Thinking About Expanding Your Business?
Be Sure You Do These 4 Things To Thrive
Breakthrough Bookkeeping
Guest Post by Chelsea Lamb of Business Pop
Breakthrough Bookkeeping helps female service-based business owners like you to relieve the burden of bookkeeping so that you can free up your time and focus on growing your business. Book your free discovery call today.
There is nothing more exciting as a small business owner than seeing your business take off. After working through the many uncertainties, it is so rewarding to be met with success. Alongside this newfound success is often the sudden need to expand your operations. From ordering new equipment to meeting customer demands to leasing a bigger space, there are plenty of important considerations to make.
If you’ve been thinking about expanding your business, there are some moves that are more critical than others. Breakthrough Bookkeeping reveals the four things that every business owner should do at this stage in order to thrive.
Get serious about your website.
At first, you may have been able to get away with a templated website that featured only the basics. As you continue to attract new customers and clients — and set goals for increasing your revenue — you need to finally get serious about your website.
In addition to having an eye-catching, user-friendly design, you need to implement a solid web strategy. This includes having proper contact forms, web analytics, and the like. To rank highly on Google, having a plan for search engine optimization (SEO) is also necessary.
Consider forming an LLC.
When it comes to business structures for small businesses, an LLC is the top choice. Forming an LLC for your business has several desirable benefits, including tax advantages, less paperwork, and greater flexibility for your company. Perhaps the most significant advantage is the elimination of your personal liability. Having an LLC ensures that if your business experiences financial hardship, you will not be held personally responsible.
Before moving ahead, review all rules that pertain to your state (since each state has different regulations around forming an LLC). If you prefer not to do the legwork on your own, you can skip the hefty lawyer fees by using a formation service like ZenBusiness, which will assist in completing and filing all the required formation papers. Such a service assures compliance, such as meeting reporting and filing deadlines with the government, and it makes the process simple and streamlined.
Start outsourcing.
Another practice that you may have been able to get away with is having minimal staff. Whether you have been running everything by yourself or have had the help of a few individuals, you will need to start outsourcing tasks to grow your business.
What’s nice about outsourcing nowadays is that you can easily find quality contractors and freelancers. Rather than having to hire an employee, you can hire a team of individuals on a contract basis to perform the work you need as it is needed. Depending on your unique situation, consider enlisting the help of virtual assistants, graphic designers, writers, bookkeepers, and social media coordinators.
Create standard operating procedures.
Expanding your business usually means that more people will be working as part of your team. Whether you choose to hire contractors or full-time employees, you are going to need to communicate how to do various tasks to these individuals.
For some of your most critical daily tasks — and for those you plan to outsource — start creating SOPs. Each should provide clear, step-by-step instructions so that anyone can jump in and perform the task. In the event of your absence, SOPs ensure business continuity and little (if any) disruption for your customers.
Reaching the point where you can grow your business is an exciting milestone. While using the above recommendations, be sure to create a list of the other upgrades, changes, and improvements that you’ll need to make. Assign a timeline to each task, and don’t wait to dive in to begin tackling this new stage in your career.
If you’ve realized the demands of running a business plus bookkeeping are taking too much of your time and you’d like to outsource, schedule a free call with Breakthrough Bookkeeping .
After you share where you are in your business, we’ll determine the most effective way to elevate your business operations.