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The people involved with your business in any capacity will make or break it. Some of these people might work for you; others might be part of your professional or services team. Regardless of the role they play, your team has an enormous impact on the success or failure of your business. Thinking through the people you want to bring on board is the quickest way to give yourself the best chance of succeeding.

Team Overview:

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Framing The Question Of Teams

Teams exist to spotlight areas of strength while minimizing weak points. This shared work model is handy because you cannot run a business single-handedly - nor do you want to. Developing a team of people with various skill sets not only makes the workload easier, but it brings an authoritative flavor to everything you do. When you feel out of your depth, chances are someone around you will know what needs to be done, and can do it well.

Video Outline:

00:30 - Why you need an Legal Entity

01:40 - What is a Legal Entity

02:10 - You Options

02:50 - How to Choose

03:40 - Your Next Steps

1. Can't I Do This Myself?

Nope, sorry. You simply must have a team around to help your business grow. These people don’t even need to be your employees - they could be sub-contractors, service providers, or even people you hire for one-time gigs.

It’s true that as you begin your business, you will wear a lot of hats and might not have a large team. But if you want to grow and scale your business, you’ll need outside help. The reason you need a team is to leverage the power of specialization.

You probably could do your business taxes correctly without software or an accountant, if you spent enough time research and reading. However, an accountant could do what might take you a week in just a few hours. Doesn’t it make so much more sense to let someone skilled do what they do best, and you do what you do best?

2. Three Ways To Filter Tasks

As a business founder, you have a million things to do. Here is a helpful guide to sort through all of the ideas.

Option 1 | Don't Do It: Often, people spend a lot of time doing things that they could not do. Before starting a task, ask yourself what would happen if you just didn't do it?

Option 2 | Automate it: Many tasks in business can be fully or partially automated by using technology. Research to see if there is a way you can have a computer or smartphone do the work for you.

Option 3 | Delegate it: As a business owner, you need to focus on doing what you are good at and what only you can do. If you are weak in some area of the business, get someone else to do if for you. (This, of course, needs to be cost effective.)

3. Professional Team

Your professional team is made of professionals who work for you, or who own their own business. These people are not your employees, and you pay them for their professional services.

🧾 Accountant:

This is your money and tax person. An accountant is critical to the success of your business as they see into just about every area. A good accountant will be able to spot problems in your business and help you find answers before they turn into issues.

🏦 Banker:

Developing a relationship with your business banker is a good idea. Their role is to work with your accountant to protect, invest and loan you money.

⚠️ Insurance:

This is covered in depth in another module. For the time being, understand that your business almost assuredly is going to need some type of insurance. A good insurance agent will get you the right coverage at a good price. Consider getting a few quotes before settling into your first choice.

👨🏽‍⚖️ Lawyer:

While you might not need a lawyer on day one, it is likely that you will need to seek legal advice during your ownership of the businesses. Having a pre-established relationship with a good business attorney is a wise move. Consider creating a list of legal questions as you start your business and then pay an attorney for an hour of their time to help you answer them all.

4. Service Team

Similar to your professional team, your service team are not your employees. These people work with you to help your business grow. Here is a short list of people you might want on your service team

Bookkeeper
IT or “Computer Guy”
Graphic Designer
Marketing Consultant
Payroll Company
HR Firm

5. Alternative To Employees

Having employees is costly. There are extra taxes, legal liabilities, increases in insurance and a good amount of paperwork.

This being said, employees are critical for most businesses to grow.

Before you hire in-house employees, consider these alternatives:

Virtual Assistant:

A virtual assistant is a person who works for you remotely doing almost any type of work you need done that can be done on the computer. This person is the employee of a Virtual Assistant Firm who takes care of all the paperwork. Learn more here.

Gig Work:

Outsource part or all of a specific job to someone else using websites like Fiverr or UPwork. This is best for a well-defined job like data entry, graphic design, IT work etc.

Subcontractors:

Subcontractors are not your employees. They work for themselves or another business and do work on your behalf. This can save time, money, and risk. The paperwork is relatively straightforward, and you pay them with a check. Read more about subcontractors vs. employees here.

6. Employees

Good employees can help a business grow to new heights. Hiring employees is also a lot of work and is much more costly.

If or when you hire employees, keep the following in mind: paying people is so complicated that you will need a payroll service to take care of taxes and paperwork. When you have employees, you will need to have an understanding of human resources and worker rights on both the state and local level.

Further, you will probably need to increase your insurance and signup for unemployment insurance. If you do hire employees, checkout this guide for more information. .