Starting a business takes a lot of time, effort, and, of course, money. It’s actually fairly easy to start a small business, but it’s a lot more difficult to start and maintain a profitable business. In fact, 20% of new small businesses fail within the first two years, 45% fail within the first five years, and more than half fail within the first 10 years.
Common reasons that these small businesses fail are due to financial issues, ineffective business planning, marketing mistakes, and poor management. Hiring and consulting with the right professionals can help you start and run a more successful business.
Accountants
You’ll need a professional accountant or financial advisor/planner when both starting and running your business. They can also be of help when preparing your business plan, which includes a section for planning out business expenses and future projections. You’ll also need an accountant or financial advisor when your business starts growing and thriving; they will help you keep track of all of your finances (such as payroll and taxes) and can help you make monthly budgets.
Your accountant may also rely on accounting software to help keep all of your financial affairs in order. Accounting software is a lot like online bookkeeping, keeping track of your payroll, taxes, and other financial information. Both you and your accountant or financial advisor should be able to clearly see and understand the financial health of your business.
Lawyers
The next person you’ll need to consult with and possibly even hire is a lawyer. Lawyers who specialize in small businesses can help you understand the legal aspects of starting and running a business. Before you can legally operate a business, you must register your business with the federal, state, and local governments; you may also have to obtain licensing and/or permits; and you also have to make sure that your intellectual property is protected.
Lawyers can also help you decide which type of business insurance is best for you. The most common type of insurance that businesses need is general liability insurance (GLI). If you have employees, you’ll also need workers’ compensation insurance. Other types of insurance you may need include:
- Business income insurance, in the event that your business has to close temporarily
- Commercial property insurance, if you’re operating from a physical location
- Commercial auto insurance, if you use a vehicle for work purposes
Marketing Experts
To help create awareness for your business, you’ll need to know the latest marketing strategies. You can definitely market your business yourself, but once your business starts to grow, and if you want it to continue to grow, then you’ll need to hire a marketing expert to help you. They can manage a variety of digital marketing strategies, such as social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) marketing, content marketing, and email marketing.
You can even hire a marketing professional for each type of digital marketing strategy, although many small businesses start with a social media marketing manager. Most small businesses today rely heavily on social media marketing, especially e-commerce businesses, and social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to market.
Recruiters
Your team should also consist of people who work for you, so you’ll need to hire employees. However, you may not know what type of employees to hire. This is where recruiters can help you. A recruitment advertising agency knows how to market your business towards qualified candidates who can work for your business, in the same way that your marketing experts would market your business towards consumers.
Recruitment agencies do this by helping you create a brand identity. This includes your core values, the reason you started your business, what you want your work culture to look like, and many other things to attract the right employees who would be a perfect fit for your business.
These are just a few of the professionals to hire when you’re just starting out, but they’re also good to keep around the entire time you’re ruining your business. All of these professionals listed above play a major role in everything that goes on behind the scenes of a successful business, so it’s worth investing in their services. Oftentimes, first-time business owners like to cut corners and save money by taking on these roles themselves, which is okay if they have a working knowledge of these tasks. However, once a business starts to grow, it’s much easier to hire professionals to take on these tasks for you.
