Staff and Setting up office
Employees
When you first open the doors to your consulting practice, you may be able to handle all the operations by yourself. But as your consulting business begins to grow, you may need help handling administrative details or completing the actual consulting assignments.
You need to make some important decisions. For example, do you have the time it will take to prepare and despatch mail shots? Can you afford to spend time doing administrative tasks when you could be using that time networking and signing up new clients?
Will you need help with paperwork?
There are many options when it comes time to decide if you need help with your paperwork. For example, a quick look through the Yellow Pages will reveal a number of small secretarial support firms. The rates will depend on a variety of factors, including how large or small an organisation it is and what types of services it provides.
While it will pay you to shop around for these types of services, don’t select a secretarial service just because it happens to have the lowest prices in town. Instead, ask for references, preferably from other consultants who have used their services, or from small-business owners.
Office rental is an option
Another option may be a short-term full service office rental from Habitaz, Regis or The Business Place.
A good, reliable support service is worth the price in the long run. There will come a time, however, when you may find it more cost-effective to hire someone to work in the office with you.
Hiring a good administrative support person can sometimes mean the difference between success and failure – between obtaining more clients and constantly losing clients.
Benefits of having someone in the office with you:
- You save time and money. By having someone concentrate on the more routine tasks (opening the mail, filing, answering phones, etc.) you can focus all your efforts on recruiting new clients. Think about this: Would you want to lose a R2 000-a-day client because you were too cheap to hire someone to manage your office for you?
- You don’t worry about being out of the office. If you are a one-person operation, it’s hard to be out on the road marketing your services if you’re worried about clients calling – and only getting your answering machine.
- You have someone to offer another perspective. Sometimes it can be pretty lonely trying to do everything yourself. Having someone around the office during the day who can offer another perspective can be worthwhile.