Once again I leave you with a written post from my partner, Glenn. He once knew a friend, an elderly guy called Mick who ran a successful business in his heyday and filled my husband in on some pointers about what it took to run a successful business. When a business grows, obviously, so will the number of things to do. There are so many working parts that it is often essential to outsource some or most of these tasks. I’m not as business minded as my husband but hopefully this article should provide some snippets of advice…

“Running your own business is expensive. You need a CPA and an attorney, and you can’t do everything on your own. It’s valuable to spend all of that money you have invested in the business, but it makes sense to outsource certain services. Ask your local CPA and a local lawyer to and scheduling a small retainer on your behalf. It may cost you money, but it’s worth it to not have to prepare your own taxes. However, if you are in business specifically, you should consider hiring a local accountant. In typically five to six years, your business should be able to pay a competent accountant without spending much money. It’s also, obviously, better to hire local help.

Ex wash and accounting services

In addition to a competent financial accountant, some services will be essential from day one. You’ll want to know that information about your employees and clients is managed, backup records built, and a CM or administer computer system that keeps track of all invoices, confidentiality, litigation neutral, and is all protected.

Usually, these services may be provided by companies such as Quickbooks, Authorize, and retained services. If you aren’t sure of the standing and reputation of the service provider, you may want to check with the better business bureau in your area.

Bonus: Save time and money! Use online services to bundle and store all of your services without a hassle.

Outsource billing, contact information, and service maintenance

If your client or staff don’t need email and your company has very basic software on the computer systems, consider outsourcing some information and phone calling from your residential computers. This will save you a ton of time. You’ll need to keep a record of who you spoke to and you can provide direct instructions to the person at the other end once payment is rendered. This will make it easy to keep your needs met. You’ll get a great relationship and be able to schedule regular check-in meetings and leave it in a matter of days. You may even have to take a snapshot of the check-in and post it with all of your documentation so that it’s easily uploaded for review at a later date.

Depending on your type of business and the length of services you can afford, you can see about one hundred dollars in savings on each monthly expense or more depending on how many personnel you have on your payroll. If no time or money is a concern, you can take a standard nugget of $3000/yr for each employee, at $100/hr.

Outsource your contract printing

You can take a flat fee that’s 5-7% of the contract price and write off the rest. The only problem is that you have to ask your firm to make sure they do it each time, but if you’re a small company, or just a start up one, it’s not that big of a deal, and a big percentage of your profits will be returned to you from your firm and others as retainer. A large company may want to retain a firm to do this, so make sure you know what your totals are for each service.

Outsource computer network service

As a rule, network service is a must. You can find many companies offering this service, but when it comes to large companies, they may try and get you to buy equipment. If you’re just starting your business, you can usually find plans that allow several computers within a company to function as servers and work together. You may only need 1 computer in your office.

Outsource product knowledge and advice

Getting information from other companies and individuals helps you to become a more well equipped company in your industry. It’s much better to have an expert at an “insider’s” level rather than an entire department. This will save you funds by avoiding the overhead of training new staff and keeping them up to date with the changing market for product.

Outsource phone system either byracted charges or on a per-transaction basis. This frees up your time as well as the many long distance charges, but keep in mind if you have unlimited long distance in use on your home phone, you’re still paying the full rate and there can be substantial service charges by adding up the minutes.

Outsource technical support, utilities, and office space

Outsource phone, internet, fax, and cable

Outsource parking / parking rate

Outsource library charges

Outsource travel

Outsource utilities

Outsource point of sale

Outsource laundry and dry cleaning

Outsource computer financing

Outsource computer repair

Outsource housekeeper

If necessary, contact the service supplier and ask for the cost and per-transaction rate for outsourced phone calls, faxes, and Internet access.”

Glenn Riley.