Build Your Solo Business to Outgrow Yourself: Make Mine to Grow!
For lifestyle reasons, a lot of single business owners decide to slow down the growth of their companies. Others envision growth from the very beginning. Being the sole proprietor and donning every hat in a company is merely a first step toward greater success. What actions can you do if you want to grow your company in the future?
Create a marketing strategy and company plan from the start. Consider them as travel guides that will show you the route to take your business in the direction you want it to go. They lay the groundwork for your company's future prosperity. Capturing images of the key components of your company is invaluable, even though it could seem like a difficult task at first.
Creating well-organized and documented processes is a crucial habit to form if you want your firm to expand. Create templates for the papers you use frequently if you utilize them on a regular basis. Even better, have them converted to Microsoft Word forms that you can swiftly complete on the computer. Spend some time writing key papers, such as privacy or policy statements, and keep a physical copy in a book and a copy on your computer's hard drive. Investing in a large 3-ring binder, some page protectors, and the creation of a company book is one of the greatest methods to formalize and manage your firm. While you are "it," it may seem excessive, but it will come in very handy when you hire your first staff.
You can keep contract templates, forms, terms of service, government certificates (such your DBA statement), and anything else that helps your firm in its past, present, and future in this corporate book. Additionally, store a copy of your marketing and company plan there.
Maintain a Word document named "Standard Operating Procedures" close at hand on your desktop as your firm grows. Open the page each time you catch yourself performing a routine or repetitive task, and make a note of what you were doing and how you did it. You can work out the specifics later, but you will have a great foundation for the "hats" that other people can wear when it comes time to delegate some of the tedious tasks of operating your company to someone else. Equipped with a document such as this, your first hire will be able to swiftly catch up and deliver the same caliber of service you have been delivering.
Set up a reliable accounting software for your company, such as Quick Books Pro or Quicken, by taking your time. Pretend at all times that someone else must be able to see and comprehend what you are doing when using this or any other software system. Avoid using acronyms and abbreviations without defining them, as the person taking over this system could not understand what you were saying. Take advantage of the chance to leave a trace for anyone who might take up this task for you in the future whether you have to make a rapid decision or when you have to take the extra time to record the transaction with a note of some kind.
Create a "creative" system for any information pertaining to branding or design as well. If it's all together, it could be a folder in your drawer or a directory on your hard drive that is frequently backed up. Keep all of your company's marketing and image materials in one location, including your original logo, artwork, advertisements, typefaces, and colors that are utilized to create a unified brand. Having this data arranged will help you promote your company fast and consistently while also laying the groundwork for a corporate identity program that you can later on introduce to potential clients and staff.
potential firm must regularly perform backups, have a disaster recovery strategy, and have evaluated potential dangers to the confidentiality of your company's information and that of your clients. Make sure to incorporate a feeling of history into the way you set up these systems. If you backup once a week, for instance, keep all of these backups somewhere with dates and details recorded on them in case you ever need to go back to that point in time for whatever reason.
Examine the records you've created and note the tasks you might definitely assign to someone else when the time comes to think about expanding your business beyond yourself. You can test the waters of progress in a variety of ways. Consider hiring a virtual assistant on a part-time basis or as a temporary helper. Along with thinking about what you can contribute most to the company, you should also think about what areas you might want someone else to manage. Next, think about hiring a different independent professional to handle some areas of your business. Regardless of the path you choose to choose, you will have laid a solid foundation for future growth.
Copyright 2003 by Eileen "Turtle" Parzek. All rights reserved.
