Every business owner wants to grow their business, says Daniel Aronowitz, but few can do it alone. Business owners need the talents of a savvy web developer, a marketing agency, a certified public accountant (CPA), and a sales person. While most fledgling companies don’t have the start-up capital to hire these positions full-time, hiring independent contractors through platforms like Upwork and Freelancer provides the staff needed.
How do those positions contribute to your business growth? In 2024, every business needs a website, and to advertise digitally. Retail operations sell online through corporate platforms like Etsy, Walmart, and Temu. These four positions build this online presence and keep it hopping.
Web Developer
The web developer creates the design and initial text of the website. Most business websites begin with a homepage, contact page, services page, and privacy policy page. The developer codes the back end of the website using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other modern computer languages. On the front end of the website, they use a sans serif font and a logical organization that provides a menu linking to each secondary page. The web developer also creates graphics, photos, and videos and intersperses them logically throughout the site. They may work for the marketing agency or independently.
Marketing Agency
A marketing agency develops the brand name, logo, and marketing collateral for the business. When you start a company, it needs a name that people remember and that describes the business. The marketing agency handles developing this for you within constraints that you provide them, such as including your first and last name in the business name. This agency also creates marketing collateral, such as your business cards, letterhead, business signage, and advertisements. Depending on the type of business you operate, you’ll need print or digital ads, perhaps both.
Certified Public Accountant
To grow your business, you need to manage your money well and a CPA helps you do that. This accountant maintains your business’s books for you, completes and submits your taxes annually, and creates monthly reports, such as balance sheets that help you keep on track of your business’s finances. The CPA may also cut paychecks for your staff and pay the monthly bills, including invoices from vendors with which you do business. If you have not already set up your business bank account and merchant account, the CPA can handle that for you, too.
Sales Person
Some businesses misunderstand the term sales person, says Daniel Aronowitz. Retail businesses need a sales person who remains on the sales floor helping customers. This added assistance ensures customers find what they need and that the retailer makes more sales by up-selling.
Service-based businesses need sales help, too, but they need someone to do outbound sales. That person cold-calls relevant individuals or businesses who express interest in your business’s products or in the type of service it offers. Using these hot leads, as they’re called, ensures more sales. The sales person might conduct an online survey using a company like Survey Savvy to find potential customers interested in your service. Alternately, they might buy leads from a lead sales company.
Bringing It All Together
Most businesses need a small staff, even in their start-up phase. Using an independent contract platform like Upwork or Freelancer lets you contract with the web developer, marketing agency, CPA, and outbound sales person that many businesses need to succeed.
