When you run a small business, the amount of work can ebb and flow. Unexpectedly busy periods can create too much work and stress for a small team or one-person business. But if a surge is seasonal or unreliable, you don’t necessarily want to commit to taking on another employee.
One solution is to use outsourcing to give you some flexibility during busy periods.
What could you outsource?
There are several types of jobs that can be ideal for outsourcing:

• Tasks you dread, usually procrastinate or that cause you massive stress
  
• Tasks where you or your business have low expertise
  
• Those tasks which don’t require the contractor or freelancer to access your systems or deal with your clients.
  

For example, if you aren’t managing your digital marketing, outsourcing your social media management could work well. Or it might be branding, HR or customer service. And if you need help with your payroll or accounts, we’re only a phone call away.
If you can take stressful tasks off your plate, or reduce your workload at peak times, you can increase your revenue and productivity without overcommitting to payroll.
Who could do the work for you?
We’re here to support you with your accounting and payroll requirements. For other types of work, you could consider a local or an offshore provider. There are plenty of platforms and organisations that will help you, but do shop around as the quality varies enormously.
The advantages of a local provider are that they’ll be in the same time zone, with no language barrier and operating under the same regulations. International providers, on the other hand, can be considerably cheaper.
Need help getting started?
Considering outsourcing and wondering how much to spend or where to start – or you need help with accounts and payroll? Get in touch, we’d love to help.

At the beginning of your startup journey, you and your co-founders will be in charge of selecting and hiring the key members of your new team.
The people you choose will identify with your core aims for the business and will (usually) share your core values too. For example, if being green is a key value, the people you hire need to resonate with this. But as the business grows and expands, it's likely that the hiring process will move to your operations director, human resources director or people managers.
So, how do you ensure that you're still hiring people who share your core values? And why are these foundational values so important?
Why are core values so important to a new business?
Your values are the pillars on which the business is built. They’re the fundamental building blocks that will define what you believe in as a brand, how you treat your customers and employees and what your underlying mission will be for the company.

• What's the advantage of having a team with shared core values? - A team that shares the same ethical foundations is a team that works well together. You know WHY you’re doing what you do, and you know the right path to take when operating the business.
  
• How do you weave these values into your hiring process? - Make sure the initial job description clearly sets out the values you expect from an employee, and how these help to drive the company forward. You'll also attract the right talent. A Glassdoor survey found that 77% of respondents consider a company’s culture before applying for a job there. During interviews, swap outlooks and to gauge if this person is a good fit for the team.
  
• What should you include in your onboarding for new employees? - It’s a good idea to have your company values written down in a format that can be shared with new hires. By formalizing your core values, you create a solid bedrock on which to base your training and onboarding. New employees can read, digest and ask questions about your values, and can see how your existing staff apply these values in the real world.
  
• How do you measure employee satisfaction and adherence to these values? - Having regular catch-ups with new employees is a must. Your managers should be holding 360 feedback sessions at least once every 6 months, so you can track progress, performance and employee satisfaction. Your core values should be part of these metrics, measuring how well your employees are hitting the right standard, and finding out what the business can do to make this easier.
  

Building a team that reflects your brand values
When a customer calls your customer support line, or a potential new client visits your offices, they expect these experiences to be consistent. This doesn’t mean getting rid of personality or the uniqueness of each employee. But it does mean having the same foundational values being lived and demonstrated throughout the company.
With a team of people who share your vision for the company, you’re ready to expand, scale and deliver the very best customer experience to your valued customers.

Has your business kept pace with the digital revolution when it comes to ecommerce, online marketing, social media marketing and customer experience?
24.5% of sales are expected to be made online by 2025, according to recent predictions from Shopify. So, if online is the place to be when looking for targets, customers and conversions, what's your current strategy for achieving this? And do you have the skills in the business to bring your marketing and customer strategy into the digital age?
Where a digital marketing specialist adds value
Digital sales and e-commerce have both evolved at a frantic pace over the past decade. There are now estimated to be 2.14 billion online shoppers globally, and that’s a gigantic audience for you to engage with, convert and turn into paying customers.
But to do this effectively, you need a digital marketing specialist to help you maximize your online interactions. This might be an in-house role that you create, or it may be a freelance position that you use to expand your company’s marketing abilities. If you have the budget, you might even partner with a digital marketing agency – the choice is yours.
The point is that having a digital marketing specialist on your team is a huge benefit for businesses that want to dip into this giant online market.
Your specialist can:

• Improve your online presence and digital platforms – this could mean updating your company website, revamping existing content or sales landing pages, or improving your underlying digital strategy. Small, incremental changes can make a huge difference to your marketing and conversion rates – which eventually translates into better sales, improved revenues and a more profitable business model.
  
• Refine your SEO skills and capabilities – search engine optimization (SEO) is all about improving the chances of you engaging with your target audience. A specialist can help you craft better SEO titles and SEO descriptions for your pages. And they can provide targeted keywords and search terms that push your ads, blog posts and marketing content higher up the Google search results.
  
• Make the most of social media – social media is going through a turbulent time at present. But maximizing your social media presence is still a great way to grow a following and get your brand name out there in the marketplace. With better social media skills, you can post content more regularly, improve your interactions with customers and up your follower count. As a two-way channel for customer communication, social is an area that can reap great rewards if you have someone driving your social strategy.
  
• Use targeted digital advertising – advertising in the digital age can be targeted incredibly specifically. An advertising specialist can help you identify your key audiences and then break these down by key demographics like age, location, occupation and interests etc. If you want to target Gen Z customers from London who are regular gym-goers, targeted advertising can do this. It’s one the quickest ways to get your advertising in front of the right eyes, increasing your chances of making a sale.
  
• Improve your customer experience – when customers interact with your brand, they want to have a smooth and helpful experience. Working on your customer experience (CX) is one of the most important ways to boost your customer satisfaction levels as a business. A CX specialist will help you look at your processes, your online presence and your customer interactions, with a view to making your brand a happier and more satisfying experience for new visitors and valued customers.
  

If you are looking to invest in marketing, or bring on marketing staff, talk to us. We can help with your cashflow and sales projections so you can make an informed choice.

Remote work has become an increasingly popular way of working in recent years. Many companies now offer their employees the ability to work from home or other external locations. This is a giant shift for many companies and their workforces – so, to get the best from remote working its worthwhile reassessing your people strategy.

Investing in your people and your remote strategy

Maximising this new remote-working strategy can lead to increased employee engagement, as well as a reduced spend on rent, building management and all the other costs associated with running a traditional 9-5 office space.

To make remote working deliver on these benefits:

• Offer the best remote-working tools – provide your people with the tools and resources they need to be successful and productive when working remotely. This could mean buying suitable desks, comfortable office chairs and headsets for your remote workers. You’ll also need team software, such as Microsoft Teams, to stay connected.
• Focus on creating a team spirit – Make sure everyone in your team feels connected, in the loop and able to contribute. Having a regular online ‘team huddle’ each week, or even every morning, helps to build bonds and nurture a feeling of belonging in the team.
• Make sure remote staff feel included – It’s very easy for an 'us and them' dynamic to appear between your remote staff and office-based staff, which can be extremely destructive. A clear flexible-working policy or hybrid work strategy can help, as well as bringing everyone into the office at some point, so you maintain relationships and get some face-to-face time.
• Track performance data for your remote workers – remote workers have the potential to be more productive than office workers. But there’s also the possibility for some workers to lag behind and become demotivated. By tracking performance and productivity, you can see how well remote staff are actually working – and where there may be a need to offer incentives, bonuses and benefits to boost productivity.
• Cut costs and boost performance – with the right investment and strategy, embracing remote and hybrid working can transform the future of your business. Not only can you engage more closely with the needs of your staff, you can also boost performance while also reducing your spend on office space and provisions.

Today’s workforce is a mix of different generations, with some workers that love the structure of a 9-5 office day, and some who yearn for a more flexible remote-working lifestyle. Keeping your people happy, while also embracing a remote strategy, is a key challenge for today’s business owners.