By Michael DeHoyos
Starting a small business is no easy task, and it is sometimes hard to know which area to start with. In this article, we are going to look at 15 small business management tips, and which headaches they will save you on a day-to-day basis.
1. Set Up a Separate Business Entity
Setting up a separate taxable business entity from the beginning. Even if you do not think it is necessary, it will save you the potential financial implications of business failure falling into your own lap, the IRS chasing your personal assets down, and the blurring of your personal and professional finances.
Tip: Consult with both an accountant & lawyer to decide what type of business entity is best for you.
2. Keep your Personal & Business Money Separate
Similar to the aforementioned separation, it is crucial to divide the money you intend for the business and the money that you need to live off.
Sonya Horan, a writer at Brit Student and Next Coursework, commented, “This will save you trouble with the IRS in the future, and help you avoid dangerous blurring of the personal and professional finance line.”
Even if you use your own capital to start off, make sure you set up a different account for this money.
3. Use Accounting Software!
Although accounting software is an expense, it will save you money, time, and silly mistakes in the long run. They basically pay for themselves with the efficacy they bring your small business, and ensure you look professional.
4. Pay Taxes Quarterly
This one will save you the hassle of IRS employees and the headache of IRS fees. This is why it is so crucial to have an accountant, as this will get handled automatically by them. Pay your taxes quarterly, and save yourself time, effort, and hassle.
5. Have an Accountant
Having a go to accountant will save you the stress of doing certain things yourself, and also save you the time of doing it! They are qualified to do what they do well, which is why you pay them.
6. Keep yourself Educated
Even though as the previous point, education costs money; it pays for itself. Education pays back due to the skills and knowledge it provides you with, and the silly mistakes it saves you making in your business. It is much better to pay for knowledge rather than making mistakes and spending hours on Google.
7. Train Employees
Your new employees will not know the ins and outs of the business straight away, so it is important to spend time and effort training them. Though this might cost a few months upfront of increased time spent at the office, it will save you a lot in the long run. Doing this will reduce turnover, difficult firings, and most of all, wasted time and effort.
8. Trust Your Employees
Once you have trained your employees, let them do what you have trained them to do. Check in, but do not micromanage! This will save you wasting time, and them feeling constantly overlooked.
9. Marketing Investment
Investing in marketing will return tenfold to what you put in. Ruth Donna, a business writer at 1 Day 2 write and Write my X, noted, “Research into marketing and capital investment are both important to improve efficacy in marketing.”
A marketing investment will increase cash flow into your business, improve word of mouth about your business, and keep your business on a positive trajectory.
10. Have a Weekly Meeting with Yourself
It might seem silly, but this is crucial and so easy to forget. Sometimes you get so busy with other employees and other priorities that you forget to check in on your first employee; yourself! This will help you keep up with your goals, keep focused on the right things, and not forget something crucial.
11. Outlaw Multi-Tasking
Multi-tasking is productivity’s enemy. Ensure that you and your employees do one thing at a time, as this will avoid embarrassing mistakes made from doing too many things at once, feeling frazzled from jumping between tasks, and not being productive while working.
12. Do not Check your Emails for the first 4 Hours
We hear this all the time, so sometimes we forget. If you check your emails first thing, you will clog your brain up with things that may not be top of your priority list. However, waiting 4 hours will allow you to get through things that are actually priority and make time for what you find in your inbox.
13. Always Book your Day 80% Up
In a day, something will always come up unexpectedly that you did not plan in. It is just the way of the world! If you leave 20% of your day open, you will always have time for these unexpected interruptions, and you will be instantly saved the headache of stressing out over time you do not have.
14. Try the Pomodoro Technique
This productivity technique will save you the headache of procrastination. It breaks work down into 25-minute bursts, and little breaks in between.
15. Only Continue Strategies that Work
Do not waste your own time! If you have tried a marketing strategy that is not showing results, stop putting time and money into it. Only continue the strategies that work; it will save you money and time.
About the Author:
Michael DeHoyos is a business writer and online content editor at Dissertation writing service and Write my thesis. He assists businesses in their marketing strategy concepts and contributes to multiple sites and publications. He also contributes his writings to Origin Writings.
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