4 Things People Don't Tell You About Being Self Employed

Are you thinking about starting your own business and entering into the world of self-employment? This can be a fantastic decision and a wonderful opportunity for the typical worker. It will mean that you will be able to avoid having a boss breathing down your neck constantly and guarantee that you have a high level of career independence. You have probably already spoken to people who are self-employed themselves and they might be telling you just how thrilled they are that they made this decision. However, there are a few details they might leave out that you should be aware of. Let’s take a look at some of the key points here. 

The Tax Man Cometh 

One of the crucial points that people often forget when they start their own business is that they are suddenly responsible for paying taxes for a company. Now, you might think that this is just like paying your personal tax, however, it’s not quite that simple. Paying business tax can be quite complex and a lot of new business owners slip up here. For instance, you might need to fill out a 1099 form if you are using independent contractors in your business and if that’s the case you could require a 1099 tax calculator. 

The big danger here is that you underpay on your tax. If that happens, you can bet that you will be visited by the IRS at some point. The problem is that people accidentally underpay their tax for years and then when the IRS does arrive they are faced with a massive bill that they can’t possibly afford. It can cripple a company and cause closures. This is why it might be worth using a professional service to manage tax payments in your new business. In doing so, you can avoid this hurdle completely. It can be worth paying a little more to ensure that you get a professional service too. 

Legal Woes

Some business owners believe that avoiding legal trouble with their company is simply a matter of not breaking the law. To an extent this is true, however, the line between legal and illegal in the business world might be a tad more blurred than you think. Indeed, it’s possible that you cross over that line without even realizing it. This is due to the fact that regulations and laws are constantly changing and it can be difficult to keep up.

It’s also worth noting that a lot of legal regulations are not designed to be understood by the typical layperson. Some require a law degree to fully comprehend all the ins and outs of the regulation in question. Take data protection as an example. If you’re trading internationally, you need to understand the different regulations for parts of the world. Companies were given two years to prepare before the GDPR was officially introduced. For many, this still wasn’t enough time. 

That’s why you do need to hire a legal consultant and ensure that they are able to assist you whenever the needs may arise. This will keep you on the right side of that legal line at all times. 

You’ll Need To Outsource 

Assuming your business is quite small, it’s important to manage your spending effectively. One of the best ways to do this is to make sure that you are using outsourcing solutions. Outsourcing simply means that you pass off areas of your business to other companies and let them handle things for you. The benefit of doing this is that you won’t need to worry about expensive costs. Instead, you can keep things under a tight level of control. If you choose the right company, you will also be able to access a high-quality service. This is important because customers won’t know you’re outsourcing. So, if there are any issues with quality, they’ll blame you directly. 

Time Management And Productivity 

Finally, you might be thrilled by the idea of not having a boss pushing you to complete deadlines or make a sale. However, there is a benefit to this type of set up. It helps ensure that you remain productive and reach a high level of potential each day. Without a boss, the responsibility for ensuring this happens will fall squarely on your shoulders. It’s easier said than done too, particularly if you are working at home. As such, it’s important to make sure that you do plan out a schedule for each day and each week. Set measurable goals to ensure that you remain on the right track with your new company. 

5 Reasons People Still Aren't Taking Your Small Business Seriously

Photo Credit: Career Employer

Your startup is up and running. You’ve cultivated a reasonable and growing base of customers who are happy with the products and services you’re offering. Things are going well… but they could be going better. After all, you have overhead to pay for and the debts incurred to get your business off the ground to pay off.

And that’s going to be harder if your small business remains as small as it is. Repeat customers are coming back, and that’s great. Still, it seems as though your competitors are still gaining ground. Could it be that people just aren’t taking your business seriously enough? That you could be doing more to inspire their trust and establish the value in your nascent brand? 

Here we’ll look at some reasons why people still aren’t taking your business seriously, despite your commitment to operational excellence, and what you can do about it.

Your website was made using a Wordpress theme

Whether you sell products via ecommerce, your website is an integral part of how you and your business are perceived online. When you’re first starting out, it’s understandable that your lack of HTML knowledge might lead you to create a website using a Wordpress theme. However, this can mark you as an amateur in the eyes of some. Even if you’ve given a lot of thought to how your website looks, you may not have considered the User Experience (UX) quite as carefully. A web design agency can help match you to a talented web designer who can create a new website that looks great and handles beautifully, giving your brand a boost.

Your contact details 

If your contact email is a Gmail address and your only contact number is your cellphone, this can scream “amateur” to some and potentially diminish their trust in your brand. While you might, understandably, be shy of overhead costs, a virtual receptionist and physical address may be cost-effective and worthy investments to lend your business a sense of size and scope. 

You’re marketing to the wrong crowd

Digital marketing allows you to deliver laser-focused campaigns designed to engage your target audience. This can be far more efficient than the old fashioned “spray and pray” approach to marketing. If you’re failing to gain traction with your target audience, it’s worth asking if you could be doing more to make your marketing more effective. 

You’ve not yet built a solid base of social proof

No matter how persuasive and eloquent your marketing copy, however, consumers will believe the word of other consumers before they trust anything you say about yourself, which is why social proof is such a valuable and important aspect of marketing. Make sure you incentivize customer reviews and encourage people to refer others in their friendship groups.

You’ve yet to start posting thought leadership content

You’re clever. You’re passionate. You’re the kind of person to whom people naturally gravitate. It’s time that you let that amazing personality and wonderful experience shine in your content marketing. Blogs, white papers, ebooks, and tutorials can all be great platforms for thought leadership, building trust and value in your brand by building trust and value in yourself.

Photo credit: Career Employer

Are You Edging Out The Competition?

As a business, it’s important to keep track of the industry you’re part of and try to figure out just how you fit there. Of course, there’s room for multiple businesses in one industry, but it’s also important to note that every business that occupies your particular specialty is one more added to the pool of potential competitors. This means that finding means to edge out, or at least more than contend with the said competition is essential.

Some firms invest all they can in trying to edge out the competition. For instance, stock trading firms will often shift their entire office to new locations in order to shave milliseconds from the latency of their trading platform connectivity, potentially allowing them to trade with quicker results. You needn’t become so overbearing in your attempt to resolve these issues, but it can be worthwhile to adopt at least the basic spirit of this behavior.

First, you need to assess just where you may increase your competitiveness. Second, you must consider if investing in this process is worth it to you. Third, if going forward, adopting the best approach requires careful planning and practice. We have some advice for that below:

Excellent IT & Fast Networks

Of course, while our prior example was hyper-specific, it’s certainly important to see if you have your own worthwhile IT system up and running. If not, this should be one of the places you consider improving. Thankfully, you needn’t be the most experienced tech-wizard to establish a top of the line digital infrastructure. For instance, ITsupportboston.us is known for excellent service regarding almost any managed IT approach you could need, and using outsourced services like this could herald a dramatic improvement in your tech ability.

Securing Your IP 

Securing your IP can also be an extremely worthwhile approach. By using vital cybersecurity techniques, ensuring a need-to-know access level when protecting your important documents, and using patents or copyright law to protect your intellectual property can be very important. If you’re unable to protect your vital business ideas, inventions, and projects, you can be sure that they will be leaked at best, or stolen at worst. This means that investing time ensuring best practice within your firm can be a golden idea.

Valiant Networking

It’s very important for a business to remain a present force within its industry, and you can achieve that through solid yet effective networking. No matter who you are, it’s not hard to see just how this approach can be used for your benefit. By attending business expositions, meeting at business conventions, giving talks at local colleges, or even curating recruitment drives in said locations, you will be able to meet new people, gain the talent, and remain a solid part of your local industry. This will not only help you feel connected to those around you, but it will also increase how familiar people are with your brand.

With this advice, you’re sure to edge out the competition in the best possible manner.

Grow Your Business with These Four Steps

There is little doubt that your top priority as a businessperson should be to help your company achieve sustained and long-term growth. With growth being a sure sign of financial health and strategic success, there’s so much value in finding new and exciting ways to grow your business, from your knowledge of the market and your tapping into new customers, to the investment of your resources in a whole new branch of work. Here, you’ll find four steps to grow your business, from the planning through to the execution.

Investment Funding

These investments—in marketing, auditing, accounting, and providing for higher volumes of sales – require funding. Often, that means either approaching a funding body for an investment in your business or needing to open a line of credit with a reputable business loan provider, like biz2credit.com. With the capital you need to make your investments in growth a success, you’ll be able to strategize and invest freely, without budget constraints imposed by the relative size of your business as it attempts to establish itself in the market.

Map Out Your Space

It’s important to be aware of the business space in which you operate. This means taking account of your competitors, taking account of your customers, and taking account of the business and consumer trends that you see around you, whether they exist in your own particular market or not. Without this important base work, you won’t have an informed foundation from which to plan your growth strategy. So, try to answer the following questions:

·       Who is my target customer?

·       Why are they my target customers?

·       Where can I find this target customer?

·       How can I target this customer?

Now, it’s time to look at how you’ll put the answers to these questions to use.

Marketing and Sales

So, you’ve decided that you have an ideal customer—one that you think is most likely to trade with you—and you’ve strategized some ways in which to access them with sales and marketing techniques. Now, it’s time to direct your marketing and sales energy to find these customers and target them with advertising and marketing materials that’ll lead them gently back onto your website, from where they’ll make purchases and boost your profits. Engage with external, outsourced marketing companies for help in getting your message across to your target consumers.

 Consolidation

If you grow, you really do not want to shrink back. That can be disastrous for your business, as when you scale too quickly and then fail to maintain the extra business you were anticipating, your whole business, set up for higher volumes of sales, will start to lumber towards debt and high costs with low profits. As such, every time you grow your business, you need to work on a period of consolidation in order to keep the boat steady and ensure that the extra market share you’ve captured is there to stay for your long-term financial future.

These four steps will guide you through the planning and execution of your strategies for your business’ growth in 2020 and beyond.