $10K–$40K MRR, avoiding expensive mistakes is the most reliable path to sustainable growth.

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Depesh Vyas is the founder of VBOG (Vyas Business Operations Group). The $500 Operations Audit includes a specific assessment of your current team structure and recommendations on where the structural gaps are — including whether your next hire should be operational, delivery-focused, or something else.