Passion and industry expertise is vital for a successful startup, but those same attributes, unfortunately, don’t guarantee success with the administrative side of things. For things to work administratively, you might have to start at the bottom of a steep learning curve or outsource certain tasks. Luckily, there are ways to reduce the risk of costly errors in your business.
Share Information Across Teams
If your business is large enough to have multiple teams, it is critical to convey important information across each of them. You don’t want your teams to inadvertently work against one another simply because they are unaware of what the others are doing.
Even though each team is responsible for a different facet of your company, unity and information sharing are crucial to building company morale and attacking challenges from a united front.
Outsource Part of Your Operations
Unless you have your MBA, you probably aren’t experienced in each of the areas of your business. Jobs like payroll, customer service, marketing, sales, scheduling, bookkeeping, and IT may not be your strong suit. And yet, these jobs come with a high potential for error.
At the same time, mistakes in these areas can be extremely costly. For example, payroll is full of complex regulations and tax codes that you may not know about. As another example, benefits can be difficult to manage in-house, which is why some businesses choose to outsource.
Automate
Automation can’t think up brilliant ideas or add a human touch to your business, but it can take over certain tasks that will free up your time and remove the risk of human error. There are many online automation tools to choose from, with varying benefits and costs. Consider automating payroll, bookkeeping, invoicing, shipping, and inventory management.
You can even automate certain customer service functions, such as answering common questions, sending out email marketing materials, and even growing your customer base. Automation will free up your time and energy to do the things that only you can do while improving accuracy at the same time.
Don’t get caught in the trap of doing everything for your business by yourself. You are too vital for the growth of your company to spend your time and energy on tasks that can easily be outsourced or automated. You might be leery of outsourcing for either financial reasons or a strong desire to keep your hands in every detail, but it is worth overcoming those concerns. Your company will grow if you let everyone, including yourself, do whatever it is that they do best.
Here’s more to read: How to Create Tools That Work for Your Business