> Right now, almost all the clients that we acquire are through Upwork. We are a bit nervous about the risk of getting kicked from the platform in the future for any reason. Not that we are doing anything that violates their terms, but just in case. We don't want to be over-reliant on one channel. What are our alternatives? I know few other sites like Fiverr, Freelancer, etc., but supposedly they are not that great in comparison.
Use upwork as an absolute last resort. Find clients through word of mouth, referrals, social proof, networking, SEO, and maybe light ads and sponsorships. Only fall back to upwork if you can't fill your schedule otherwise.
Probably more importantly, change the type of client you're working for. People who use upwork and similar platforms are either uninformed, or intentionally looking for the cheapest work possible. You won't, as you put it, "grow your business" on that. Its possible for you to find some good clients there, but its much more rare and requires effort. So why not put that effort into finding clients who will pay you more?
Take the wins you've made on upwork, those clients who you did really good work for and really made happy, and ask them to refer you to other people, and engage those people off of upwork.
> We are most certainly leaving money on the table because we cannot handle all the job requests we get. We want to grow our team, but hiring developers in the U.S is not an option, given the high wage demands. What country is most suitable for hiring some good developers at reasonable rates/wages and being compliant with U.S labor and tax laws at the same time?
There's nothing wrong with hiring offshore people, but don't hire offshore people because you can't afford onshore people. You can't afford onshore people because you're way undercharging. Maybe that's your business model, but given you're asking about how to hire offshore people, I don't think it is. Raise your rates so that you can hire onshore people.
> What are some of the hot areas that we should build our expertise in besides mobile and web app development to expand our business?
You shouldn't chase hot areas, you should pick something that has longevity and dive into it. Okay maybe that means you can pick something hot and fresh today. But if you're always picking something hot and fresh every few months, you're not getting REALLY GOOD at one thing. Trying to go all in on something like blockchain or whatever means you need to now figure out how to build up your blockchain sales pipeline. Where would you even go for that kind of work? If you don't know the answer to something like that, then devoting time to getting good there is actually a negative EV for your business.
Once you position yourself as a specialist, raise your rates.
> How do we actively look for bigger companies that may be interested in offloading some of their work to a small team like ours? What are some efficient cold emailing strategies? Should we hire salespeople for that?
Do good work for smaller companies, and ask them for word of mouth referrals. You'll get intros to bigger companies, eventually.
> Is there a particular type of team structure or hierarchy that works well for services as opposed to in a product company? What roles should we prioritize in hiring?
This depends a bit too much on where your problems lie and what you're doing w/ your business IMO. At least, when your company is young. There's no one correct answer here. Fill in your skills gap and then hire to address your needs. But based on the rest of your post, I'd guess you need help with bizdev/sales.
> Finally, Any tips on how to build web presence?
IMO web presences for dev shops who truly want to succeed early on should be localized. Pick a city or geographic region (hopefully where you are already located) and a specialty and SEO the hell out of it. You won't stand out in a global marketplace, but you can stand out for local businesses looking for local help. And there are usually a lot of them.