Starting a business and running it from home is no longer uncommon. More businesses, including successful startups and online ventures, are actually operating out of a home office, with a small team working behind the scenes.
For most home entrepreneurs, the real challenge comes when it is time to grow the business. When is the right time to expand operations? How do you make sure that the business can remain sustainable in the long run?
We spoke to several experienced entrepreneurs about this particular challenge. If you are a business owner facing a similar set of questions, these next few tips will help you answer them like a seasoned pro.
Stay Lean for as Long as Possible
Growth is something that requires careful planning. The last thing you want to do is grow your business for the sake of growing. When you can still operate efficiently, there is no need to expand the team.
Choosing the right time to grow the team and the business is tricky, but you should always try to remain lean for as long as possible. Instead of recruiting three or four specialists, for instance, you can start with one new team member that can multitask well.
Staying lean will keep your overhead costs in check. Staying lean means you don’t have to worry about not being able to remain competitive due to high overhead, and you can be more agile when dealing with market changes.
Leverage Insurance
Business sustainability is also about protecting your business interests. While you can shoulder some of the burdens generated by your business, trying to take on all of the risks yourself is a big mistake. What you want to do is use business insurance to help you manage your risks.
The Hartford offers a wide range of business insurance plans to help protect the future of your venture. The company has a simple wizard that enables you to get accurate quotes for your business insurance needs. It asks questions such as the number of employees you have and recommends the types of insurance you can use to protect your business. The entire process of finding suitable insurance coverage takes no more than 10 minutes to complete.
Automate!
Last but not least, the key to sustainable business is automation. Automation lets you do so much more without actually expanding your operations. When you automate order processing and the printing of shipping labels, for example, you can handle more orders without recruiting more people.
Automation is something that can streamline many workflows within the business. Everything from the delivery of marketing emails to the creation of financial reports can be automated. You can even create an entire dashboard for monitoring the health of your cash flow with automation.
The tools that can be used for automating tasks are also easier to find. Platforms like Zapier certainly make integrating multiple business solutions easy. You are no longer limited to using only one tool to manage your entire home business.
If you want to keep your business sustainable while growing at a healthy pace, these are the tips and tricks to use. With sustainability in mind, you can stop worrying about running into issues with your business and start focusing on growing the business.
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