Experts Can Help Businesses Avoid Costly Problems And Mistakes
When starting a new business or other venture, one of the most valuable lessons any business owner or manager can learn is to know and understand the errors of those who've walked this path before. Much of this can be obtained through reading books or articles. While this is relatively inexpensive or even free, it is time consuming and may lack the detail you need in a specific instance. This is why it’s important to enlist the help of an experienced professional when you realize you may be in over your head… or perhaps even before that.
“Experienced professionals” come in many forms. Some are best defined as mentors who started their own businesses, perhaps winding their career down, who act as advisers to educate others on how to operate their businesses. Mentors are an excellent resource for new business owners as they can provide insights or ideas that a new business owner may not realize until years down the road. Even small tips and suggestions can provide unanticipated benefits and prevent problems that would take a substantial amount of time to fix.
There are also professionals like accountants, lawyers, or other consultants with specialized training in a narrow set of highly defined skills. While mentors generally educate and inform, these professionals are typically engaged to educate and/or perform work for the company. One of the advantages to using such professionals is that they can answer specific questions with real world examples at different levels of detail and investigate issues in a more directed manner that applies to the client’s situation. In addition to greater detail, they can often get results faster and often better given their experience.
When does it make sense to get a mentor or hire a professional? It depends, but it’s usually a good idea to get a mentor or to speak with someone who does what you’re looking to do before you launch to get the basics and answer your questions. It’s also a good idea before officially starting a business to speak to an accountant or business consultant to answer more specific questions and even to check on what your mentor has told you. If they give the same answers, you have greater confidence that they’re right. If they give conflicting answers, it may be a sign that you need to look into things a bit more to understand why their answers differ.
While the questions to ask differ from business to business, some things you’ll definitely want to cover are business structure (e.g., LLC, S-Corp, etc.) and specific rules about what your state requires for registering your business, hiring employees, and filing sales and other taxes. It can also help to ask when certain actions need to be taken and how that will affect other decisions such as when you can start selling, when you can hire, etc. While there is a lot of generic advice out there that may make sense for some operations, it may be disastrous to follow based on what you or your business are going to do. It’s better to build on a solid foundation rather than try to fix it after the business is already being built.
Another important time to speak to experts is when you start to see problems that aren’t getting worked out. A common trend among businesses that have failed is they’ve waited too long to get help in solving something they can’t figure out on their own, causing the problem to magnify and have the detrimental effects add up or multiply. While paying for an expert early may seem costly, waiting longer usually makes the problem more difficult and much more expensive to correct.
With the intense competition in today's business world, your business needs every advantage it can get. Getting assistance from financial experts or strategy consultants may seem like a luxury, but the reality is this is an investment in your business as well as insurance for its future. If you have any questions or even if you’re not sure what questions to ask, give Brightleaf a call. Let's set your business up for success from the start.
- John Thrush