When starting a business, it can be challenging to pinpoint which stage of business growth you’re in. The four stages of business are start up, growth, maturity, and renewal or decline. When you’re first starting your business or in the start up phase, most of your time is spent gathering ideas, making a plan, and lots and lots of research. In this stage, you’re pretty much on your own. You’re handling start-up costs, production, quality control, marketing, social media, and everything else that comes with starting your own small business. It’s easy to feel bogged down during this stage because you’re actively working to maintain a budget while investing so much of your hard earned time and money in hopes that it will soon pay off.
Once you enter into the growth stage the next challenge is figuring out when you’re growing beyond your means, meaning you’re at a point where you cannot handle it all on your own. So what is the next step? Maybe it’s time to look into hiring a virtual assistant, or a social media manager. Virtual assistants specialize in a wide range of niche businesses such as real estate, bookkeeping, administrative, e-commerce, customer service and MORE. They are prepared to dedicate and set aside the time to complete the task that would otherwise occupy you from continuing to expand your business. Social media management can require hours upon hours of creation and analysis. Social media managers specialize in creating branded quality content and growing your online reputation.
As a virtual assistant myself for Harvest Pursuit, I can confidently say that our team is a huge asset for our clients, and we take pride in the quality of how we complete tasks requested of us. We take on the hours behind the scenes, so our clients can fully immerse themselves in the day to day of their business. A question you may ask yourself is how does the business owner and the virtual assistants manage and categorize the outsourced tasks that need to be completed. This is where a project management tool would come in. A simple Google search can introduce any business owner to a multitude of project management options. Project management programs allow access to multiple users and the capability to prioritize your task by due dates and an ease of communication. (We use Asana and love it!)
Each stage of your business comes with so many challenges, so many questions, and while yes, Google can answer a lot of your questions, it’s also incredibly beneficial to utilize a business consultant. Business consultants can help through each stage of your business. If you’re thinking about starting a new business of your own, the Harvest Pursuit team would love to guide you, grow with you and watch you succeed.
By Alyson Jones