10 Professionals Small Business Owners Should Consider for Hiring

If you own a small business, your capital or assets may be limited. However, it doesn’t mean you should do all the business tasks just to refrain yourself from spending more money on paying compensation or on professional fees. When you feel that your small enterprise is already growing, and you can’t already handle it by yourself, you should think of getting help from other people. Aside from the in-house personnel that you must hire to run your business, such as your sales persons, administrative staff, cashier and other regular employees, you should also consider outsourcing other important tasks from experts. The following are 10 professionals small business owners should consider for hiring or outsourcing.

 

1. Website Developer

Nowadays, having a website or blog for your small business is not only ideal… it is now a must! If you don’t give your business an online presence, you will be left by your competitors who are already taking advantage of the online and social media crowd. Thus, you should consider someone who can design and develop a website or blog for your small business. A website designer or developer should create a professional, user-friendly and search engine friendly website. You can also desire to maintain a blog for your business. Check this article about the “12 reasons why you should blog about your business”.

 

2. Social Media Strategist

If you already have a website for your business, you should promote it. Social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin and Foursquare.com are some of the social media your business should be promoted. Social media marketing takes a lot of time and dedication to succeed because it requires building of trust and good relationships with people online. Thus, you may hire a social media strategist or marketer to help you build your brand on the social media market. A social media specialist will help you gain more followers on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. However, it would also be nice if you will coordinate with your social media professional. You may take a look at these “12 social media marketing strategies for your small business”.

 

3. Search Engine Optimizer

Don’t forget to also promote your business or brand on the search engines. Remember that Google is still the most visited website in the world according to Alexa.com. People use the search engine to find specific information, such as what product to buy and where to buy it. Google has also local searches now. Hence, if you business website will rank higher on the search engines, it would mean more potential customers for your business. When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), a SEO specialist can help you. When hiring a SEO firm or professional, make sure to find those that can optimize your website using organic, quality and white hat SEO techniques, which can make your website stand firm from whatever Google updates. A good SEO is one that can optimize your website not only on the search engines, but also on the social media. If you want to have an idea on SEO, check out our article about the “25 effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques”.

 

4. Business Coach

A business coach is like a coach in sports, it helps business owners and entrepreneurs reach their maximum potentials through motivation, training and guiding them in their management, financial, marketing and other business decisions. Small business owners, especially those who have just started their business startups should consider hiring a business coach to avoid making common mistakes. The cost of hiring a business coach varies in different countries and it also depends on the coach’s type of services. There are coaches who provide physical visits and there are also those who provide sessions over the phone or via messaging on the Internet. Some coaches may offer you a free first-time session to give you the chance to evaluate their services and also assess if you really need a business coaching. Check out our article on “5 Reasons Why You Should Hire a Business Coach“.

 

5. Lawyer

If you don’t want to face any lawsuits or penalties for breaking any law or regulation in the future, then you should hire the service of a lawyer. A lawyer will help you in complying with the laws and other regulations, incorporating your business, protecting your trademark and copyright, providing notarial services and giving you legal advices on labor, tax and other legal matters. Lawyers can be hired in a retainership or in a per engagement basis. If you think you need to have a legal expert on your side, then consider hiring an attorney or a lawyer.

 

6. HR Professional

Most small business owners become their own HR manager, managing alone the issues on their employees. However, if your small business is already growing and you are now employing more than 15 employees, hiring a human resources professional should be considered. People are considered by many as the best assets of a business. Hence, it is just wise to take care and pay attention to the issues about your personnel. When your organization is getting bigger and your tasks is also increasing, you should consider hiring or outsourcing an expert to manage your personnel’s affair. An HR professional will help you manage your employees’ hiring process, train and evaluate your personnel’s performance, ensure that your employees are performing well, and deal with your HR issues.

 

7. Accountant

Accounting is the language of business, whether it’s a small or a big size business. If you want to understand the financial and economic sides of your business, you should have someone to do its bookkeeping and accounting, which include the preparation of your financial statements, such as balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flow. Your financial statements are the reports that tell the condition and performance of your business. An accountant or bookkeeper will also facilitate the preparation of your tax declarations. So if you’re not an accountant or you’re too busy to do your accounting, you should delegate that task to a professional. If you can’t afford to pay the monthly salary of an in-house accountant, you can outsource an accountant or a bookkeeper for a monthly retainer’s fee.

 

8. Tax Consultant

Taxes are the bread and butter of the government. That is why if you do business in a country that imposes taxes, you must pay the tax consequence. A tax consultant will help you minimize your taxes in the legal way, which is known as tax avoidance. Tax avoidance is the use of legal methods to cause the taxpayer’s financial situation to change in order to lower the amount of income tax liable. This is usually accomplished by claiming all the allowable deductions and credits. This practice is different from tax evasion, which is illegal. Tax consultants will also give you tax advisories to help you avoid future tax liabilities and penalties. Since both small and big businesses are taxpayers, small business owners should consider getting the service of a tax consultant.

 

9. Customer Support Specialist

Do you have several customers and can’t afford to do all the customer services, such as billing, answering questions and feedback (on your phone, email, blog or Facebook Page), dealing on customers’ complains and other customer support tasks? If you can’t hire your own in-house personnel who will do your customer support, then you should consider outsourcing it. Outsourcing that service from a call center firm may still be expensive for a small business owner. If that is the case, you can outsource it from a freelancer, whom you can find in oDesk, Elance, Vworker or in any other virtual assistant directory.

 

10. Doctor

Among the list, this seems to be the one who isn’t related to business. But actually, doctors (medicine or dentistry) are the professionals that shouldn’t be ignored in any business organizations, especially those who are employing people. Employees’ health and welfare must not be ignored. If you call out experts to regularly clean and check your computers, air-conditioning, cars and other equipment, then you should also consider the same with your employees, who are more valuable than those machines. Whether you only employ a single employee or a hundred, you should hire a Doctor to provide you and your workers with regular check up. Always remember that the healthier your people are… the more productive and profitable your business will be.

Do you have any other professionals in mind whom you are considering for hiring for your small business? Feel free to share your thoughts and make a comment.