Two Crucial Steps for Taking Your Home-Run Business to the Next Level

Around 80% of the US workforce say that they’d like to work from home. But despite stereotypes of relaxed mornings and complete flexibility, running a business from home is no walk in the park. When it comes down to the wire, you and only you are responsible for your business’ bottom line and whether there’s money in the bank at the end of every month. With increasing competition for small businesses, it’s more important than ever to stay up to date with the latest movements in business and move your enterprise to the next level.

Maximize your digital potential

Around 60% of small businesses don’t have websites, and only around 10% of these have a business Facebook page. That’s a large potential market for your business left untapped. If you do have some online presence but aren’t taking full advantage of what the internet has to offer, now is the time to scale up to the digital revolution and compete seriously with the movers and shakers in your industry. A healthy online presence starts with at least 500 website visitors a month, 100 followers on Facebook, and an active presence on whichever social media platforms lend themselves best to your niche.

Outsource

If you’re working from home, the chances are you’re doing so to improve your quality of life. You’ve taken a step in the right direction because remote workers are happier and more productive. But simply moving to a home office and striking out into business on your own won’t cut it: you need to make sure that you have a healthy bottom line, and the only way to achieve this is by being motivated, productive, and efficient with your time. The simple answer to this need is to outsource any aspect of your business that you can: if it costs you the same, or less, per hour as it would to do the work for yourself, you should be sub-contracting it to someone else, and leaving yourself to the more important task of working on the business, not in it.

By Jenny Holt