"Having professionals check that your accounts all add up to satisfy HMRC is one way that support services can help your business. Just because a person excels in business, doesnt mean they excel in "
Sean Wilson
While marketing and PR might be some of the most common areas that businesses choose to get that support, there are many other areas a support service can help and benefit your company – especially if you’re a small or a new business that’s just getting started. The below looks at some key areas where support services can be used to help run your company even better.
Bookkeeping
Having professionals check that your accounts all add up to satisfy HMRC is one way that support services can help your business. Just because a person excels in business, doesn’t mean they excel in maths. But the benefits of using external support to do your bookkeeping, whether that’s an accountancy firm or a business support service like TradeFit, can extend way beyond that.
This can range from helping you keep on top of daily finances, like issuing invoices and managing outgoings, through to giving you the right financial information to develop your company. This could include giving you what you need to do a financial health check, to know whether you’re in a good position to design and launch a new product. Or it could involve doing a financial forecast for several years down the line to determine whether or not you’ll be able to expand your premises, departments and company team.
HR
Today, HR or human resources is arguably more important and essential in business than ever before. With examples of discrimination and harassment becoming everyday news, businesses need to be equipped to handle these things well, be up to speed on changing business policies in the workplace, and on top of developments in employment law. So it makes sense to use a support service who knows their stuff about anything HR-related, and can adapt quickly to any business environment and how it operates.
This is especially important if you’re in the process of expanding your team, as more HR issues are likely to occur when you bring more employees into the mix. Having this support can help prevent issues worsening, such as going to court, while taking away the costs and times associated with recruitment, employing and training. Time and cost factors can then be put to better use to help develop your company.
Health and safety
Health and safety is an area that has, for some, overstepped the mark in all walks of life. In the workplace it is especially a serious matter. It needs to be right and it needs to be up to date to keep staff safe, so legal processes must be followed. If your company has five employees or more, for instance, you should have a health and safety policy. You should also conduct a risk assessment across every aspect of your company premises. This includes ensuring you have safe surroundings and the right precautions in place to safeguard your business, so that you’re not liable for accidents and injuries.
With all of this and more to take into consideration, along with the sector’s continuously changing guidelines, getting health and safety right can be time-consuming work. So it makes sense to use a support service that knows this area of business inside out. Having professionals who know what needs to be done, and how to do it effectively, can also allow you to focus on running and developing other areas of your company.
Call handling
When you’re a new business, establishing and growing your customer base will probably be a priority. But as this happens, the number of calls you have coming into your business is likely to increase, especially at typically busy times of the year, like Christmas or during sales periods. The problem is, when you’re busy running your company it can be difficult trying to handle these calls. This is also a problem because such calls can help you to grow your business – from potential customers making general enquires, to people wanting to do business with you.
Meanwhile, spending time handling the calls yourself can take over the time you spend doing other tasks. Using a support service to answer the phone and handle calls, so you have an experienced and dedicated team available to do the work for you, can be a good option instead. It can also be better than taking on full-time staff, where costs, time and space, recruitment and training can become a significant factor.
Customer services
Finally, in addition to call handling is customer services. As your business grows, so does the importance and difficulty of keeping the customer happy. Regardless of how hard you work at keeping them satisfied, there’s always going to be those people who you can’t. So you need people to handle queries and complaints quickly and effectively. Plus, if you’re an ecommerce business, there’s the issue of handling things like refunds and returns and missing deliveries, while keeping those customers informed.
Employing staff to deal with all this full time can be an enormous task. For instance, you need to find people who have the right skills and experience. Using a support service can be a good solution as you have skilled and experienced people to handle this area of your business, without recruitment and training being needed. This provides just another way for you to focus on running your company, while giving you more time to grow, shape and develop it.
