As the old saying goes, when you first started your business you were chief cook and bottle washer. You did it all! Now that you are a successful startup with a growing client base and a variety of revenue streams, you are starting to feel the strain.
There are several ways to handle the growth of a business. You can hire your friends and relatives to work with you. You can hire strangers. Or you can work smarter by letting technology do the work for you.
Here are some tasks you can, and should start delegating as soon as it’s feasible:
IT
Unless you are a tech guru, chances are as you grow you’ll need more help where computing power is concerned. Do you know how much hardware you’re going to need? What about how much bandwidth your company will use next month or next year? For these questions, you need expert advice.
For this task, consider hiring from a temporary agency first. This will allow you to find someone that meshes well with your leadership style and that knows what he or she is doing.
Payroll
Now that you have all these wonderful new employees, hand writing them a check every week isn’t really cost or time-efficient. There are a great deal of regulations and rules when it comes to managing your payroll. If you break the rules or mess up a payment to the government, you could be in all kinds of hot water.
With the help ofADP electronic payment systems & services,you can rest easy knowing an industry leader is taking care of all the details for you. They can provide everything from pay cards that employees can use at ATMs to fully-integrated systems that keep all your departments in the loop without having to dedicate their resources to payroll tasks. A good payroll company will handle all the details of making sure your employees get the money they deserve, on time, every time. They will also handle regulatory compliance issues as well. They are the experts; leave the job to them.
Accounting
Programs like Quick Books are great when you’re starting out, especially if you’re balance-sheet challenged. However, if you’re growing, it probably won’t be enough for long.
To solve this problem, you have two options. You can find a better program or you can hire someone to do all the work. However, chances are you’ll need a combination of the two. Once you find an accounting program that meets your needs, find someone who already knows how to use it so you’ll get the most out of your investment.
Finding someone with the accounting experience you need can make the difference between growing your business successfully and falling flat on your face. This person can manage money going out and coming in. They can also make sure you are taking advantage of all the tax breaks you might be entitled to. While you may think that adding more personnel and more software might not be cost-effective, in the long run, you’ll likely save money with the right people on your team.
As your company grows, there are bound to still be 80-hour weeks, but they don’t have to be filled with the minutia of tasks that other people, programs, and companies are better equipped to deal with. So, learn to delegate and manage from a distance, so you can spend your time on the things that you do best, growing your business, making deals and moving forward.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
