Grow your small business - success or failure will follow.

When you first started your small business, like Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal business, things are easy - overheads are low, everything is quite informal and you do it all yourself. However one day you will notice you work and work and your work/life balance is gone - was that why you started your business?

What happens next will determine your future in a big way - success or failure, that is the question! You will have to learn to let go and you will have to look at the cost-structure in your SOHO, SME or SMB business, before you make your next move.

Is it something you can outsource to a virtual assistant maybe, something like bookkeeping, it-services, answering your telephone when you are away from your home-office or do you need help full-time with producing, supplying your products or services. While you consider this always think about your fix-cost.

Letting go(?), what does that mean anyway? It certainly does not mean moving your problems onto someone else’s shoulders and forgetting about them - that is called abdicating, not letting go. You have to learn to delegate work to an employee and trust him/her to get it right, that is what letting go means. But here is that proverbial hair in the soup, you need to check what your employees are doing and supervise them, correct them when things are not done the way you want them done and don’t forget to explain why you want them done this way. It will help your employee to understand your motivation and stop him from thinking you are picking on him or her.

So you have the money to pay for the expansion of your small business and you are willing to let go, but supervise and stay involved in a managerial way, then your are one step closer to your small business success story.

Now you have to decide if you should outsource or employ, you are right it - the decision making - never ends. Congratulation - or should I say beware - for you have entered the world of a growing small business.

4 Responses to “Grow your small business - success or failure will follow.”

1. Mark Gwilliam
   http://www.mark-gwilliam.com
   
   Said on August 16th, 2007 at 6:10 am

   Hi Stefan,

   I totally agree with you.

   Outsourcing to a virtual office assistant is often a “big step” for many small business owners. I have also just posted an article on the benefits of doing this and explained that it can often be cheaper to outsource some administration work. Full time administration staff are entitled to holiday and sick pay; public holidays and require desks, chairs etc.

   I use a virtual office assistant (www.theofficeelves.com) which frees my team and I to focus on higher valued chargeable work.

   I really do see the benefits of “letting go” as you suggest.

2. Stefan Töpfer
   http://www.winweb.com
   
   Said on August 16th, 2007 at 8:08 am

   Hi Mark,

   Thank you for your comment and I agree, their are two things to consider here:

   1.) Do I really need someone full-time only working for me?
   2.) Do I really know what all the costs are associated with having full time staff.

   In many cases outsourcing is the way to go!

   ST

3. THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG » Blog Archive » Marketing for Small Business and Business Start-Up
   http://www.sme-blog.com/small-business/marketing/marketing-for-small-business-and-business-start-up
   
   Said on August 21st, 2007 at 7:40 am

   […] owning and growing a small business calls for many skills sets to be used by the owner, financial planning, people management, having a […]

4. Janne
   http://www.tophomebusiness.org
   
   Said on August 29th, 2007 at 11:43 am

   I also agree with you that youi need to have an overlook over any possible, uncounted and counted for expenses.
   Well, I just posted a website on what you should not do in the small/own/home business world.
   I am just on the brink on to decide what to do with my little business, and I believe outsourcing the differnet aspects, and later just micromanage the different outsourcing departments is the way to go.

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