Consider These Consulting Services Available to Small Business Owners

Consulting Services Available to Small Business Owners

As your small business continues to grow, consider these consulting services available to small business owners everywhere and watch your company shine.

Do you know there are many consulting services available to small business owners?

Being a small business owner can be tough because you have to wear many hats you have an endless list of tasks to do to keep the business going. There’s also marketing and selling your services.

Then you have to provide the services that people paid for.

It can be exhausting and lead to burnout, which is a common issue for small business owners.

With the right consulting services, you can take some of the load off of your shoulders. After all, success doesn’t happen alone.

Keep reading to learn more about the top consulting services available to small business owners.

IT

The world of technology is always changing. It’s hard to stay on top of every update, patch, and security issue out there.

The issue with that is that if you get hacked or if an update fails, it could cost you customers.

How much would an hour of downtime cost your business? It’s not so much that you can’t work, but a network that is down means that people can’t find you or your business. That can also damage your bran and your reputation.

On average, a minute of downtime costs $5,600 a minute. In that case, you can’t afford not to hire an IT consultant.

A good IT consultant will run updates to make sure your network is safe and secure. You’ll have your data backed up and you’ll be set up on cloud services to ensure you won’t lose any productivity time.

Legal

Does your company have the right legal structure to protect your assets? What’s the difference between an LLC, S-Corp and sole proprietorship?

There are websites that can set your business up for a tiny investment, but remember that you get what you pay for.

The main reason why you want to hire a legal consultant is to protect your business. You’re going to need service contracts, and possibly partnership agreements.

Depending on your line of work, you may need to protect your intellectual property. That may mean hiring an attorney for filing a trademark name or image.

The top legal consulting services available to small business owners will be able to handle all of these issues.

For some matters, you may need more specialized legal help, but a legal consultant for small business will be able to handle most matters.

For instance, if you get into a motorcycle accident, you’re going to want specialized legal help.

You don’t want to rely on a business consultant to help in that matter.

Accounting

Of all of the consulting services available to small business owners, accounting is going to be the most important.

This is one area that needs constant upkeep and you will need help navigating the new tax laws.

If you aren’t up to speed with managing payroll, paying bills, sending out invoices, or logging business expenses, then you need to strongly consider handing this off to an expert.

An accountant you can trust will also guide you on how to lower business costs and advise you on tax strategies so you can lower your tax obligation.

Marketing

The thing with marketing consultants is that everyone thinks they’re an expert.

Even a lot of business owners. That leads many small business owners to try marketing the business themselves.

Here’s what will happen if you try marketing your business yourself. You’ll read about the latest marketing buzzword that’s sure to make you a millionaire. You try it for a few weeks. It doesn’t work.

Then you move on to the next big thing in marketing. You do this countless times and wonder why nothing is working.

A marketing consultant’s job is to help you make the phone ring.

They’ll work with you to help you figure out your business goals, and get clear on who your target market is.

If you target millennials, a marketing consultant will help you develop strategies to reach that audience.

The right consultant will also study your competition and make sure you can communicate how you are different from your competitors.

They can advise on various tactics, such as email marketing, social media, and public relations.

They’ll take the guesswork out of marketing for you and give you a clear and concise set of actions you can take every day to move your business forward.

How to Find a Consultant

You’ve gone through the list and decided that it’s time to get consulting help for your business. Where do you begin?

The two most obvious places are by doing an online search and asking people for referrals. If you’re part of a networking group or chamber of commerce, you might find other members who offer consulting services.

You’re going to want to get an understanding of how they work. You’ll want to know their rates, and how they bill. If you need to call for a quick question will you get billed for 30 minutes of time for it?

You’ll also want to know their communication style. Do they prefer text, phone, email or something else like WhatsApp?

How responsive are they? Do they respond immediately or within 48 hours? That can make a huge difference in emergency situations.

Of course, you’re going to know what kind of results they bring to the table. Don’t be shy when it comes to asking for referrals or case studies from the consultant.

Your business depends on it.

Get the Best Consulting Services Available to Small Business Owners

You’ve probably heard that it takes a village to raise a child.

Well, it takes a community of experts to create a successful small business. Smart business owners do two things well. They leverage their time and they admit that they can’t know and do everything on their own.

With the right consulting services, you can take the first steps to create more time for yourself so you can do what you love.

Do you want to know more about how you can create your own community of experts?

Start by visiting our Small Business Forum, which is a place to connect with other small business owners and ask questions about growing your business.