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Setting Up A Business? Make Sure To Get Help At The Start
June 19, 2016

Setting Up A Business? Make Sure To Get Help At The Start

If you are what we may think of as a hardcore entrepreneur, who has risked everything to chase your dream of developing your own business and taking the world by storm, then it’s pretty safe to say that your cash may be tight and resources limited. To be honest, even if you are starting with a nice cash buffer, you still need to be careful about where you allocate your resources to, and any expenditure at the start can be daunting, to say the least.

But we know that you are not good at everything- you have your strengths, which you are backing up big time, but you also have your weaknesses, which, although you may not be focused on them, you’re aware of them all the same. But how are you going to make your awesome ideas fly on your own- not just as an entrepreneur, but as a solopreneur? That really is the question.

When we are launching a business, we often set out trying to do everything. Everyone does this, because it saves the money we don’t have. We start to dabble in things that we often have no clue about. We use Google to figure out how to do some graphic design work, keep basic accounts, or even develop websites for ourselves. Some people learn super quick and are able to get these tasks done by themselves, and for sure, they save having to pay someone to do it for them.

Let me challenge you here with one thought though: what is the opportunity cost here? Because wouldn’t this time spent figuring out how to do your own accounts be taking time away from the things that you dominate at?

People keep telling you this, and it is true: the world is smaller now. With the advent of the Internet 20 years ago, resources are way closer to our fingertips than they have even been, and in a flash of good news for the potentially short-of-money new entrepreneur, there are loads of resources out there at some super cheap prices.

The message is clear here in that we should seek to get help for our new business idea from the start. Don’t wait until you become the overworked jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none before looking for help.

The first step in going about this has to be to look within your immediate network, and although I am not a massive fan of family and friends being heavily involved in our businesses, it may be an option to pursue at the start. You may have a cousin who is studying finance and can help out with some basic bookkeeping, maybe even without charge.

Step 2 is to leverage the internet and look at the various virtual assistant options. For one of the brands that I was building, at one stage, I employed five virtual assistants in four different countries. Their work quality was high class and their rates rock bottom, thus freeing up my time to go out and work on my strengths, which brought in the dollars.

The final step involves the old adage of investing in people, and seeing the value of them. Do not wait until you are sleeping three hours a night (because you are running around doing everything for your business) before you get help. Yes, you need to work hard, and sometimes, it takes long hours, but remember that it is way smarter to work hard on the things that one, you dominate at, and two, brings the very best return on your time.

Help, support and humans as resources are something that you have to have in your business in the early days, because as entrepreneurs, we are all too often too bullish about our ability to do everything, and the reality is just the opposite. The time and cash you invest in support will pay you value ten times over.

This article was published by Entrepreneur on June 17th 2016. Click here to see it on their site

 

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