The 5 Most Important People To Have On Your Side
Posted by Debra Neville
In navigating the minefield that is small business, you need a small group of highly skilled and very focused individuals to guide you. These folks are outside of your company's staff and are more or less on an on-call basis, assisting with solving problems, weighing in on big decisions and listening to you when you have new ideas or want to implement innovation.
Attorney
All contracts, legal documents or leases of any kind need to be reviewed by competent lawyer. This individual can be from a small firm or even a one-person shop. Do not get wowed by large law firms. You want a lawyer who knows you personally and will take a personal interest in your business.
Accountant
Once again a small firm or individual is best. Your accountant needs to be well versed in tax law. Your accountant will do your year-end reporting as well as tax returns. A good accountant will also work with you on budgeting and sales projections.
Tech Guru
Many of us are pretty savvy, we have smart phones LinkedIn accounts and are on Facebook. In turn we try to keep up on new technology and how it affects our business. Most people would like to have a great website, blog, tweet and have people friend their business on Facebook. Find someone you trust to do these things for you. Often you can get a college student, who is trying to make a name for himself, who will do these things for free through an internship program.
Mentor
Find someone who has seen it and done it before and is willing to share his/her experiences. There are a lot of retired business people who are very giving of their time. As long as you can conform to their schedule, you can usually get some very good knowledge for free.
Partner
The person you are married to, will be married to or are just going to spend your life with needs to understand what you do and why you do it. If you can count on your partner to support your dream you can do anything. If you can't you are doomed to fail.
Bob Furlong is a Consultant specializing in Family Business, HR Development as well as Lease Negotiation. Bob grew up in his family's business (Ed note: they used Retail Pro as their POS system to run the family business) an upscale urban gift store, eventually becoming president and expanding to multiple locations. Bob is now utilizing his years of experience to assist other business owners to grow, protect and preserve their entrepreneurial enterprises.
Bob can be reached at:
Email: bobfurlong@me.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurlong
617-818-2001
