Local Business
February 2004
You may be a lawyer, a carpenter, a massage therapist, or an accountant. However, I strongly doubt that you are a lawyer, carpenter, massage therapist AND accountant. As a small business owner starting up in this area, I struggled to do as much of my support work as possible, in the name of saving money. I suspect many of you are in the same situation, especially in these difficult economic times.
I have decided of late to follow my own advice (radical notion) and delegate. For the small business owner, this means outsourcing to someone else. Here’s why:
Yes, I have a computer. Yes, it does many magnificent things. However, 90% of the time I treat it like a glorified typewriter because I don’t have the time to learn all of those magnificent things it is capable of. Going out and buying an accounting program does not make me an accountant. It may mean that I can perform basic bookkeeping tasks myself, but it does not acquaint me with changes in the tax code, or give me advice on how to manage my inventory, my investments, or my overall financial status. For this, I need someone who really knows what they are doing.
In my desire to save a buck, I can actually hurt myself. I routinely see businesses who are ‘penny wise and pound foolish’ in their personnel policies and management styles. That is easy for me to see and scorn. Imagine my surprise when I realized I was doing the same thing. When I hired a local marketing person, I learned that many of the ways I’d been spending my marketing dollars were not the best for my business. I’d been relying on what I thought I knew (dangerous territory for all of us), what I’d read, and what I’d heard. Experts can save you a whole lot of money. Yes, it costs real dollars to hire them. But remember: it’s not so much a cost as an investment. Their efficiencies and knowledge can save you a lot of time and money.
If you are part of a larger organization, these same principles apply. You are hopefully very good at what you do - but you can’t do everything. You hear me say it again and again: Hire the best, pay absolutely as well as you can, and get out of the way. Provide the resources, define what you need, and let them do their job. Whether we are referring to internal or external support, the bottom line is the same: No person is an island.
I’ll go back to the financial example above. I have made some pretty magnificent errors in taxes over the years. I’m very fortunate that my mother is a CPA. This saved me a lot of trouble and fees when I was very young and foolish. Now that she lives farther away, and I’m older and wiser, I hire a CPA. I learned my lesson the hard way. Feel free to learn yours the soft way – by listening to me!
I also encourage you to get local support. When you buy local, more of the dollars stay in your community. Local firms tend to do more of their buying locally, and the dollars circulate rather than heading off to wherever corporate headquarters is. We live in a small community, and most of us treasure many of the aspects of it. We love the quality of life, the size, and not choking every time we take a breath. (Can you tell I’m another refugee from Seattle?) We can keep and enhance that quality of life by managing our resources well. If you think about it, one of the easiest ways to make our community, more wealthy, is to keep more of our dollars in it. In times of economic scarcity, it is tempting to make all of our decisions based on the lowest price, whether that is chain stores or mail order. However, when those dollars leave, they don’t come back. They don’t get donated to our local Little League baseball teams. They don’t get spent at school bake sales to buy band uniforms. They don’t get spent at other businesses here. They just disappear.
A local firm also has something else no distant firm can provide: word of mouth referrals back to you. Good will is an intangible that has a worth of solid gold. Let’s say you hire me, a local consultant, to come in and keep your employees from hurling staplers at each other and in-fighting all day long. I see the product that you provide, and I know someone who needs it. I tell them, and you have a new customer. That person comes in, uses your goods or services, and tells their neighbor. Next thing you know, you have a number of new customers, that all came through me, someone you hired. So while you had to use cash dollars to hire me, you now have more of those dollars coming in, through me. Using local service providers can actually boost your visibility. Especially in smaller communities, where word of mouth is one of the most powerful advertising tools you have. (Second only to the Pulse, of course!)
So take a look around you. What needs doing? Can you do it yourself, or will you actually spend more in time and effort than it would take to hire it out and utilize your time more effectively. Who locally can provide the service? Ask around. Most women know that when they need a hairdresser, their best bet is to look for a great haircut and then ask that person who cut their hair. Don’t just pick a name out of the phone book – find out who is good. If you see a great ad campaign for a local business, call and ask them who does it. They will usually be happy to refer you.
So delegate, delegate, delegate. Find the experts and let them help you. They are usually both faster and more effective than you can be yourself. That saves you money in the long run. And that’s good business.
Ramona Abbott helps businesses maximize their efficiency, effectiveness and group dynamics. She utilizes proven techniques that are fun and affordable to help you improve your workplace in a variety of ways. She welcomes inquiries at 360-398-2606 or ramona@EssentiallyProfessional.com
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