For newly minted franchisees and small business owners, the grand opening and launch of a new venture can be an exciting but overwhelming time. But once the dust settles and the fanfare dies down, it’s time to get down to the day-to-day duties of running a business of your own. As many new entrepreneurs can attest, it may not take long to find yourself in need of outside vendors and suppliers to handle various tasks. These include services and tasks that run from the routine to the mundane. When searching for this assistance, it’s quite commonplace to initially look for recommendations from family and friends in the way of trusted referrals. But it’s still highly advisable for new business owners to spend the requisite amount of time doing their own due diligence. Because when you’re running your own operation, it’s important to evaluate and choose the right partners who can help keep your business running smoothly. Keep reading for some of the best tips and practices for finding high-quality, but affordable, vendors and suppliers who’ll make sure the job is done right…the first time.
Where You Might Need Some Help…
Some of the most common areas of concern where new business owners seek assistance can be found in universal tasks like networking and IT solutions, human resources, administrative needs, payroll processing, commercial cleaning, marketing, or even professional help in managing accounting and bookkeeping needs. Here are some convincing examples:
Accounting/Bookkeeping – the majority of new business owners simply don’t have the background, experience, or time to handle balancing their own books. For most, there are simply too many policies, regulations, and tax compliance issues to keep up with. After all, the last thing you want to do is get off on the wrong foot in reconciling your financials. Because accurate accounting is extremely important to the overall health of your operation, it’s actually a good idea to begin looking for the right partner even two to three months before you open the doors to the public.
Payroll Services – if your new business requires employees, it’s also advisable to seek a vendor to handle your payroll needs. This is another problem area, due to the complicated nature of setting up direct deposits and dealing with payroll tax withholding for individual employees.
Commercial Cleaning/Maintenance – not all new businesses require a brick and mortar storefront, but if you own and operate a high-traffic retail location or a restaurant, commercial cleaning and maintenance will both be critical needs. These types of establishments require upkeep on a daily basis to maintain a clean and welcoming presence for customers.
Advertising/Marketing/Promotions – many franchisees are provided with preferred vendors and a fixed plan to handle their advertising, marketing, and promotional outreach – which is a nice luxury. But if you’re a mom and pop small business owner, you may be on your own and in need of assistance. Unless you understand how to design, place, and manage a digital ad campaign on behalf of your own business, this is another area best left to the professionals.
How and Where to Look for Help
Think about how you go about making choices for things like entertainment, dining, and retail purchases. What’s the most important factor in evaluating your options? If you said online customer reviews, you’re correct. The world of online reviews is immense, with large-scale operations that cater to specific categories and experiences. For travel, you might visit TripAdvisor. For businesses, there’s TrustPilot or vendor’s Net Promoter Score (NPS). For restaurant options, you might seek reviews on Yelp or Foursquare. And for retail purchases of all shapes and sizes, you can always turn to Google or Amazon. But if you’re looking for service providers, especially local ones who operate exclusively in your area, Angi – formerly Angie’s List – is a great place to start. If you’re a franchisee, don’t forget that you have a built in network of other franchise owners who can help you find the right vendor or supplier – use this community to your advantage. After all, the unbiased advice which can be leveraged from other owners is a key benefit of being a part of a franchise system.
How to Evaluate and Select Help
After you’ve conducted your online review research, it’s time to move on to the evaluation stage. If you’re looking for a service provider in your local area, seek a face-to-face meeting with one of their sales representatives. They should be more than happy to set up an appointment and meet you on your home turf. During these appointments, you can learn a lot by observation. Are they presentable? How well do they listen to your specific needs? Are they trying to upsell you or push you into other unnecessary services? When evaluating vendors and suppliers, nothing is more important than validation. Make an effort to speak with current clients and be up front in asking their opinion of working with them. Lastly, it may be possible for you to find help from a vendor or supplier that works exclusively in your particular business category or sector – especially when seeking help for accounting and financial management. There are many firms who’ve chosen to work exclusively in a field, which makes them a much better fit for getting a great return on your investment.
Bonus Observations to Consider
When evaluating vendors and suppliers, you’ll want to look for a few specific things that will help you run your business smoothly. Make sure to have a clear understanding of how much of your time will be spent dealing with them. Service providers that require lengthy contracts could end up being a disadvantage for you. Have intimate knowledge of their fee structure. Do they charge based on fixed, flat-rate options? (Good) Or do their fees occur on some form of a sliding scale? (Bad). Always double-check the fine print. When you’re considering multiple vendors, look for three different bids to compare against one another. If you have an opportunity to negotiate your fee for services, do so. You might even discover a bartering situation where you can offer something of value to them in exchange for a lower rate.
Finding the right vendor and supplier partners is of utmost importance, especially if you want to have a hassle-free life as a newly minted entrepreneur. It’s a process that does – and should – take some time to complete. But consider this. When you look back on how carefully you evaluated your own circumstances before making the decision to become your own boss, it only makes sense you’d want to do the same for seeking any kind of help from an outside vendor or supplier.
Oh, and best of luck on your searching!
About the Author
Ryland Beard is the founder and CEO of Ledge Accounting, a turnkey provider of bookkeeping and tax services operating exclusively in the franchising industry. Since founding Ledge Accounting as a startup in 2019, he’s experienced astonishing growth – now handling the books for over 500+ individual franchise owners across the U.S. Ryland is a regular contributor to franchise industry publications and a frequent guest on several podcasts, where he discusses the value and benefits of living an entrepreneurial life.