What are some great tips to new business owners?
Here are just 5:
While I say new business, the same tips can be applied to any business. This is more specific to service companies but can be applied to manufacturing concerns too.
Niche down:
Finding a niche is always a tricky part of business whether it is a new business or an established one. This is when you find an area in your industry that you thrive in. You are good in that area and you develop yourself into a leading authority there.
Examples: Auditors that only perform audits on real estate agencies or body corporates. Digital marketing experts in SEO or websites or Facebook marketing.
How long does the work take you?
How long a task will take you will determine what you charge for that service. You cannot charge the correct amount if you don’t know how long it takes you. NEVER charge what the client wants or what other people are charging! This leads to the next point, or maybe it should come after it??
Your hourly rate:
Very few directors or business owners know how much they should charge the client for their time in doing the task at hand. They have never worked out their “hourly rate” and therefore will never get the price right.
Retainer or once-off charge?
This is case specific and you cannot apply (or should not) one rule for all. For ongoing services like myself, as an accountant, it does make sense to charge a retainer. I say to prospective clients, there will be no surprise invoices, no one likes those ever. I will say that it is a win-win because they can budget what the monthly expense is and I know the income that is coming in monthly.
Having said that, there are industries that cannot do this. Examples are plumbers, lawyers and website developers without attached services like hosting etc.
Go online only:
As much as you think that you can stick to offline, paper based services, you cannot! There will not be (not in my lifetime at least) a time that everything will be paperless but for the most part, you can go online and do everything there. BC Accounting Services is all online for all services. Online accounting systems and tax systems make it exceptionally easy to do so. I say online tax systems – I mean in South Africa. South Africa has been able to submit returns and query tax issues online since 2008.
Don’t limit yourself.
Going online opens the borders for many industries to work with clients all over the world. There may be some that cannot but have a look and see how you may be able to do
What are your thoughts? Can your company go online?