In our fourth installment on avoiding failure to launch in our series from David Durick of Paychex’s workshop at the Small Business Expo 2016, we talk about critical steps five and six: putting yourself on payroll and online marketing.
Almost all businesses now have an online presence. If you are not convinced, please join Traklight here to take the free Business Risk Assessment.
The dashboard’s Risk Chart links you to Paychex partners who can help with any gaps. Also, your progress is measured and always up to date with the Traklight Assessment Grade.
Step 5: Put Yourself on Payroll
The early stages of a company are challenging, and as we discussed in the last post, raising funds is also a critical step. Putting yourself on payroll in the early days not only helps with stability for your personal cash flow but can be used as proof of income for loans.
Paychex does have a product for officer-only payroll that will allow you to achieve both goals and set yourself up for growth.
Step 6: Market Your Business Online
Today it’s almost impossible to not have a website or another online presence that includes social media. We will address some of the intellectual property (IP) issues that are raised when you operate online in the final post in this series.
Some of the business concerns when setting up your website include having terms of use and privacy policies on your site plus information on how you collect any data.
All websites should be professional and kept current. Your website is your digital business card. For example, if you are going to blog, do it regularly or not at all. Regular can be once a week or once a month but should not have huge irregular gaps.
Your website needs to be mobile responsive in order to display properly on tablet and phone. Display all social media links prominently and manage online interactions and reviews. Consider gathering customer feedback. There are many tools that can assist with productivity that embed on your site. Check out this article that lists tools that can help you put your best foot forward online.
Don’t forget to track your progress on all these tasks for free using Traklight’s Business Risk Assessment.
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