5 Services that Help Entrepreneurs Focus on Growth
by Abdul Aziz Mondal Entrepreneurship Published on: 10 July 2018 Last Updated on: 08 November 2024
Entrepreneurs head into business for themselves often for one major reason—they’re tired of the bureaucracy of working for someone else.
It’s a noble cause to try and go your own way in an economy that’s increasingly worried about the future. However, when you sign up to launch a sole proprietorship, LLC, or startup, you may find that not every aspect of a business is one that you’ll enjoy.
From sorting out your taxes to managing payroll, inventory, and other overhead expenses, there are many aspects of entrepreneurship that take you away from making the product you love and forcing you to deal with the paperwork. Some people may thrive on this opportunity to sort of finances, but for many others, efficiency is key.
That’s why we’ve assembled our top five services that help entrepreneurs skip admin work and focus on growing their companies.
1. Communication Services:
Even in a smaller office, it can be easier to send emails to employees rather than running over to their desks and interrupting workflow. For decades, the system has been built around endless email threads, CCing people, working out who knows what, and when. It’s an antiquated system that could use updating.
Communication services like Slack or Google Hangouts can take much of the clunkiness out of email communication. These services present conversations between employees in a manner that’s much more intuitive than email.
The information you need to pass to employees can remain accessible to anyone at any time, and push notifications can make responding much quicker.
There are many communication services available on the market today. Find your favorite, brief your employees, and work to simplify internal communication and avoid dissonance in the workplace.
2. Financial Services:
We’re not referring to an accountant here—although if you don’t already have one, perhaps it is time to reconsider that stance.
Businesses owe several types of taxes, and depending upon how yours is registered, sorting out deductions and reports can be more hassle than any single entrepreneur can handle. We highly recommend outsourcing an accountant to deal with the deluge of paperwork, but if you’d like to go at it on your own, consider a financial service to keep you in check.
Software like QuickBooks or Xero assemble your numbers and help you calculate quarterly payments and requirements. You can track outgoing money, overhead cost, payroll, and more. This level of record-keeping will keep you safe from any trigger-happy auditor or demanding customer.
If it didn’t happen in writing, it didn’t happen at all. So before problems arise, make sure your finances are written down, secured, and managed by someone who knows what they’re doing.
3. Consultation:
We know, we know—why hire someone else to tell you what to do?
Consultation is a bit of a bane for new entrepreneurs that feel hellbent to ensure the success of their companies with as little outside influence as possible. They may already feel stretched by meeting the demands of angel investors and venture capitalists, so hiring another person might feel like a self-inflicted wound.
However, much like with finances and communication, what you don’t know about can and will hurt you. Without proper guidance for working your way into a market sector, the battle becomes far more difficult.
Consulting firms encompass a fairly large chunk of the small business market, which goes to show both their value and accessibility to budding entrepreneurs. As small businesses themselves, consultation services are usually far more understanding of the difficulties and limitations of a small business.
The right information will more than pay for the time and hassle it may take to bring on the right consultant. As it’s always said, if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. If that’s true for you, consultation might be your best bet for success.
4. PEO:
What is a PEO, exactly? A company that handles administrative tasks such as payroll, compliance, and taxes. Administrative businesses like certified professional employer organizations (PEOs) focus on keeping your payroll legal and balanced while training employees as necessary.
If you’re in the middle of developing a minimum viable product or need to rush a timetable to meet a deadline, the last thing you want to do is spend your nights and weekend figuring out who is owed what.
Seek out the best PEO companies for your business, and preferably one that has experience in your sector. They’ll help you formulate the best plan and leverage your capital to the fullest possible extent.
If your business is struggling because of high turnover and low retention, let the experts figure out what you need to do to keep the doors open. The less time you spend on the numbers, the more time you can build a product that’s worthy of everyone’s time.
5. Analytics & Social Media :
The Internet is no longer a nebulous enterprise. For many businesses, it is the backbone on which growth and marketing can exist. The largest businesses in the world not only utilize media—but depend on it.
Whether you’re in SaaS or make home products, you need to know about your outreach, marketing plan, and social media influence. Several companies can take on the brunt of marketing work, and others may be willing to manage accounts for you.
If you’re looking to manage these in the office, Google Analytics is a powerful tool that allows you to see how effective your market research has been to traffic. You can plan out campaigns, look into advertising, and see about improving your SEO and exposure to your audience.
Encompassing platforms like Buffer can help you manage several social media accounts at once—saving time and energy by mass-blasting out product launches and other announcements simultaneously.
Conclusion:
In any case, paying attention to your online footprint can be just as important as any other aspect of your business. Entrepreneurs enter into business to make something worth buying. With this article as a starting point, you will be off to a good start on your journey towards business success.
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