This Week in Small Business: Outsourcing Payroll and Becoming Your Own Boss
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This week on Bplans, we focused on new technology for entrepreneurs.
What technologies exist to make your life easier? Which kinds of technology can be used to ease the transition from employee to entrepreneur, to handle your payroll, to invoice for your services, or to get your eCommerce business off the ground? It can be overwhelming to start and subsequently run a business, but thankfully there are options to make your life easier.
What aspect of running your business is a hassle for you? Do you wish there was a tool to manage a certain procedure? The good news is, if you struggle with certain areas while running your business, chances are so do other entrepreneurs. As a result, the technology to help you likely already exists.
Check out these articles on Bplans for insight into new technologies that can help you overcome a variety of hurdles, from becoming your own boss to dealing with finances.
1. How to Become Your Own Boss in 2015 (Webinar Recap)
We started the week with a bang—our CEO Sabrina Parsons recently had the pleasure of featuring Melinda Emerson, the “SmallBizLady,” in one of our webinar presentations. The focus of this webinar was making the transition from employee to entrepreneur, and you can expect to get a lot of great advice from Melinda, who has been termed America’s #1 small business expert.
If you are interested in finally making the transition from an employee to entrepreneur, and are ready to be your own boss, grab a cup of coffee and a notepad, and check this one out. The webinar format is an interesting way to take in the information; I personally find I learn better through a combination of reading and listening, so I highly recommend giving this one a listen. Not only that, Melinda’s down-to-earth advice is really excellent.
2. When and How to Outsource Your Payroll
At Palo Alto Software, we are all about making things easier for the entrepreneur. Fortunately, there are plenty of new technologies that exist to do just that. In this article, we focused on determining when to turn the task of payroll over to someone else, and how to decide which company to turn to. Author Shrad Rao does a great job of laying out the information in a clear, easy to follow way, which will allow you to make the right decision for your business. After all, not all payroll companies will be suitable—it’s important to pick the right one for you!
3. Free Invoice Templates You Can Use Right Now
Continuing our discussion of useful technology, we took an opportunity to round up the best free templates that freelancers and independent contractors can use to make invoicing easier. These options are customizable, easy to use, and we made sure to go over what type of entrepreneur each option is best suited for. Additionally, we included some tips on how to create an invoice, to help you with the process even further. Check these out—there are several options, each with unique features, so we’re sure you’ll find one that fits your specific situation.
4. How Technology Can Help Your Business Get Funded
Here, we focus on what new technologies can help your eCommerce business—namely, the various ways entrepreneurs can use social media to promote their eCommerce business, digital platforms such as Mint that can be useful, crowdfunding, and even bitcoin. With so much new technology, it sometimes feels like there is an “app for everything”—so, why not use this to your advantage? What process do you wish you could accomplish more quickly, with less hassle, or could somehow be done better? The technology might already exist, so check out some of these useful suggestions.
What technology has made your life easier as an entrepreneur? Do you have a topic you’d like to see covered on Bplans? Share with us in the comments, or on Twitter!
