There are 30.2 million small businesses in America, and lots of small business owners started out by taking care of every task themselves, before hiring employees or other freelancers to help. If you’re running a small business solo, such as a freelance company, and handling your heavy workload alone is becoming a challenge, that’s a sign that it’s time to expand by bringing in new team members.
While expanding your small business is a worthy goal, you’ll need to create a master plan that minimizes risk and boosts the odds of lucrative profits. These tips will help you to get started.
Tip #1 – Crunch the numbers very carefully
Before you make a firm decision about growing your small business by hiring other people, you’ll need to know that you’re on solid financial ground. The best way to find out for sure is to crunch the numbers. Look at your monthly operating expenses, the amount of work your company gets each month, and how much net profit you’re earning.
After you look at all of these numbers, decide how much money you can afford to pay new workers and still turn a profit. Also, think about how you will pay workers. Will you pay by the hour or pay a flat rate for piece work? These are important decisions that you’ll need to make.
If you have good reason to believe that your company is going to get more work than you can do alone over the long term, such as existing contracts or pending contracts that are likely to be finalized in the foreseeable future, it will be time to outsource your overflow to other freelancers.
When you hire freelancers to work for you, you won’t need to pay benefits for those workers, so the only increase in your operating expenses will be the amount that you pay your freelancers. In some cases, hiring regular staff members who do get benefits will make sense. Every business is different.
To be on the safe side, be sure that your new freelancers or regular employees sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and non-competition agreements. An NDA will ensure that any freelancer who works for you can’t share information about your company.
A non-competition agreement will ensure that a freelancer can’t go after your clients for a pre-determined amount of time, such as a year.
Tip #2 – Protect your business with insurance
NDA agreements and non-competition agreements aren’t the only way to protect your small business during expansion. Insurance will also be important, especially if you’re hiring regular employees who don’t work remotely. To find suitable insurance for your company, collect a small business insurance quote from a range of sources, so you can compare them and find comprehensive coverage, ethical policy terms, and affordable premiums.
Examples of small business insurance policies to consider include small business worker’s compensation insurance and small business liability insurance. Worker’s comp insurance protects small businesses from taking financial hits related to workplace injuries. Business liability insurance helps to cover costs related to lawsuits due to workplace injuries.
Tip #3 – Market on social media to attract business
Once you expand, you may want to step up your marketing game by using free and low-cost social media marketing techniques to attract business. Share information about your business on a range of social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and don’t forget about YouTube – people love video content.
Cross-promote across these channels to expand your reach as you expand your company. Social media is free to use, but you may want to buy ads on social network platforms, to gain access to a larger audience that fits your preferred demographics.
When you take these important steps, you’ll be ready to move into the future with confidence. Once you know how much you should pay freelancers or regular employees, how to protect your business with insurance, and how to make a splash on social media, you’ll be primed to expand efficiently and successfully.
So why not start planning today?
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