Realize Your Business

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

Hi everyone -

I have not been on this blog much lately. The good news is: I got a large consulting contract for my company. The bad news is: I am one of the consultants. Do not get me wrong – I love consulting! But doing the work means I do not have time to build the business. It is a common problem for small businesses owners – you can do the work to make money for your business, or you can run the business. So far in my career, I have alternated between the two.

I have found that when I am working as a consultant, I spend 40 hours or so a week on work for my client. Then I spend time in the evenings and weekends doing administrative work for my business. This does not leave much, if any time, to work on the things that will increase my business.

One way to help with this is to hire people to do some of the work. This year I hired a CPA to help with taxes and business planning. This is a great investment for me. I also hired an accounting company to do the bookkeeping. So far, this has not been as useful. I have to spend so much time preparing information for the accountant, that I could have done the work myself. I am trying this service for a year – there is some amount of time you have to allow to get the relationship with the other company working smoothly. After 5 months, I am seeing some decrease in the amount of work I have to do.

My company is very virtual, which is more of a challenge. The tax and accounting laws are all designed for physical businesses. There is a lot of paperwork that is required. And it is physical paperwork. So when I have work out-of-town, the paperwork tends to get behind. One thing I have learned is that I need someone locally just to handle the paperwork.

As I try working with these other companies, I am learning what I really want someone else to do. I am learning what I can effectively outsource, and what I really have to do myself. I have found that lot of what needs to be done is just opening letters and deciding if the letter has to be disposed of, filed, replied to, or given to the accountant. This is the same if the letter is physical, email, or even a telephone message. It may have been better for me to hire a good administrative assistant who could also do simple bookkeeping, rather than hiring an accounting company.

In all cases, I am trying to not hire an employee to do the work. Rather, I am contracting with other companies to provide these services. The reason is the tax laws for employers. I once had one employee of my company. She was great. But the additional paperwork, reporting, taxes, and insurance was so burdensome that after she took another job, I never hired another employee.

Each company is different, and you may have different needs from mine. I hope this article gives you some ideas of the process I am going through to get other people to do my work, so that you try the same kind of things for your company.

Remember, the point of getting other people to do your work, is so that you have the time to grow your company, the time to do the things you need to do to effectively run your business.

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Now it is your turn.

What are the things you do that take up a lot of your time, that someone could do equally well for you?

Have you thought about outsourcing that work? Would you hire a company to provide the services, or would you hire an employee?

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* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

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