There is a specific kind of mindset that it takes for someone to launch a small business and make it a success. Now, while it may be fair to say that there are a lot of people out there who are capable of coming up with a good idea for a small business that could work in theory, how many of those people actually have what it takes to put a plan together to bring it to life?
To go the distance when it comes to finding everything from financing, to staff, to materials, to get it to the point — where it has become a reality? To weather that first storm when you are really put to the test? Yes indeed, that number gets a lot smaller very quickly, doesn’t it?
And people who have that mentality tend to have, by necessity in a lot of cases, the drive to do everything by themselves. Creating a social media plan? Sure, I’ll do that on the weekend. What about paid advertising? It’s on my list of things to look at after lunch. Have you paid that freelancer? I’m going to do it as soon as we’re off this call.
While there is a lot to be said for being willing to take responsibility for your business, at a certain point the determination to have the buck stop with you becomes counter-productive.
We don’t need to tell you that there are a million and ten different things that you need to pay attention to when you’re running a small business, and if you are trying to do everything yourself you are going to start missing things.
Important duties are going to fall through the cracks, campaigns will never reach their full potential, and when things start getting lost it can be very difficult to put it all back together again.
With that in mind, we have put together a list of duties that no small business owner should feel bad about handing off to an expert, of talking to someone who makes their living handling these opportunities, and maximizing their potential. Let’s get started.
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You Should Probably Not Do Your Own Accounts
We get it, if you launched your own business then the chances are good that you have done a lot of your own accounting and you pride yourself on knowing where every dollar and cent is going, and how much is coming. However, the fact of the matter is that this role will only get more demanding as time goes on.
And while you may be more than capable of performing the necessary admin duties when it comes to filing tax returns, paying invoices, and making sure that everyone gets paid on time, are sure that you are capable of making sure that you are taking advantage of every tax loophole, every local authority grant and every potential saving that you should be making for a rainy day, if not your retirement?
A professional accountant isn’t just there to help you make sure that everything is filed correctly, they are there to help make sure that you save money, and that you make money.
Think About Bringing In A Professional Website Designer
Depending on the business you have set up, your website could be anywhere on your priority list from first to last. However, while there may have been a time when you could have got away with a templated landing page and a bio that you wrote on your lunch break, that time has passed. It does not matter which industry or sector you are working in; the online marketplace has become vastly more competitive over the last twelve months.
The pandemic removed a huge chunk of the playing field when shutdowns were ordered and people started staying home whenever they could, which mean that businesses of all sizes from the mega-corporations to the mom-and-pop stores were competing for the same online real estate only with markedly different resources.
We are all spending a lot more time online and it means that we are all getting more discerning about which websites are worth a click-through or not. You need to make sure that your home page is the best possible representation of your brand identity, your ethos, and what you have to offer.
You Will Need To Consult A Marketing Firm
Speaking of how competitive things are out there, your website is only one tool in your arsenal when it comes to getting the word out about your business. A good digital marketing strategy is absolutely crucial for any business, but when the landscape is so vast and there are so many different channels to choose from, so many different agencies clamoring for your attention, it can be tricky to know where you should start.
While it can be tempting to adopt a scattershot approach to try and throw as many lines in the water as you possibly can to see who bites (with our apologies for the mixed metaphor there), a considered, targeted approach will inevitably yield better results.
Take Pay-Per-Click (PPC), for example, which can be a huge waste of money if it turns out that the people clicking through your ads actually have no interest in what it is that you have to offer.
Increasingly, more and more businesses are turning to programmatic advertising, which centralizes digital advertising channels on one platform with direct access to tens and thousands of ad publishers.
Combine this ad technology with a team of experts that create a customized strategy for each campaign, you can be far more confident that you are going after the right audience. War Room has emerged as one of the leading agencies utilizing this strategy and has seen huge success with big name brands like Adidas.
You Should Make Sure That You Have Professional IT Support
Back when we were all working in offices, everything IT-related was an awful lot simpler, wasn’t it? However, as the owner of a small business, you may have been coasting on the fact that you have invested in decent equipment and that you have a buddy who knows their way around a software update.
Well, now that your business is up and running, you really cannot afford to take your eye off the ball when it comes to IT issues.
We have spent most of this article talking about how the online marketplace is essentially the be-all and end-all right now, so can you really afford to lose business because of a system failure, a virus, or worse?
As much as we would all rather not think about these things, there are so many ways in which things can go wrong, and the odds are that they will go wrong at some point. When that happens, you need to be prepared.
It’s also worth noting that the world saw a massive spike in cybercrime figures last year as the crooks took advantage of the world being forced to live and breathe online, so you need to make sure that you have all your software security bases covered.
Even if you don’t bring a permanent member of staff on as your IT support, make sure that you have a freelancer (we recommend UpWork) that you can rely on, who can jump on an emergency issue at a moment’s notice.
