Do I Need to Employ an Assistant for My Small Business?

If you began as a one-man band – a person who started the business from scratch all your own accord and shed blood, sweat and tears – you will no doubt brush off any suggestions about needing to bring in someone to help you out with the more administrative of jobs.

For those entrepreneurs, freelancers and self-employed, we tend to look at ourselves as the full company package. We believe we can do it all, or perhaps must do it all, after all; it is our livelihood on the line at the end of the day if we don’t deliver. But doing it all can often mean we have to perform double digits tasks in just the one working day.

I hear many self-employed people refer to themselves as a director, accountant, administrator, PR person, driver, cleaner, banker, IT technician and receptionist. And that’s before they arrive at their actual title of what they really do!

You see, when you make the decision to become your own boss, you don’t just get to work on the jobs that you enjoy and are qualified to do. In fact, I would suggest that around as much as 60% of the work such people do is anything other than the role they became self-employed for!

Knowing When to Ask For Help

In a large company, where there are many different levels of staff abilities, you will usually find a structure somewhere along the lines of receptionist, administrator, accounts person (whether this is someone in house or outsourced from somewhere like Porte Brown), salesperson, purchasing manager and director, to name but a few. This isn’t an option for a self-employed worker because the money isn’t there to hire many different people for such roles.

However, if you feel that you have got to the stage whereby you are finding such tasks restricting you from doing the job you need to do, it might be the time you may need to start looking at getting a little bit of help. For instance, if you feel that the accounts part of the business could be benefited from an extra pair of hands, you can search for an Accountant for self employed (or corporate, whichever fits your bill) for the desired role. For that, you can browse on sites that can help you find a well-skilled accountant for your business needs. You can pay them the necessary wage for a couple of hours per week. Make sure the candidate is well-researched, as he/she is going to be a huge asset to your company. Consider getting the professional expertise of companies like Checkr to do the screening process for you.
Changing Perceptions

I know exactly how it is when you have worked for yourself for so long. You find it almost impossible to bring anybody else in, or let go of the reins of your baby! Yet, it is inevitable that small businesses will in time begin to expand and outgrow their current structure. Perhaps by thinking of the need to employ a little bit of help as a good sign your business is doing well, should be the spur you need to take that decision and hand over the more administrative tasks to someone else. That way, you give yourself more time to do what you’re best at – making more money for your company!