Finished your business plan and ready to set up your small business and bring a team on board? Looking to add to your existing team? These articles contain tips, hints and insight into hiring employees and professionals for your small business such as bookkeepers, accountants and lawyers and avoiding the trap of small business owner burnout.
Avoid Burnout and Share the Workload by Delegating
Most entrepreneurs face the ongoing possibility that they’ll simply work themselves into the ground by trying to do everything themselves. Many small enterprises are directly tied to their owners – which means that the minute the owner stops producing, the cash flow and the business skid to a halt. This is a recipe for burnout. Read the full article
Age or Attitude?
Not long ago, I cheerfully plunged into the second half of my first century on this terrestrial plane. I used to view anyone over the age of 30 as “old.” Today, my more than 50-year-old eyes see very little age difference between myself and my 70-year old parents. While I have the good fortune to be self-employed, I see more and more baby boomers being displaced from the work force. Read the full article
Business without Borders
In business, when you perform a task yourself or have an employee do it for you, that task is said to be handled in-house. When you contract someone offsite to do the same work—whether next door, across town, or offshore—you’re outsourcing. Read the full article
How to Choose an Accountant for Your Small Business
With my accountant on the brink of retirement, I’m moved to contemplate the critical role he’s played in my business for almost 3 decades, and to reflect on what an amazing and positive relationship it’s been. I lucked out. Read the full article
Make Use of Professionals Effectively
For some reason many new start-ups think that professionals are great business people. This is not necessarily true. There is a tendency to want to shuffle off large tasks to the accountant, the lawyer or the bookkeeper. Not only are these folks busy, they are expensive for the average start-up budget. The challenges I see with relying on expensive professionals to solve ones problems are . . . Read the full article
Older Workers Caught in the Crosshairs Without Computer Skills
There is a workplace defrag in progress, and it can be bad news for aging workers who have put off the learning of useful computer skills. The workplace is always changing, but the most pervasive shift over the past couple of decades has certainly been an increase in the use of technology. As an employer, this means I need computer literate workers in order to survive in the marketplace. Read the full article
So You’re Thinking of Doing Your Own Bookkeeping
If you’re getting into business and thinking about doing your own bookkeeping, back away from the shoebox and keep your hands where we can see them. Learning to manage your business is a full-time job. Learning to be a bookkeeper is also a full time job. Respect both, pick one. Unless you’re already a bookkeeper, you should turn the bookkeeping task over to a qualified professional. Here are eight benefits to hiring a professional bookkeeper. Read the full article
Things To Consider When Hiring Employees for the First Time
Recently, while visiting a bustling business, I noticed that there were too many employees onsite for the amount of work being done. Overstaffing is just one of many pitfalls an owner will encounter when positioning for growth. Left unchecked, having too many workers will quickly drain your bank account and put you out of business. Read the full article
Virtual Assistants Can Be the Key to Growing Your Business
Ask any entrepreneur bootstrapper and you’ll find that time and money are always stretched in the early stages of a business. Even when the business is up and running, owners are challenged to do as much as possible with the resources available. One increasingly popular way to save time is to outsource tasks to Virtual Assistants or VA’s. The VA niche is picking up momentum as more and more people use the Internet. Read the full article