Accounting and bookkeeping services from Profit Matters are one must-have on your productivity (and profitability) checklist.
Read on for all the other must-do tips for launching your home-based business.
1. Source Clients – and Make It Snappy
To start earning an income, you need to find clients willing to pay for your product or service. Instead of wasting time perfecting your company’s brand, aim for securing clients now and streamlining your business model later.
Complete the basic must-do’s for entrepreneurship – like choosing a business name, taking care of paperwork, and deciding how you’ll handle taxes – and shelve the rest. If you choose to form an LLC, diving into filing fees and requirements for your state is the first step. You should also confirm that your desired business name isn’t already in use. Then, you’ll be ready to start receiving clients.
Generally, the essentials you’ll need to start a business include a company website, some type of payment or invoicing structure, and a tax designation. Beyond that, everything is fluid – and you’ll likely change things up as you learn what works and what doesn’t.
Next, you can begin sourcing clients through advertising, networking, collaborating with other businesses, and making business-savvy alliances in your industry, notes Entrepreneur.
2. Prioritize Peak Productivity
Productivity is the key to ensuring success with your small business. Every hour you invest in building your company needs to be effective. So, sticking to tight timelines and prioritizing efficiency should be at the top of your list.
As Business.com confirms, productivity revolves around eliminating time-wasters (both people and tools), increasing accountability, promoting efficient workflows, and avoiding burnout by promoting positive working conditions. These elements apply whether you’re a solopreneur or are hiring a team, remote or otherwise, to manage your operations.
Still, remote teams can be challenging to lead, particularly if you’re in different time zones or separate countries altogether. The truth is, solid leadership is the key to a successful remote team. That means hiring self-starters, maintaining good communication, and ensuring that your team knows what to expect. Note that it doesn’t mean micromanaging them or requiring nonflexible work hours.
3. Use Tools to Batch Tasks
Completing tasks in batches is one of the most efficient productivity hacks out there. And while you might love your old-school (read: cheap) methods of file maintenance, the truth is that modernization can be affordable, too.
Addressing cybersecurity, highlighting connectivity, and choosing the right software are all crucial parts of the fast-forward-to-modern process. Depending on your industry, you might select tools for social media scheduling. Or, you might pick chatbots for virtual customer service, or just a scheduling platform to streamline your appointment booking process.
4. Outsource the Time Drains
Even if you’re just getting started, outsourcing is an excellent way to stay productive. Instead of wasting hours crunching numbers, entering data, or answering emails, you can do the real work behind your business model.
Outsourcing affords you more hours to focus on creative activities like developing products, delivering client services, and diversifying your company’s offerings.
And yet, outsourcing involves inherent risk. After all, your people are the single most critical factor behind your success (or lack thereof). Carefully vetting prospective hires – and training them thoroughly – is a smart use of your time and money.
Relying on a team like Profit Matters for services like bookkeeping is also worthwhile – and it eliminates the need to onboard green talent.
Often, the most daunting part of launching a business is simply getting started. Fortunately, with this fast-track guide, you know what to prioritize and what to pass on. By focusing on sourcing clients, highlighting productivity, scaling your processes, and outsourcing anything that wastes your time, you can build a profitable business model in no time.
Photo via Unsplash
Written by Amy Collett
