There are many advantages to going your own way and leaving the corporate world. Deciding your own hours, choosing the clients you hope to service (or pursuing them), managing every element of your business, having full authority, and being more flexible in your planning without a stagnant oversight committee limiting you at every turn can all be wonderful new measures to consider.
This is a contributed post. Please refer to my disclosure for more information.
But it’s also true that certain effects, such as the increased infrastructure, the ability to rely on other departments, and allowing a global brand’s reputation to precede you can always be nice to have. For this reason, learning how to deal with a lack of necessary infrastructure is your best way forward. This can be something of a tough ask for those who are just striking out on their own.
On our blog, you can read a range of articles about every element of establishing yourself within this new normal. In this post specifically, we will discuss how to properly fortify your actions without a larger corporate entity to guide you at every turn. Without further ado, let’s begin:
Use Reliable Services
If you don’t have your own infrastructure, that’s okay, there are many businesses worth their salt whose exact business model translates to renting you out those services they have deftly curated in the most accessible manner.
This can translate into almost any department you may need. For instance, SEO firms can help you more readily increase your search engine ranking in a given area by adhering to the proper compliance necessary to achieve that, and writing you content that helps you get there. Asking ‘how does a customs broker help?’ can help you see how trading internationally isn’t always easy, but with this kind of a professional, moving through customs and reducing penalties or duties can be worth its weight in gold.
As a small business, using a virtual address for post and reception services can also be a worthwhile means of saving time and providing competent support to your customers. What’s more is that most of these services are working in markets rife with competition, so it’s quite literally in your best interest to shop around. This way, with the right investments, even a sole trader can leverage potential and vastly outperform whatever reach they have currently.
Use A Lack Of Reputation As An Advantage
Some may consider having a lack of a reputation to be something of a disadvantage, and it can be in the long term, but when just starting out, anonymity as a business can help you practice a few things without damaging reputational effects.
This might involve spending a couple of years properly considering your branding, or rebranding when you feel that a new aesthetic and marketed platform could more readily adhere to the services you offer. It might be that you wish to pivot your approach in terms of what kind of products or services you offer, which is easier to do when you have fewer clients or customers relying on you.
There’s a silver lining to almost anything, but in business, we refer to those as opportunities. Even the recent Covid pandemic, which of course is hard to write about sensitively and especially not when half-heartedly trying to discuss the ‘benefits’ of such a thing seems dull-headed when so many people are still suffering from it, did allow businesses to reassess remote working possibilities, and how to more readily protect their staff or adhere to the reformed online landscape.
As an entrepreneur, your flexibility maybe your greatest strength. It’s only when firms grow larger do they become less able to pivot their strategy, so don’t be afraid to make use of this now.
Perform Your Own Due Diligence
It can be tough to look over everything as a sole entrepreneur, to make sure that every blind spot you have is illuminated, or that you can properly review and even audit mistakes to make sure they never happen again. Performing your own due diligence, then, maybe tough, but it is necessary, and it can help you more readily decide your forward approach.
While you may have no oversight department, it can be healthy to spend at least half a day each week looking at the effect of your decisions, reviewing the week, assessing your value, and planning charts using software to help determine how your growth may be exceeding. The more statistics you can utilize, the better. This can help you understand the value of your investments compared to last year, what kind of training you may need, and more.
With this advice, we hope you can more easily deal with a lack of corporate infrastructure when operating as an entrepreneur.