It’s likely that there’s nothing more stressful in the world than running a new startup business.

Not only are you attempting to build a business from scratch with limited resources (budget, staff, and marketing exposure), but you have to balance all of these considerations yourself.

Building a product line, marketing your offerings, and reliably fulfilling these product or services is difficult enough. Add to that installing the infrastructure for your business to expand while balancing your growth and you’re in a sticky situation if you’re inexperienced in managing a startup.

Many people who run startups are new to the world of business or are simply trying the ‘what if this works’ attitude towards creating something interesting.

Odds are you’re a beginner entrepreneur, not a 67-year-old veteran CEO with decades of executive positions or you wouldn’t be reading this article in the first place. And if you are, starting a new business is still a giant challenge.

Though that previous paragraph about the difficulties shouldn’t dissuade you from starting a business.

In fact, if you have a solid idea and enough capital to begin your operation then don’t worry too much worry about the beginning days.

You’ll be saving cash up front by being a team of one while you do market research and ensure you’re offering something people are willing to hand over their hard-earned dollars to receive.  

And when all you have is yourself to rely on, you have a great degree of freedom to run the business as your heart pleases.

However, the following tips will help you make life easier on yourself so that you can get to the most important duties of your new business.

Cofounder Isn’t A Dirty Word

Many people feel that because they have taken the risk to break from the world of business, they have a right to run the operation all by themselves.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that feeling, but it can leave you a little out in the cold and isolated, especially when you have no one to rely on but yourself and things start going wrong.

Why not consider opening your startup with a cofounder? Two heads are usually better than one, and more importantly for business, two wallets are better than one.

A cofounder is the only person in your startup who will understand your humble beginnings as profoundly as you do, and in that case they will be much different to a standard employee, intern or subcontractor.

They will be more than happy, as you are, to potentially not take a salary or work an excessive amount of hours a week to get the project on the right track because they understand to a surgical level the sacrifices, investments and difficulties you have made to begin your pet project.

Just make sure your cofounders skills complement your own, and don’t simply open a business with someone because you guys are friends.

That can lead to some real issues long-term.

Contractual Workers

If you’re struggling with a highly specific duty and have limited funds to hire a new staff member and give them a salary, it might be worth checking out what contractual workers you can get your hands on.

Hiring a full-time staff member is a big commitment since you’re responsible to look after them well, pay them a decent wage, as well as having to navigate all of the contractual and dismissal working rights if they come up.

While the goal for the future should be having a full team all working at making your dream come to reality, it’s likely that you’re not quite there yet.

So in the meantime checking out the local talent might be worthwhile.

In an effort to save money, many startup hosts refuse to hire anyone, and this can be damaging in itself.

Sometimes, you simply need more bodies next to you to help you through a tough period, like going through your finances for the end of the tax year, or helping you design your website to make yourself truly accessible and integrated with the modern age.

Contractual workers will all have a list of requirements to be hired, especially if they work through an agency, so be sure to pour through any obligations you have with a close eye.

If you are looking for content generation, you may be able to find freelancers online scouring the internet for the job you are currently offering.

Give them a fair payment package and contractual terms, clearly explain that they are responsible for their own task, and you have on your hands one of the most convenient employment relationships for both your firm and the subcontractor at the same time.

Accountant

Not everyone is adept at keeping budgets and balancing financial commitments such as where to invest, where to hire, and where to save for the taxman.

It’s important to get this right however, because capital resource management is by far the most terrible thing to get wrong in a business.

It’s likely that you’re working double roles this entire time, so adding another in the form of accountancy, which is also a full-time job, can lead to costly mistakes you really shouldn’t be making.

Hire an accountant, even if only a few times a year to go through your tax contributions and keep things in order. You’ll be surprised at the peace of mind this provides.

These tips can help you make running your startup much less difficult than it has to be.

Communications

If you can’t communicate well with other businesses reliably using your business to business connections, you may need to address the communication infrastructure of the space you use as an office.

While many online solutions exist to help you communicate with a plethora of contacts, online instant messaging voice calls and video chat can seem an unprofessional way to conduct business.

Most larger businesses will expect you to call a direct number, and not call them on their Google Hangouts profile. Luckily, there exists a meeting of these two worlds in the form of your business phone systems, namely a VoIP installation.

Voice Over Internet Protocol telephones allow you to save money on analog calling costs by making the telephone call through the Internet.

Luckily, they can also be used as a regular phone if needed, so you needn’t go without or waste time messing between systems.

Even more conveniently, these telephone systems are available to continue using your previous landline number, meaning that you don’t have to migrate to new numbers and the confusion that usually provides.

Good luck in business. Enjoy riding the wave as a new company!

This article was written by an outside contributor.