3 Things You Must Do in Your First Year of Business

Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.

Do you want your company to grow from strength to strength over the coming decade? If so, it’s absolutely imperative that you lay strong foundations for it during its freshman year. If you get everything right during the initial stages of business’ inception, you’ll make life a lot easier for yourself as you attempt to scale your industry going forward into the future.

Here are three things you must do if you want to enjoy a fruitful first year of business.

Get your employees on your side

Once you put together a team of employees that are engaged with their work and dedicated to your company, you’ll be unstoppable. With this type of workforce by your side, you’ll be much more likely to provide an industry-leading level of service to your target consumer base.

There are a plethora of things that you can do to get your staff members on your side, the most effective being to simply listen to them. Take some time to ask them about their workload, make an effort to unearth any problems that they have with your company culture, and go out of your way to pinpoint the areas where they are currently struggling. Once you obtain this information, you’ll be able to provide your employees with the exact level of support that they require.

If you want to speed up the process of obtaining this all-important information, be sure to make use of the inpulse.com employee survey tool. This will allow you to gather real-time insights into how your team members are currently feeling and performing.

Never equate revenue with profit

Should you fall into the trap of believing that you’re making a profit just because your revenue is high, you’ll probably find yourself in midst of a financial fiasco before you even celebrate your first anniversary as a business owner. Revenue and profit are two wholly separate entities — the former is the total amount of income that you generate, the latter is the amount of money that you have left once you’ve accounted for your necessary expenses, debts, and costs.

If you want to keep your finances in the green throughout the course of your first year in business, it’s absolutely essential that you don’t equate revenue with profit. A good piece of advice in this instance is to align yourself with an experienced accountant. Their services will cost a bit of money upfront, but the cash that you will be sure to save as a result of their financial guidance will be sure to help you balance out your books in the long run.

Look after yourself

As an inexperienced entrepreneur, you won’t be accustomed to the specific type of stress that is associated with owning a business. At all conceivable points in the day, the success of your company will be at the forefront of your mind. One thing is for certain: this is not a vocation for the faint hearted!

If you’re not careful, the stress of being a business owner will have a negative effect on your health. Should this happen, you won’t be any fit state to run your company in a highly effective and efficient fashion. So, for your sake as well as your company’s, make sure you look after yourself.

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