One of the biggest advantages to becoming self-employed is that you will finally be your own boss. You decide what projects to take on, you set the schedule, and you have the final word on everything from the direction of the business to what time you have your coffee break. It’s a tremendously exciting time and the start of a brand-new chapter of your professional life, but there are some things that you may need a little help with. After all, when you’re setting up your own business you are taking on every single responsibility there is, and when you want to focus on getting the best possible work done, there is a significant chance that you could be missing something important.
With the business landscape as turbulent and as competitive as it is right now, you can’t afford to leave anything to chance. With that in mind, here are a few responsibilities that you could look at outsourcing.
Web Design And SEO
Many people who decide to set up their own business are doing so because they feel like they are at the top of their game and that they have a good list of contacts that they can use to move their career forward. The chances are that, unless you’re starting your own online marketing agency, that you may not be as au fait with SEO, web design and digital marketing. Many of us know the basics when it comes to SEO (make sure that you’ve got the keywords you need, etc.), but there’s a difference between that and understanding how to make every piece of content on your site optimized. There’s also a big difference between picking a template you’re mostly happy with from one of the free sites and hiring a specialist to build your site from the ground up.
While you will of course have a certain number of potential clients already lined up, you need to remember that for most people, your website is going to be their introduction to who you are and what your business represents. If it’s not doing the job you need it to, then it’s time to consider bringing in a professional.
Taxes And Pension
When you first set up your own business, all your attention is going to be on landing those first projects and getting the money rolling in. Once that process has started, all your focus will be on getting that work done to the highest possible standards and spreading the word about your business to make sure the work doesn’t dry up. As a result, many self-employed individuals and people with their own companies often find themselves in a bit of a bind when it comes to filing their taxes at the end of the business year. They also may not have given too much thought about what they’re doing with their retirement fund, when some of those earnings should have been going towards that on a regular basis.
Bringing a professional accountant or actuary on board can sometimes be a sticking point for some people, but it’s so important to remember that it isn’t as simple as an outgoing expense. The right firm isn’t just there to make sure that everything is filed correctly with the authorities, they will look for ways to save you money and to make sure that your pension fund is working for you. Take your pension, for example. Did you know that a solo defined benefit plan could allow you to make bigger deductible contributions? Saber Pension & Actuarial Services can help you make a defined benefit plan calculation to see what you could be putting away towards that retirement fund.
Social Media
We all like to think that we have a pretty good handle on how to successfully run a social media channel. After all, we all have them, don’t we? How hard can it be to translate the activity we already do on our personal Twitter account into running a successful business channel? Well, you’d be surprised. It takes an awful lot of work to turn a social media channel into something that actually yields results for your business.
It takes research to find out which channel will be the most productive for your specific business. It takes time to cultivate a following that actually wants to learn about what you have to offer. And it takes imagination and personality to ensure that your feed isn’t just an endless string of soulless links to your webpage and TGIF gifs. Just like bringing on an SEO expert, an experienced social media manager can make all the different to growing your brand and getting more eyes on your business. For example, Twitter recently acquired a newsletter company which could be a great boon to small businesses. But remember, if you do bring on outside help, you need to keep your personality in there too. People want to see the person behind the brand.