Small Business Consulting In Minnesota

Small Business Consulting: How To Work Less And Get More - Delegate Tasks to Others! One of the hardest things for entrepreneurs to • learn is the "art of delegation". As you will soon learn if you do not already know this is that it is nearly impossible for a business owner to do everything alone. There are just too many tasks that must be done in order to keep the business running, and there are not enough hours in the day for the business owners to do them all. Thus, strive to delegate anything and everything •• elance and CraigsList. You can place descriptions of the project you are looking for someone to complete, and then have people respond to your bids. Or you can search for specific job roles such as "virtual assistants" or "executive assistants". Use the Right Agreements with Contractors When hiring contractors, it is absolutely critical • that you get written agreements that outline the terms and conditions of your arrangement. What is most critical about the written agreement • is that it outline who will own the intellectual property that is produced by the contractor. This may sound odd, but under the U.S. copyright laws, the contractor will own the copyrights to the work he produces for you unless there is a written agreement to the contrary (except for certain exceptions beyond the scope to discuss here). This makes it absolutely critical that yourbut this blueprint would not be an accurate reflection of today's business world if the concept was left out. The reality is that the flat world we live in today has made it very easy and common for companies to utilize staff in other countries to get work done faster and cheaper. Whether you plan to use outsourcing in your business or not, read this section so you will better understand what your competitors are doing. You will need to be aware of how this works today so that you can compete, even if you choose not to do the oursourcing yourself. So how does outsourcing work? You can now outsource just about any task, as long as "physical presence" of the person is not required. For example, you can hire a virtual assistant abroad to make phone calls for you to schedule meetings, to order flowers for your spouse, to research a gift to give to your child, and so on. Many companies choose to outsource abroad for the following reasons: (1) Labor in other countries is a lot cheaper than in the U.S. because their standard of living is different. You can hire a person with a bachelor's degree in some countries for as little as $7 per hour. • agreement with the contractor state that your company owns all intellectual property rights that result from the work produced for your company by contractor. that you reasonably can, so you can free your time to focus on the big picture for the business. Consider Using Contractors Especially while your business is new, you should .