The Professionals You Need on Speed Dial

As a business owner, you have to have a support staff. Depending on your business, that staff may not actually work for you — instead you have professionals in different fields that you can call on when you need their expertise. Just as you have your doctor’s number in your address book to maintain your personal health, you probably have a phone number for your CPA to help you maintain your business’ health. A few of those phone numbers really ought to be in your speed dial, however. Here are just a few numbers that it’s time you program into your phone.

1. Your Lawyer: Whether or not you’ve got a lawyer on retainer, it’s important to identify a lawyer you’re comfortable working with on business matters. Even if you don’t have anything on your plate right now, a legal matter may come up and you don’t want to waste time hunting around for a phone number — or a new lawyer — when you could be handling the problem already.
2. Your Maintenance Company: Depending on your office space, you may have access to a maintenance staff that will make repairs as soon as they know there is a problem. You may also be responsible for finding someone to do repairs for you. No matter whose name is on the account, have the number for the maintenance or repair company close at hand — since problems always seem to show up at the worst possible time, like right before a big meeting, being able to call for help can make a difference in your day-to-day operations.
3. Your CPA: When a financial decision comes your way, the more information you can get your hands on, the better equipped you are to make that decision. Your CPA can provide forecasts and insights that can make a major difference in what move you make. If your CPA helps you handle payroll, it’s even more important to have him or her on speed dial.
4. Your PR / Marketing Professional: Whether you work with an individual consultant or a full firm, your go-to-person for public relations can be critical to your plans for growing your company. And if there’s something newsworthy happening in your business, you have to let your PR person know fast! And if a surprise media opportunity comes your way, your PR professional can coach you to make the best impression for your company.
5. Your Insurance Provider: It’s rarely a good day when you have to call your insurance representative about anything, but any step you can take to make it easier is worthwhile. Having that phone number close at hand means that you can start the paperwork on an insurance claim no matter where you are when a problem occurs.

You want your business to run as smoothly as possible. Sometimes, that means calling someone up and handing a problem or opportunity over to them to figure out while you get back to work. Between these five professionals, you can handle the majority of unexpected occurrences that show up over the course of the day.

Photo — StephenMitchell

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under Workforce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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