small business

Service and Etiquette Tips for SMBs

April 25, 2019 by Robert Beagle Leave a Comment

If your small or medium-size business does service or sales calls to customer locations, everything the customer sees, hears, or smells is an integral part of your marketing efforts. Your field employees and contractors are the face of your company, and it is impossible to overestimate their role in marketing your company. The Tech Army offers these tips to help make sure that you and your team are presenting the highest level of service and etiquette.

No smoking

It should go without saying but smoking while on a sales or service call is always unprofessional. Many business sites are smoke-free zones, but even if they aren’t you and your technicians should still act as though smoking is prohibited at all customer facilities. Vaporizers and smokeless tobacco products should also be avoided, along with never going to a job site while under the influence of alcohol or any other drugs.

When you are on a job at the customer’s location, you are there to work (and you’re probably billing them at a high rate). Don’t insult your customers by taking time out to smoke. Whether you’re in your company vehicle or a designated smoking area, smoking while on a call at a customer’s location is unacceptable. If you must smoke, do it between calls – preferably in the open air outside the vehicle so that you don’t smell like smoke when talking to the next client.

Be attentive

Your attention while on a sales or service call should always be on the customer and the task at hand. Believe it or not, we have heard stories about contractors falling asleep at a customer’s facility – dozing in their company vehicle in the parking lot or while inside the building! When you are at a customer’s facility, you need to be working and ready to address any concerns that your client may have. If you find that being tired in the middle of the day is a concern, consider building in a short nap during scheduled breaks or during your lunch period.

Always be courteous

Always be courteous and professional when working with clients. If you’re visiting a client or making a service call, dress appropriately and display your company’s logo. If your company provides polo shirts, dress shirts, or t-shirts for contractors to wear, be sure that they wear them when meeting with every customer. Make sure that all of your employees or contractors have business cards or identity badges that let the customer know that they’re with your company.

Customers can sometimes be chatty or, worse, combative. Even when a customer is rude, you and your employees have a job to do. Being rude in response only hurts you and your brand. If the actions of a customer impact your ability to perform the work requested, just do your best to complete the task. Take notes on the situation immediately afterward and address the issues with your primary contact at the business at the appropriate time.

Mind the Mess

Just as you would be upset if someone came into your office and made a mess without cleaning up, customers understandably get upset when contractors leave a mess behind. You should always leave the work site exactly as you found it. Always wear shoe covers when entering the customer’s premises to avoid tracking in mud, dirt, or other debris. All of the trash or packaging from items you’ve installed or brought into the site are your responsibility to dispose of – never leave boxes or other packaging for the customer to clean up.

If the space you’re working in was seemingly messy or cluttered when you arrived, resist the urge to clean up. While you may think that you’re doing the customer a favor or helping out, you should never do anything outside of your scope of work.

Professionalism at its best

From competing with bigger companies to trying to match the prices of larger businesses and attempting to win larger customers, small and medium-size businesses have enough to worry about. The best way for SMBs to differentiate themselves from their larger competitors is to provide the best customer service possible – make sure that your employees in the field and your contractors share that same commitment.

Running an SMB can be a challenge. SMB Now provides tips, expert advice, and information about the services that you need to help make running your business easier. Visit us often to stay up-to-date with SMB Now and follow us on social media. Join in the discussion by commenting below.

New Year’s Resolutions for Small Businesses

December 20, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Running your own business brings with it a lot of pride and the ability to set your own course – but it also brings a lot of stress and anxiety. Your own financial well-being and that of your employees is on your shoulders at all times. As we head into the new year, here are three New Year’s resolutions you can make to help your small business grow and succeed in the new year.

Managed antivirus solutions

Considering that more than 60 percent of small businesses that have been hacked or the victims of viruses go out of business within six months, topping your list of New Year’s resolutions for your small business should be protecting your computers and servers from viruses and malicious activity that can seriously impact your ability to do business.

An agile and reliable antivirus program can protect your business from intrusions, alerting you to potential threats, and preventing your computers and network from receiving malicious software, viruses, malware, and ransomware. Unlike unmanaged software-based antivirus programs, a managed solution makes sure that your system is free from risks.

Instead of leaving the vital protection of your network to a random staff member, our IT security professionals are able to focus on keeping your business secure. Computer Service Now provides industry-leading virus and malware protection, making sure that your antivirus solutions are active and that your subscriptions remain current.

Make education a priority

Staying up to date with the latest industry knowledge and trends is key to remaining on top of your game. Take advantage of online educational opportunities, conferences, and seminars to help keep yourself and your team competitive. No matter your industry, a quick Google search is sure to return a plethora of training and educational events across the country.

Want to conduct a company-wide training off-site? Rentacomputer.com’s experts can help you with all of your computer, tablet, iPad, and other business meeting needs. No matter where your event is, Rentacomputer.com can help. Get a quote for all your equipment needs today!

Install or upgrade your security cameras

Security cameras can help you identify everyday lapses in protocols that undermine the integrity of your safety program. Catching these slips allows you to prevent injuries and helps remind employees that safety is a priority for your company. Additionally, security cameras can help you identify areas where additional precautions are needed or specific groups of employees that could benefit from additional safety training. Not only will you be more compliant with OSHA and industry regulatory standards, but you’ll also be able to minimize injuries to employees that can lead to lost productivity for your company.

Camera Security Now is a leader in the workplace security camera industry and can provide long-term storage for all of your workplace security video for reference, training, and compliance purposes. We offer motion detecting, infrared, fisheye 360º, and Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras and cameras with audio recording abilities. Our expert technicians will install all of your equipment and can answer any questions your IT department may have. Get a quote for all of your workplace safety and security camera needs.

Make the most of your new year

Running an SMB can be a challenge. SMB Now provides tips, expert advice, and information about the services you need to help make running your business easier. Visit us often to stay up-to-date with SMB Now and follow us on social media. Join the discussion by commenting below.

The Role of Social Media for Small and Mid-Size Businesses

December 14, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

For small businesses with limited budgets, the role of social media in growing and advertising your small and mid-size business is enormous. Having a social media presence is a must for most small businesses, especially if you don’t have an established website. Your presence on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be your primary advertising opportunity and helps potential customers find out more about your business and services. With all of the responsibility of running your own small or mid-size business (SMB) it can be difficult to find time to set aside to properly manage your social media accounts but poorly managed social media accounts can spell the end of your emerging business. Read on to learn more about the role that social media plays in helping you build and establish your business and your company’s reputation with customers.

Lack of social media presence

With our increasing reliance on the internet for information, a potential customer’s first resource for finding a new business or service is often a quick web search. Developing a website takes significant time and effort, but establishing your business on social media is a quick solution to helping customers find you online.

Your social media accounts can also be used to consolidate your customer referrals and reviews. Your Facebook or Twitter page provides customers looking for your services with access to reviews of your business. If you don’t have a presence, it will be more difficult for potential customers to find you and they’ll be more likely to turn to another business that is easier for them to find.

Your social media persona

When you build your business from the ground up, you often become synonymous with your business. If your business and personal pages are intertwined, it’s more difficult for potential customers to distinguish between your SMB and you personally. Establishing a persona for your business that is separate from you as the owner is important for many reasons.

If your business’ social media page contains profanity or inappropriate or irrelevant content, you are probably doing great harm to your business and its professional image. You should also be careful to moderate your social media pages. Business pages can typically be set to require the page admin’s approval for comments to be visible to other viewers. If you receive a post comment that is inappropriate, simply block the comment from appearing on your page.

Handling negative reviews

It’s a fact of life for business owners – negative reviews will happen. Addressing these critiques with professionalism and ensuring that issues are dealt with appropriately can be an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive for your SMB.

Don’t engage in arguments with customers, competitors, or random commenters on your social media pages. Whenever possible, contact customers offline, either via email to get a better understanding of their concern and to correct any valid issues. After you’ve corrected the situation, ask your customer to post a new review or a revision to their existing review.

Always show your best face when dealing with customers. By truly listening to your customers’ complaints and taking the time to make it right, you are demonstrating to other existing and potential customers that you are dedicated to delivering quality customer service.

Show off a little

In an increasingly socially conscious world, customers want to learn more about the company’s they are doing business with. Your social media accounts can help your customers get to know more about your business, your social commitments, and your expertise in your industry.

Use your social media accounts to help customers become more familiar with your products, your manufacturing processes, where you source materials from, who your employees are, and all about your community efforts. Post associate spotlights singing the praises of a highly dedicated employee. Share photos of your volunteer day your larger customer community. Show off the awards and certifications that your business earns from community and industry groups. Are you hosting a company event? A great way to show off your business and get your audience engaged in your social media page is to have a live feed of your social media account during trade shows or corporate events using HDTVs, video walls, or tablet rentals!

Your social media should also be used to establish your business’ expertise in your niche. Posts should be relevant to your customers and encourage them to learn more about you and visit your location. Share relevant information and posts from other sources so that customers get used to coming to your page for information they need on your industry. The more information you provide, the more clients will see you as a trusted source they can turn to when they need services in your field.

Learn to use social media like successful businesses do

Just because your business is small or mid-size doesn’t mean that you can’t play the social game like the big boys in your industry. By setting aside time to carefully curate your content and create thoughtful posts you can help potential customers discover your services while setting yourself up as the go-to business to meet their needs.

Running an SMB can be a challenge. SMB Now provides tips, expert advice, and information about the services that you need to help make running your business easier. Visit us often to stay up-to-date with SMB Now and follow us on social media. Join in the discussion by commenting below.

The Importance Of Giving And Taking In Small Business Startups

November 5, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

When I started my company, I was absolutely terrified of everything that could go wrong. I could already imagine huge bills for all kinds of services and a dozen lawsuits against me. Since I am not originally from this country and English is my second language, things looked even more difficult to me. What if I didn’t understand what certain laws meant and how would I know if I was breaking them?

I was torn between “taking the risk” or staying in the “safe zone”. In the scheme of things, this comparison becomes ridiculous because at any time you can get fired for doing what you don’t love so why not try doing what you do love.

With that thought, I started my journey into entrepreneurship. Being a newbie, I was naturally more inclined to take (take advice, take direction and, in general, take any help I could get). I have to say that I learned plenty by doing that, but not even close to what I have learned by giving. By sincerely giving.

You can tell by my business, RentBillow, that I am all about the sharing economy. The sharing of resources and the sharing of knowledge included. These are a few tips I have learned since launching my business that I would like to share, especially to new entrepreneurs and people in the media.

1. If you are thinking of starting your own business, try to find a startup to collaborate. You might not like the idea of not getting paid, but trust me, it will save you a lot of money and time once you make the decision to jump in.

2. Volunteer with local entrepreneur and startup events and associations. One mistake I made was not reaching out to local entrepreneurs right away. If I had met other local entrepreneurs beforehand, then asking them for help and advice after I started my own business would not have been so awkward. It’s really hard asking people for help when you don’t have a pre-existing relationship with them.

3. Be yourself. I have noticed that many entrepreneurs change for the worse as soon as they start a business. They become more serious and they stop doing things the way they had before. They don’t want to ruin their reputation as a serious owner, which is fine in a way, but remember to enjoy your pastimes. I personally continued being the same smart-alek on social media as I always was before. Why would I do this? Because if someday I become a known entrepreneur and I say something politically incorrect or offensive, people will say, “Oh yeah, she has always been like that.”

4. Never forget the people that helped you, the people that supported you, and the people that even listened to you whine about how broke you were and how your hair is falling out. These are the people that will keep your support alive.

5. If you are in the media, think about all the small fish in this humongous pond. I know it is more appealing to interview a unicorn entrepreneur, but your help can encourage an up and coming entrepreneur to be successful, and they absolutely will not forget you when they reach the level of success of billionaire entrepreneurs.

By: Anabella Watson – RentBillow

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Easy Ways To Set Small Business Goals

October 9, 2015 by Zack Duncan Leave a Comment

Have you ever felt like you are not moving things forward in your business? If you have then it is probably because you aren’t measuring yourself against your business goals. Don’t be another small business owner who doesn’t set goals because “you’ll never end up achieving them” or just backing out on your goals altogether. If this sounds like you then you need to shift your entire way of thinking when it comes to setting goals. Taking the time to set goals and following through on them is an investment that pays off immensely in the long run. If you are wondering what it is that you can do to realistically look at your business and create goals then follow these tips.

Create A Long-Term Plan

Focusing on long-term goals in a certain time-frame is crucial. These goals have a place in your overall goal setting though you really need to focus on setting clear, attainable goals in the short-term as well. Take college, for example. When you start off as an undergrad, you set the goal of attaining your bachelor’s degree before going on to pursue a master’s. Your goal roadmap should have goals that can be achieved sooner rather than later, which will help you achieve your long-term goals. Creating these goals could also assist you in realizing your vision even better.

Stay Focused

Setting goals is great and all, but you also need to make serious efforts to attain those goals. If you’re going to be developing something like content, then you should put aside one day a week to do specifically that. Be productive. Set deadlines. It is so easy to get distracted or discouraged so it is imperative that you stay focused as much as possible. One of the best ways to keep on track is to eliminate or avoid distractions whenever and wherever possible.

Be Mindful Of Your Current Situation

Take a good, long look at where you are currently and ask yourself this: “Is this where I want to be?” Is is crucial that you are 100% clear with yourself about your current situation, especially when it comes to thinks like money, accounts payable, sales pipelines, and processes. As soon as you have established what your current situation is like, you can then look forward to the future and the goals you have set for it.

One Big Picture – Lots Of Smaller Pieces

You need to make some short-term tasks that you want to achieve for the next year. Monthly and weekly sales goals can help you move closer to your revenue goals. Set a goal for increasing things like cold calls, posts on social media, and direct outreach if you are looking to increase sales. Trying to generate more traffic to your website? Create a content development system and start an editorial calendar. Trying to get more subscribers? Develop a new, free download for your website. It will be impossible for you to achieve your goals if you don’t take any steps towards doing so.

Hard Work

There’s nothing quite like some good old-fashioned hard work. And it is this hard work that really determines your outcome. A lot of small business owners spend a lot of time working on their day-to-day activities, refusing to put enough time and resources towards achieving their professional goals. These people are the same ones surprised that their business has failed or their goals have been left behind yet again. The amount of energy you put towards a goal and the likelihood of you accomplishing that goal go hand-in-hand. Set your annual goals first, then your monthly goals, and then your weekly or daily goals. Once everything is organized you will start to see a difference in your business.

What Have We Learned?

If you’re having a hard time setting goals, or an even harder time sticking to those goals and accomplishing them, you’re not alone. But just because this is an issue with other small business owners doesn’t mean it has to be an issue with you. Look over these tips, understand them, and then put them into practice with your own small business. I promise, if you really put an effort into your goals, you will find them accomplished more often than not.

Content originally published here

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How To Speed Up Virtual Meetings

October 8, 2015 by Zack Duncan Leave a Comment

A lot of meetings are now taking place using tools like Skype or Google Hangouts. This is really great in a lot of ways and can make your life a little bit easier. The downside, though, is that it can also be a royal pain in the butt. When meeting with multiple people in one video conference, there are going to be some technical difficulties. Someone’s microphone won’t work, someone will accidentally hit the mute button and someone’s camera won’t work. You could get 20 minutes into the meeting before you even get the chance to speak about anything important, and by that time everyone is already aggravated.

Things get even more complicated when you are meeting with people in other countries. Language barriers and cultural differences can cause even more issues.

With a little bit of planning ahead of time, you can generally make these virtual meetings a little bit more productive. You just have to make sure that everyone feels accomplished, respected, and everyone feels like you are closer as a team.

1. Be Fair When Planning Meetings

Everyone runs on a different schedule. So planning around EVERYONE can be a little tough. But, you have to understand that it isn’t exactly fair to make one teammate miss something important to them at the same time every Thursday just because that is when it is the most convenient for yourself. Get with everyone, discuss a time in advance, and make sure that no one is sacrificing any more than anyone else.

2. Discuss The Meeting Ahead Of Time

When you are scheduling a meeting, make sure everyone knows exactly what is going to be discussed, and exactly what goal you are trying to achieve at the end of the discussion. It is really easy for people to get off track, especially in groups. If everyone has a clear understanding ahead of time, this shouldn’t be an issue, and staying focused should be much easier.

3. Take Culture Into Consideration

You might want to jump on the video call and jump straight to business without thinking too much, but if you are dealing with people from other countries then you should familiarize yourself with business practices in that culture. You don’t want to accidentally offend someone, or be offended by them when you shouldn’t be. That would be a downer.

4. Set The Rules

Before the meeting takes place, you should tell all team members to avoid side conversations or doing other things during the meeting. It is also good to remind them to not speak too fast, and to speak clearly. This will make everything go so much faster.

5. Pay Attention To Body Language

It is really easy for two people to run the show during a video chat. But the last thing you want to do is to make someone feel left out or unimportant. If you can tell someone has something on their mind, but they are trying to stay polite and quiet, talk to them directly and give them a chance to be a part of the group. Just a little bit of effort can go a long way.

There are lots of ways that a virtual meeting can go wrong. But there are an equal amount of ways that they can be super helpful. If you follow these 5 steps, I know you will be able to pull off a successful business meeting from the comfort of your own home or office.

Content originally published here

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The Friendliest States And Cities To Small Businesses

September 8, 2015 by Zack Duncan Leave a Comment

Small businesses make up the backbone of our country. They exist in every single state in America, though not ever single state is friendly to these entrepreneurs. But that isn’t the case for every city and state. Thumbtack recently released the data from their fourth annual Small Business Friendliness Survey, which ranks which states and cities are the friendliest to small businesses.

Ranking in at the number one most friendliest city to small businesses is Manchester, New Hampshire, according to the small business owners who operate there. To add even more praise to the state, New Hampshire also ranked as the number two most friendliest state to small businesses, just behind Texas.

What’s interesting is the fact that the rest of America’s Northeast was considered the most unfriendliest grouping of states in the entire country, according to the survey. Utah and Colorado join Texas and New Hampshire as being very friendly to small businesses whereas California, Connecticut, and Illinois joined the Northeast states, all receiving a score of “F”.

Chief Economist of Thumbtack Jon Lieber stated that whether a city or state is friendly or not to small businesses comes from a plethora of primary considerations. “What most influences a business owner’s perception is the presence of training programs, as well as events that allow networking,” Lieber added.

In terms of training, this usually refers how easy it is for small businesses to obtain online information that regards rules and regulations that pertain to how small businesses must operate in that city or state. “Websites matter,” Lieber says. So basically what he’s saying is that entrepreneurs and small business owners do not want stress or hassle when it comes to gathering information on how to properly file things like local taxes. In addition to that, opportunities to network are also important. This is due mainly because of the isolation felt by many of the small businesses currently operating in the United States.

One more factor that determines whether or not a state or city is friendly to small businesses is determining whether or not a city or state is the ease of regulatory compliance. A key compliance issue for small businesses was licensing. Cities and states that require certain professionals to obtain a license did not automatically make them unfriendly. However, if the licensing was not carefully monitored then there is the liability of increasing perceived unfriendliness. Licensed professionals do not really like it when an unlicensed competitor gains a competitive advantage.

Thumbtack is an online service that connects local small businesses with customers. These businesses can range from anything like plumbers and house painters to therapists, physical trainers and more. Small businesses are able to compete for customers that are interested in their services through the use of a bidding system. As for the Friendliness survey, nearly 18,000 U.S.-based small business owners participated by providing their rating of both their state and their city governments on a wide array of factors. Over a dozen different metrics were used by Thumbtack to evaluate states and cities against each other.

So, if you’re thinking of starting a small business where you live I would advise you to take a look at Thumbtack’s survey to determine how easy or hard it is going to be for you to get your startup off the ground where you live.

Content originally published here

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Small Business Owners Have Smartphone Addiction

August 3, 2015 by Zack Duncan Leave a Comment

Small businesses may not be the only ones marketing via mobile or fighting with how programmatic advertising works, they still need mobile to do business. Small business owners, or SBOs, seem to literally have their smartphones attached to their hips.

About 80.5% of U.S. SBOs use their mobile devices for business at least once a day, sometimes even more, according to the latest research from Manta. Almost 25.3% of those SBOs use their smartphone once an hour, 11% use them between 3 to 5 times a day, and 17.3% us their mobile devices almost 10 times a day!

eMarketer says that nearly 80% of SBOs use their mobile devices while at work right in front of their own desktops. They say that 48% of respondents claim the main reasoning for doing this is to check personal messages. Another 25% said that their email actually comes in faster on their mobile devices.

With other statistics, only 12% actually admitted to being addicted and 8% multiscreened because they claimed to prefer using their mobiles over their PCs. Finally, 7% said they were frequently distracted by their social media or gaming app alerts that came through on their mobile devices.

A good reason for why SBOs use their phones for business is to schedule appointments and communicate with customers. 55% claimed this as being why they use their phones.

Nearly 3 in 10 people used their phones for notes and to-do lists, along with monitoring their social media and participation. A quarter of people use theirs to conduct business related banking, eMarketer says. As well as saying that inventory management and expense were a lot less common, as were drafting large documents and presentations, and accounting.

Along with this, Manta’s research indicated that SBOs are frequent app users. Almost half of SBOs use mobile apps for business between 2 and 3 times daily.

It’s clear to see how important mobile devices are to small business owners. With such high percentages of SBOs on their phones constantly, mobile is quickly becoming a key facet of small business.

Content originally published here

2015 Small Business Expo – Los Angeles

July 23, 2015 by Zack Duncan Leave a Comment

Whether you’re in the startup phase or a long-established company, the Small Business Expo has the right resources for you. They’re the nation’s largest business-to-business expo, and they’ve made it their mission to help small business owners and entrepreneurs achieve their business dreams. Their free, one-day expo offers invaluable insights and exclusive networking opportunities with a wide range of business-critical workshops, seminars, and presentations from top industry experts. If you’re looking to drive your business forward and take the next step to success, join them this year at their Los Angeles expo location for this can’t miss event!

-Develop business leads &new customers!
-Network with peers in your industry!
-Shop for new innovative products and & services!
-Gain invaluable industry insights

Why Should You Attend?

Every year, over 50,000 small business professionals and entrepreneurs across the country attend Small Business Expo to take their business to the next level. Join us in learning from the best and the brightest in the industry as you network with like-minded business professionals and learn strategies to advance your business.

WHERE:

California Market Center
9th St A727
Los Angeles, CA 90079

WHEN:

November 5th, 2015 from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Are you looking attend this year’s event and searching for hotels in the Los Angeles area? The Small Business Expo site has a list of travel accommodations, including parking options for the event. The site does offer discounts as well!

If you’re looking to register for this year’s event, registration is still FREE for the Los Angeles location!

8 Must Haves For Your Startup

July 21, 2015 by Zack Duncan Leave a Comment

Must-Have Startup Investments A lot of entrepreneurs think that bootstrapping is the most efficient way to start a new company. It gives you a freedom you wouldn’t have if you needed to report all your expenses to venture capitalists or angel investors. Although, some expenses, even costly expenses, are important. Take a look at some of these expenses that are worth the investment.

1. Free Stuff!
Let’s be honest here, who doesn’t like free stuff? But honestly, giving away free stuff, like company t-shirts, will help generate money and business. It can help get people talking about your business, grow brand recognition and may even get noticed by larger companies.

2. Customer Service
Good customer service is very valuable. Marketing Metrics did a survey that reported almost 200 marketing managers revealed that 71% found customer satisfaction to be a major metric in managing businesses. Customer service and satisfaction is a high leading indicator that increases the lifetime value of a purchaser, reduces customer churn rates, helps customer loyalty and improves word of mouth as a major differentiator of your company. Spending a little extra on good customer service will by far pay off in the end.

3. Technical Support
Even if tech is your “thing” or not, it still may be a good idea to outsource some or all of your in-house technological needs. You could keep what you’re good at and outsource the technology you need to run on its own, so you can focus on other important things within your company. Spending hours on server maintenance and working on making your website could be better invested in core competencies. It is essential to business success for your technology to run smoothly. So spending money for great technical support will be easier on you and your business.

4. Powerful Software for Data Analytics
From the very start, you should spend money on robust data analytics software. You can’t improve what you don’t measure and you can’t measure unless you test. Analytics helps you understand what isn’t working when it should be. For data-driven business owners, you need to analyze numbers from a bunch of different sources so you can create an informed viewpoint. Having a powerful data analytics software can help you do all of this.

5. Market Research
Over 100 entrepreneurs that have failed startups took a survey that showed 42% attributed their failure to a lack of need for their product. So never assume you know your targeted customers and what they need. Market research can be expensive and time consuming, but coming out with a product or service to an untested market can be even more expensive and time consuming. Just spend the money from the start to really find out what the right targeted customers and their needs.

6. An Accountant
It can be a pain to know exactly how much money you need to keep aside for your taxes or quit confusing to identify all your valid tax reductions. Get a good accountant so you aren’t throwing money away or risking any issues with the IRS. Most accountants will meet with you by the hour to give advice on your documentation and deductions, then each year they complete and file your taxes, they’ll charge you a fee. It’s not rocket science, it’s just worth it.

7. Financial Advice
It’s very important to pay for good, secure financial advice unless you plan on opening a financial planning business. To save yourself from a rocky road of issues and stress, try getting a tax attorney to set up your books and help show you what should be tracked to help secure your future funding. Never underestimate the need for a long-term financial plan to help your company succeed.

8. Legal Advice
No matter how expensive lawyers can be, good legal advice is essential for startups. Just locate a lawyer who specializes in the business you are starting and pay for the right advice you will need to keep your business afloat. Statistics gather by VentureBeat in 2011, show the new Silicon Valley startups spent on average of $80,000 alone on legal advice. Good legal advice may be a bit expensive, but making a legal mistake can cost way more in court fees and could very well put your company in bankruptcy.

Starting a new business can be quite the exciting adventure. Many founders in the beginning stages of their company’s growth, go to bootstrapping. Don’t just rely on that, spend money on where it matters. These expenses are well worth the investment.

Content originally published here