Setting up a business is time consuming and can be difficult. The increasing popularity of the work at home business has created a massive increase in the number of business tools to help new business owners avoid some of the most common pitfalls.
Even the most prepared business owners struggle over certain aspects of the business. It is easy if there is the resources and finances to outsource, or hire someone in-house. Every few people master the art of creating financial reports, managing the bookkeeping, understanding marketing trends, and learning the ins-and-outs of promotion.
It is unlikely that any work at home business owner will understand all the legal and legal ramifications of a new business. It isn’t always feasible to employ an accountant, solicitor, secretary, salesperson, and marketing professional. The internet offers places where you can buy the knowledge needed to run your business. Don’t trust the free-for-all information that is scattered around the web. There are ample niche’ websites that focus on certain aspects of generating revenue, making money online, and building a strong business.
Legal
Mention legal and most new business owners run. Others start telling horror stories and cursing the day they ever signed a contract. There are many legal aspects of running a business. Paying a lawyer to create contracts and legal documents to use, or having a lawyer read contracts sent to you, are both too expensive for the average business.
However, there are dozens of pre-made contracts on the net. Most cost less than $25 a copy. Look at other business’s contracts, borrow ideas from the internet. Pay special attention to the terms and conditions. If these are not well written out, you could be left with no legal recourse if someone doesn’t pay their bill. For example, if there is no ‘payment due by’ then you cannot send delinquent accounts to collections.
Once you have a contract, then send it to a lawyer for a quick read. This will only cost a fraction of the price of having a local lawyer create the full document.
Human Resources
Personnel, is the number one asset in any business. Gathering a group of people dedicated to the business is vital to success. There are a lot of rules and regulations that can make it almost impossible to hire local help. Labour laws are difficult to navigate, and can cause small business owners unlimited headaches.
One way to overcome this is to hire freelancers who have established their own business...the business of helping other businesses avoid hiring full time staff. Freelancers can be found to do everything from bookkeeping to writing articles, graphic arts to creating a business plan, creating a grant application to answering emails. It doesn’t matter what you need done, someone out there has made a ‘niche’ of helping businesses with that aspect of their business.
Financial Software
Most of today’s software takes the guess work out of bookkeeping, but they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. If your business needs excellent reports, and needs to track projects, then Simply Accounting is the one for you. This software is not only excellent for anyone needing very detailed reports, but for people who incorporate and need ‘accountant friendly’ reports.
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