Starting a small business is always risky. However, the year 2020 has pulled both the employment rug and the financial floor out from under many people. When taking a risk is your best shot at improving your situation, starting a business may not be so scary.
Get Promotional Assistance
Starting your business may mean sending out mailings or posting fliers about your services. As you’re probably busy working both on and in your business at this point, boosting your promotional footprint with the help of another small business may be just what you need.
Get things as organized as possible before sending out your promotion team. If you want a particular neighborhood to get fliers, assign maps and get accurate counts of the flyers going out and the ultimate result. If you’re not confident in the content of any promotional or marketing documents, hire a proofreader or a writer to clean up your message and accurately present your offerings.
Marketing Help
Check out Fiverr and Upwork to find someone with plenty of social media savvy to build a Facebook business page. As word spreads, consider hiring a contractor part time to review your online presence, delete posts from trolls, and track down legitimate complaints that you need to respond to quickly.
While working on your presence on social media platforms, lay the plans for your website. You need a tool that will easily be visible on phones, tablets, or laptops. You will also need to consider building an app that will notify potential customers of your offerings and any promotions you’re currently running. Finally, you’ll need to be sure that whatever online presence you create has the highest security possible for your clients and proprietary data.
Financials to Outsource
The option to outsource services include:
- Accounts payable
- Accounts receivable
- Payroll
This can greatly reduce your internal burden, especially as you grow your business. If you’re hiring key professionals, you may need to make big offers to bring them in. Having your payroll function out of the office can cut down on any privacy risks.
Additionally, if you’re located in a small town, consider moving your business banking to an online entity or a large national chain. Even if you have a good relationship with your small town banker, there will come a time when you need a quick letter of credit or a fast loan to cover an investment. A relationship with a bigger bank can speed up the flow of cash into your bank.
Hiring the Right People
When it’s time to grow, you need the right people on your team. The process of looking for key employees is challenging; you want to make sure that you’re finding the best person for your team and giving them a great reason to make the leap. While you may not be able to offer a huge salary jump, there are perks to working in a small company, including:
- The option to buy in on the ground floor
- Autonomy
- The ability to build something from the ground up.
Thus, your hiring package needs to be as unique as the work you’re offering and the business you’re building. From moving services to car shipping quotes, many small business owners find that by offering personal perks, they can bring over the best and brightest from larger employers as they grow their offerings.
Consolidating Lenders
Every small business needs cash. While you may need to gather start-up dollars from personal sources, including retirement accounts, home equity, credit cards, and family, as soon as you can borrow in your business’ name, you’ll need to locate a one-stop lending consolidating site that can make your application process easier.
While these consolidators may charge a fee to get rolling, you’ll often find that they also offer a basic loan application that will allow lenders to make a soft pull on your credit. These soft pulls will then give you a heads-up on the best potential lenders to dig in with. Some lending consolidation platforms can also guide you toward grants that your business may qualify for as you grow.
Final Thoughts
No matter the starting size of your business, the steps and services listed above can be key to fairly painless growth. Change is never easy, but if you’re ready to step up your financial life and get a business started for the benefit of the financial future of you and yours, now is the time to stretch.
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