Business Tips

A new business comes with a new list of demands and decisions that all have to be addressed if you’re going to actually move forward. For example, you might have a great business idea, but you realize already that you can’t do it all on your own. However, a lot of business owners end up ignoring this timeless advice and plunging in on their own. They end up burning out and watching their business suffer just because they were not willing to actually delegate effectively. Trust us — you’re going to need to figure out some way to push some tasks off your to-do list and onto someone else’s.

However, does that really mean that you have to hire an entire staff full time? Not at all. If you’re a small business that just needs a little bit of help, you might as well turn to freelancers for assistance.

The nice part about freelancers is that you can work on specific projects together. When those projects are done, you can break ties with the freelancer. It doesn’t’ have to be a long term thing unless you really need it to be.

They are also independent contractors, which means that they actually handle their own taxes. However, you have to make sure that you don’t make the mistake of taking care of too much for them — that would run the risk of them being classified as employees. This adds a lot of complexity on your end of things, so it’s better to list in the work / hire agreement that they truly are independent contractors and that means that they are responsible for their own taxes. The only thing that you need to do is collect enough information to pass along to the IRS when it’s time to report their income. You have to report income when their wages exceed $600 in a calendar.

If you don’t want to hire personnel or independent contractors, you’re going to have to turn to software. Even though your initial costs might be higher for automation, there’s nothing wrong with this. In the long run, it can be cheaper to purchase great software than turn to another human. The human touch is expensive, but it really can make all of the difference in a pinch.

Common automation services would be the virtual office phone line rather than having a secretary. Virtual PBX systems are pretty affordable even for very small businesses, so you will always have the ability to direct phone calls to the right place. Even if it’s just to you and your business partner’s respective cell phones, you’ll at least look as big and professional as a major corporation.

There will be services that are just out of your reach that you actually need to contract out to someone. Look at your business budget and make sure that you have room for some of these things by default. Now is definitely the time to take action — good luck!