The business owner has to work hard to bring a startup to fruition and make a success of it. There’s no doubt about that. They have to be marketer, manager, leader and play many other roles. This isn’t an argument for how to be a lazier business owner. Instead, it’s a look at all the unnecessary trouble we create for ourselves that get in the way of what we’re here to do: the sale of goods and services to get a return on our investment.
Choose the right structure
Your structure can play a huge role in how much work you give yourself throughout the business. Sole proprietorships are simpler set-ups initially, but they can make tax significantly more complicated. It’s becoming easier to access other structures like LLCs thanks to sites like howtostartanllc.org. The benefits of that particular structure include the fact that you avoid double taxation, make finances separate and easier to manage, and is registered as easily as a sole proprietorship.
Have clear, defined goals
Your business should have a “true north”. It should have directions that it’s constantly moving towards. Decision-making becomes a lot easier when you have considered your goals specifically enough that you can see whether a choice leads you closer to that goal or further away from it. Don’t just treat the goals on your business plan as ideological ideals. Make them realistic, achievable, with real merit, and with identifiable steps you can take towards them.
Move to process-driven arrangements
Onto the actual day-to-day of running the business. There are two kinds of knowledge in business. There’s the knowledge of the individual employees, then there’s “sticky knowledge”. This usually comes in the form of instructions, guidebooks, and company policies. Relying on these allows you to systemize the business, as process.st suggests. Systemizing the business means you are not overly reliant on one employee and your employees aren’t overly reliant on you. While training is necessary, having guidelines they can follow and step-by-step approaches to processes mean that there’s always a correct way to do things and always an answer when they need it.
But don’t discount the team
Just because you build a series of process guidelines you can rely on doesn’t mean you shouldn’t build a reliable team with the help of tips from places like theproductivitypro.com. Finding the reliable people, the people who are on board with the goals of the business and who embody the company culture you want to promote can make things significantly easier. Not only can you elevate them into roles of management to delegate and share the burden, but by doing so, you set an example of the behavior you want to see in the business. Other employees will take note and emulate those behaviors, or else they will be weeded out.
Use the tech
Modern business is only getting more complicated. We’re further defining systems of organization, learning to live with regulation, and accommodating to new market realities like the internet. That creates a lot more work, but there’s plenty of tech out there to help you simplify and even automate much of that work. You can simplify HR, payroll, marketing, accounting, and much more with the right tools at your disposal.
Running a business will never be truly easy. But you can eliminate a lot of the difficulties it might bring by making better choices and earlier.