Our focus in this issue of What Works is on preparing your business for an economic turnaround. That includes doing simple things such as sharpening your marketing message, conducting customer surveys and tuning up your website. And it might also mean outsourcing more services to free up your time to focus on growing revenues and profits.

"Dear Dan" offers 10 ways to prep for profits ahead. Be sure to visit the What Works for Business blog for other timely ideas and news on the latest solutions for small business. Sign up for the RSS feed to receive automatic updates.

Look for the next issue of What Works for Business on July 14 after a brief break for the July 4 holiday.





Preparing for Profits Ahead

Q. Dear Dan:Our sales have tanked and profits seem a distant memory. Nevertheless, I’m an optimist who believes things will turn around. How can we prepare right now for better days ahead? – Preparing

A. Dear Preparing: One upside of an economic downturn is that it offers opportunities to take a fresh look at how you operate and make simple changes that can put your business at the front of the line when things start to pick up.
Here are ten things you can do to prepare for profits ahead...




Guide to Outsourcing
By Tonya Vinas
Outsourcing allows small businesses to obtain services and expertise they could never develop in-house, focus on core competencies and, in many cases, cut costs and improve efficiency. To determine what to outsource, consider:

Payroll Processing Service
By Daniel Kehrer
First off, no business is too small to use an outside payroll service. And considering the hassles and liabilities of processing payroll and payroll taxes accurately and timely, any business owner is wise to consider farming out this chore. With services easily accessible online, you'd be a bit daft not to at least consider the option.

Employment and Recruitment Agencies
By Jennifer Baljko
Even if your business isn't hiring now, when the time comes, bringing in a third party to coordinate your recruitment efforts may be the best solution so you can stay focused on revenue-generating tasks. Recruitment and employment agencies can handle the following:

Human Resource Outsourcing
By Jenni Simcoe
Most businesses with fewer than 50 employees don't have a designated human resources (HR) manager, let alone a full-fledged HR department. Instead, business owners often hand off HR tasks to employees who have little or no experience in the arena. A better solution, which more and more small businesses are discovering, might be outsourcing HR tasks to professional employer organizations (PEOs). Outsourcing your HR needs can:

Startup
Technology
Management
Money and Finance